LtGen Michelle Johnson, US Air Force Academy superintendent, recently sat down with perennial critic of her academic institution (and MRFF ally), regional newspaper columnist Pam Zubeck.

Among the several questions Zubeck reports in a Q/A format are one on religion and another on an accusation by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein:

[Zubeck:] Some cadets and staff are concerned there’s an atmosphere in which cadets are expected to have their first allegiance to God, not country. How do you deal with that?

LtGen Johnson’s answer was consistent with the same Air Force guidance that has been around for years, though she cited AFI 1-1 specifically [emphasis added]:

[Johnson:] Because we’re a college, we need to have open discourse, but we have to balance that with providing a successful climate. So what we have going in, it’s really kicked in well, is this religious respect training, not just for cadets but for permanent party. That’s really important, for permanent party to know the balance there. People are free to have their beliefs but not proselytize or impose them on someone else.

And we have the training to help people understand those bounds. People express their private opinions and that’s fair, or if there’s questioning in a place like this, we want people to have those rich conversations you have in an institution of higher education. The boundary is, and it’s defined by Air Force regulation 1-1, is to not impose that on others or try to establish. Again, respecting our constitutional bounds, respecting freedom of expression but freedom from establishment — and that’s a tension and balancing act in our country and here.

Also, we want to establish an ombudsman to be able to capture concerns people have. … And if they’re uncomfortable with the chain of command, talk to our inspector general. We welcome that.

Zubeck then asked about “one story,” which was actually an MRFF-generated publicity announcement several months ago that got little traction:

[Zubeck:] One story is that a professor wrote a formula on a classroom blackboard that said, “One cross plus three nails equals 4-given.” Was that investigated?

The Supe’s reply? We can’t address what we don’t know about, and they even asked faculty members they know to be “members of the MRFF” in an effort to track it down:

[Johnson:] We couldn’t find it. We really did ask. The dean went across the faculty. We have members of the faculty who are members of [the Military Religious Freedom Foundation], classmates of mine, and we said, “Who, what, where, when? Help us find it.” We couldn’t find it, so we couldn’t act …

Zubeck added:

MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein admits the where, who and when of the blackboard incident were never reported. Although a cadet took a picture of the formula, it wasn’t given to the academy. Complainants can’t give specifics, he says, “because they know who you are, and they will destroy you.”

Despite knowing he could not publicly prove his accusation, Weinstein made it anyway. It’s a good thing Weinstein is so trustworthy.

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