At the behest of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, and as reported by him, a US Air Force squadron declared that a “volunteer opportunity” to support a 10-mile running event was “not eligible for publication by government email” — only because the event was to benefit a wounded warrior program — a program run by a Christian charity.

To be clear, the announcement for the Capitol 10 Miler Run, sponsored by Centerpoint Fellowship in support of Operation Heal our Patriots, was one of many events included in the email. It mentioned nothing about religion, beliefs, or even spirituality. It was only a request for volunteers to help support the running event.

Mikey Weinstein complained only about the religious beliefs of the sponsoring organization and the Bible-based wounded warrior program it benefited. According to Weinstein, the 42nd FSS of the 42nd Air Base Wing at Maxwell Air Force Base responded quickly to his demand, sending out the follow-up email: 

CORRECTION/RETRACTION:
Volunteer Opportunity 5, Capitol 10 Miler Run, is not eligible for publication by government e-mail and should not have been published as a volunteer opportunity. Wear of the Air Force uniform is NOT authorized.

As with Weinstein, the Air Force acted against this event, and only this event, only because of the religious beliefs of those involved with the event.

There are very few circumstances in which disparate treatment by the US government — whether maltreatment or inequitable treatment — solely on the basis of religion would be defensible.

This overt, adverse act against a group because of religion has the potential to negatively impact the Air Force climate. Turns out, the Air Force has rules about this very thing, and explicitly prohibits “unlawful discrimination” on the basis of religion.

Further, Weinstein says the wing exec (an assistant to the commander) appears to have violated the Air Force policy on corresponding with Weinstein when he personally emailed him, saying

Thanks for letting us work this at our level. We will be conducting training sessions to prevent this type of mistake in the future. You were a pleasure to work with.

This email from the exec has the appearance of not only endorsing Weinstein’s cause, but also of officially sanctioning the discrimination he espoused. That is precisely the perception the Air Force was trying to avoid when it told commanders not to email Weinstein.

The original email announcement was not a mistake. The call for volunteers was not prohibited by any policy, law, or regulation. In fact, to go back and forcefully issue a “retraction” only because of the religious beliefs of the organizer and beneficiary of the event does appear to violate policies and regulations that prohibit disparate treatment on the basis of religion.

Fortunately, the event is still (quite benignly) publicized on Maxwell AFB’s volunteer page— as one of 39 other volunteer opportunities. It is also fortunate that the complaint drew additional attention to an email that was likely deleted by most of its recipients without reading it.  (The race is occurring this Saturday, November 7th.)

Still, what does it say about the US military when — without regard to military policy on equal treatment and religion — it actively discriminates against the religious beliefs of the majority of its troops…only because Mikey doesn’t like it?

May we pray for a day when all faiths, and all US troops, are treated equitably — without regard to the content of their beliefs. That will be true military religious freedom.

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