In a seemingly rare occurrence, the US Air Force Academy received a bit of positive press when the American Family Association asked people to sign a petition thanking USAFA for protecting the religious liberty of its cadets. Noting the faux-controversy of USAFA football players taking a knee in the end zone, the AFA first quoted the official USAFA response:

The United States Air Force Academy places a high value on the rights of its members to observe the tenets of their respective religion or to observe no religion at all. Recently, the United States Air Force Academy received a complaint about its football players kneeling in prayer. An inquiry was initiated, which found the football players’ actions to be consistent with Air Force Instruction 1-1 and its guidance on the free exercise of religion and religious accommodation.

The United States Air Force Academy will continue to reaffirm to cadets that all Airmen are free to practice the religion of their choice or subscribe to no religious belief at all. The players may confidently practice their own beliefs without pressure to participate in the practices of others.

The AFA concluded with: 

We applaud the Air Force Academy’s stand in protecting religious liberty for its cadets and ask you to join us in thanking them…

Sign the petition to the Air Force Academy, thanking them for their decision to dismiss complaints from atheist Mikey Weinstein and the MRFF, and defending the cadets’ religious liberties.

Daniel Briggs of the Alliance Defending Freedom was probably most responsible for reminding USAFA about its obligations to religious liberty, but the AFA, Becket Fund, Liberty Institute, Rutherford Institute, and many others have similarly stood in the gap for military religious freedom.

The voices attacking religious freedom in the military — almost exclusively the well-paid Mikey Weinstein — are still loud, but now they are forcefully rebutted by those supporting reason and liberty over bigotry.

And when the military does right by religious freedom, that is reason for praise.

As noted at OneNewsNow.

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