Posted on 01/22/2011 4:23:01 PM PST by Sad Hill
Marine 1st Lt. Clebe McClary Next, they'll be trying to snuff out officers who are too straight, or too white...
(Gazette) A religious rights group is calling for the removal of the Air Force Academys top officer after a flap over a speaker planned for a February prayer luncheon at the school.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says the academys choice of retired Marine 1st Lt. Clebe McClary shows that superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould remains tilted toward evangelical Christianity and tolerates an environment where proselytizing is accepted.
Lt. Gen. Mike Gould
Were done, said academy graduate Mikey Weinstein, the foundations founder and a frequent foe of religious practices at the school. Gould needs to go.
An academy spokesman, Lt. Col. John Bryan, defended the choice of McClary and said the planned prayer gathering is optional and inclusive of a broad spectrum of religious views.
Nobody is being forced or coerced to go to this luncheon, Bryan said.
McClary is a wounded Vietnam veteran who overcame his disabilities and now says hes in the Lords Army.
Bryan said hes heard McClary speak and came away with inspiration for overcoming obstacles rather than religious philosophy.
Hes a nationally recognized motivational speaker, Bryan said.
McLarys website lists testimonials from celebrities including The Rev. Billy Graham and former Denver Broncos coach Dan Reeves.
The academy first sought retired Army general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell to speak at the luncheon, but when he couldnt make it due to schedule conflicts, McClary was picked to keynote the annual event. Hell be paid $2,500 and airfare reimbursement.
Weinstein points to McClarys website for evidence that the speaker is too evangelical for the academy.
To him, USMC will always mean a U. S. Marine for Christ, McClarys website says.
Such statements are not only antithetical to the clear mission of the United States Air Force Academy, they are totally anathema to the purportedly globally inclusive purpose of this National Prayer Luncheon, Weinstein wrote in a letter to Gould and Defense Department officials.
Several groups, including the Colorado branch of the American Civil Liberties Union have written Gould in support of Weinstens effort.
Weinstein has battled the academy in recent months over the schools failure to include him in a conference on the schools religious tolerance practices and the academys initial failure to release results of a survey that showed concerns about prosyletizing there.
Gould hasnt responded to Weinsteins latest letter.PLEASE let the United States Air Force Academy Public Affairs know what's on your mind. Tell 'em Sad Hill sent ya...:
Mailing Address HQ USAFA/PA 2304 Cadet Drive Suite 3100 U.S. Air Force Academy, CO 80840-5016
Phone: 719.333.7731 Fax: 719.333.4094
Community Relations: pa.comrel@usafa.af.mil Media Relations: media.pam@usafa.af.mil
"...fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time..."--The Virginia Act For Establishing Religious Freedom
--Thomas Jefferson, 1786"I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD ETERNAL HOSTILITYTO EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MIND OF MAN"
--Thomas Jefferson
They have to make sure that progress is made in creating America’s first dedicated communist military force. There are those “domestic terrorists” who need arresting and “curing” donchaknow.
Former military jag lawyer, working to prevent a combat tested recon marine from speakinng to future officers? Ok, got it,,,
And i know too many ass-kicking ar force men from the old days, to even refer to mikey as “air force”.
I`m retired AF and have met Lt McClary. He is an awesome American and a fire-in-the-heart Christian. Anyone should be honored to have him in their midst.
So the suicidal secular leftist Jews finally succeed in destroying the tolerant religious Christian right, which provides the basis for the victory of the retrograde, virulently anti-semitic Muslims. Is this how it’s going to be America?
A federal judge in Denver last week denied 'speculative and hypothetical' charges brought on by Mikey Weinstein's Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) against the Air Force Academy's volunteer prayer luncheon featuring 1st Lieutenant Clebe Mclary. MRFF complained that the wounded Marine was 'too evangelical'.
The debunked lawsuit was highlighted by Judge Christine Arguello telling MRFF cronies, 'I'm not going to listen to it'.
If you're not familiar with Mikey Weinstein or the MRFF, they're the same group that got Franklin Graham banned from the National Day of Payer:
(Denver Post) U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello ruled this afternoon that the plaintiffs including Air Force Academy professor David Mullin and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation don't have legal standing to challenge the event. That gives the luncheon, which is scheduled for tomorrow, the green light to go on.
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