The Air Force Academy is now fielding complaints from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation after the Falcons took a knee and prayed on the end zone.
The MRFF’s mission to to keep religion separate from the military in every single way, shape or form possible. It’s president, Air Force Academy graduate Mikey Weinstein, penned another scathing condemnation of the public prayer after several Air Force football players told him they were pressured to participate.
“It’s a disgrace,” Weinstein wrote. “It’s a putrid example of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, triumphalism and exceptionalism and it has to stop. Those individuals that are dressed in the Air Force uniform; that’s their uniform of the day. They’re members of the military and they are under different rules that the civilian counterparts they’re playing on the field.”
The MRFF currently represents 144 Air Force cadets and teachers, including five football players.
The academy is launching its own investigation into the matter. According to the Military Times, contradictory accounts of the prayer ritual have already been submitted to the school.
“The Air Force Academy Inspector General opened a third-party complaint and referred the issue to the athletic department for an informal inquiry,” Warthen said in an email to Air Force Times. “Friday morning we received an opposing viewpoint requesting cadets continue to be afforded the right to pray. Thus, we are being prudent and deliberate in our review of this issue.”
Praying on the football has gotten a military veteran and high school coach in trouble before. The big difference in that case was that the veteran and his team were civilians and thus not bound to the strict military guidelines regulating religious displays.
Weinstein said that the players he represents are afraid they will be punished for not joining the prayer.
“They’re terrified to go forward and go up the chain of command or to file an official complaint for fear of facing reprisal or retribution,” Weinstein said. “They should not be coerced in any way, shape or form to publicly sit there and engage in a massive team prayer for one particular version of Christianity.”