According to the Air Force Times, Little Rock AFB has changed one of its “Wingman Day” seminars after Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation complained about Christian content in a chaplain-led marriage course:

Little Rock’s Feb. 7 Winter Wingman Day will offer classes in four “pillars” — mental, social, physical and spiritual — according to a Jan. 23 release from the base. The spiritual pillar originally would have offered sessions from an evangelical Christian video series called “The Art of Marriage.”

Some airmen objected to the video’s inclusion, and felt it favored a particular version of one faith…

There is no doubt that Family Life‘s The Art of Marriage is Christian, though how that translates into “a particular version of one faith” is unclear.  Merely being Christian isn’t sufficient reason to eliminate the chaplain-led course, after all.  At present, there isn’t public evidence the complainants even knew the content of the course.  (In fact, if people took the time to review the course material, they might be surprised.)

Marriage in America could probably use more of that.

Most who supported the move (outside of the MRFF) agreed that it was inappropriate to have a Christian-themed seminar as part of mandatory training.

Except it wasn’t mandatory.

The same press release the Air Force Times referred to above said

Team Little Rock members will be able to choose the classes they would like to attend. Personnel are required to attend three classes plus their respective Commander’s Call…Personnel are encouraged to attend classes in areas they feel they need to strengthen.

The release lists seminars for the mental, social, and physical pillars; a multitude of other classes are also available, as the base’s Facebook page describes.

In other words, no one has to attend a marriage seminar at all.

But what if 25 MRFF complainants felt they deserved to have access to marriage seminars that day? Certainly, if a group of Airmen expressed a desire for a Wingman Day event that aligned with their particular needs — ie, a non-Christian based marriage event — the base should attempt to support them, provided they have the manning for multiple events and the requests are properly made.

Of course, the same could be said for the physical pillar: Those who felt they deserved physical training on sit-ups, rather than “improving running efficiency,” are also entitled to support, right?

In the end, “Wingman Day” was never intended for every seminar to be an all-inclusive affair — the military is resource constrained, after all. Instead, Airmen were expected to select courses from those offered for which they felt a need or a fit.  If a particular class didn’t fit their needs, they didn’t have to go.

While the marriage seminar was Christian-based, there is no law, policy, or regulation that makes that improper — nor has the Air Force outright declared that to be the case.  There is nothing wrong with having a Christian-based marriage course occur during a Wingman Day event. There’s also nothing wrong with doing a “non-denominational” course, particularly when a substantial group asks for one.

Whether the Air Force should remove a course that the base population does want — solely because of vicarious offense based on its religious content — is another question altogether.

Let’s hope those 25 MRFF complainants fill the chapel classes. After all, that’s why they wanted to change the content of the course available to the rest of the base population, right?

From a strictly US military/religious freedom perspective, this “scandal” is a non-event.  It matters little whether Little Rock offers a Family Life seminar, a homemade seminar, or none at all.  It does, however, provide further evidence that Michael Weinstein has specifically targeted the religious liberty of Christianity in the military, no matter how remote the nexus might be.  He targeted the marriage seminar not because of any objectionable content, but because it was Christian — or not the right kind of “Christian” that receives the MRFF stamp of approval.

Unfortunately, because of the way the “scandal” was handled, it also risks adding a log to the fire of perception that the US military is ‘under the influence’ of Weinstein in his vendetta against Christians.  Lost in the conversation are those Little Rock Airmen who may now perceive their faith has been stigmatized in their unit.

Little Rock was admittedly placed in an awkward position. No matter how they responded, Weinstein ensured there would be only one “winner”: Mikey Weinstein.

Also at the Air Force Times and Stars and Stripes, and later at the local news.

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