Air Force cadets 'revolt' after officials remove biblical verse from whiteboard

By Douglas Ernst - The Washington Times - Thursday, March 13, 2014

Air Force Academy cadets are upset over biblical text that was removed from a bedroom whiteboard that faces into the hallway.

“I have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” was the Galatians 2:20 text that was erased when officials received complaints; some cadets found the passage offensive.

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told The Blaze that 29 cadets and four faculty and staff members at the Colorado Springs school — 26 of whom he described as Catholic or Protestant — were included in the complaint. In response, other cadets started posting quotes from scripture onto their personal whiteboards.

“The Air Force Academy has a revolt on their hands. What are they going to do?” Mr. Weinstein told The Blaze.

“Had it been in his room — not a problem. It’s not about the belief. It’s about the time, the place and the manner,” Mr. Weinstein told conservative commentator Todd Starnes, The Blaze reported. “It clearly elevated one religious faith over all others at an already virulently hyper-fundamentalist Christian institution. It massively poured fundamentalist Christian gasoline on an already raging out-of-control conflagration of fundamentalist Christian tyranny, exceptionalism and supremacy at [the academy].”

Weinstein told The Blaze that the “working squadron area” includes the area outside a cadet’s bedroom, which is why the biblical verses were inappropriate.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (and former Marine), weighed in on the matter, CNS News reported, saying: “Since when is the standard of what’s constitutional based on what offends someone else? If Scripture frightens these cadets, what will they do in the face of a determined jihadist?”

• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.