{"id":14084,"date":"2011-11-16T01:00:21","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T06:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=14084"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:14:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:14:28","slug":"usafa-relationship-with-atheists-bears-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/16\/usafa-relationship-with-atheists-bears-fruit\/","title":{"rendered":"USAFA Relationship with Atheists “Bears Fruit”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite Michael Weinstein’s continuous ridicule of the US Air Force Academy, Jason Torpy and his\u00a0Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers\u00a0paint quite a different picture<\/a> — and Torpy looks like a calm foil to Weinstein’s blustering grandstanding:<\/p>\n

Continuing what is now nearly a year of collaboration, the Air Force Academy has made significant changes to training as a result of reviews by the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers…\u00a0 <\/p>\n

This effort continues previous successes between MAAF and the Academy…Continuing a trend of over a year, MAAF collaborative efforts have led to tangible action \u2013 humanist alternatives for trainees, meaningful changes in policy, effective diversity training, and continuing collaboration with nontheist leaders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Torpy’s characterization is in stark contrast to Weinstein’s unceasing criticisms and accusations of Constitutional violations, criminal acts, and general lawlessness at a government institution run amok.\u00a0 There is one important distinction, however.\u00a0\u00a0Torpy claims\u00a0primarily to be after equality for humanists and atheists, with a large focus on\u00a0the military chaplaincy.\u00a0 Weinstein, by contrast, continues to claim Christians are trying to take over USAFA (and the world).\u00a0 Side by side, Torpy highlights Weinstein for the fringe conspiracy theorist he is.<\/p>\n

As for the substantive content of Torpy’s remarks, it is difficult to assess as he describes only the “changes” he suggested and does not provide the complete material or the necessary context.\u00a0 Much of it seems semantic and remains open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

It is true Weinstein and Torpy have occasionally co-signed letters in their shared activism.\u00a0 (Chris Rodda enacted quick damage control the last time Torpy and Weinstein were out of step<\/a> with each other.)\u00a0 It is also true Torpy hasn’t always<\/a> been on the side of mutual respect and religious freedom<\/a> in the military.\u00a0 Still, Torpy risks positioning himself as a legitimate\u00a0voice with reference to religion and USAFA, as Weinstein fades into irrelevancy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite Michael Weinstein’s continuous ridicule of the US Air Force Academy, Jason Torpy and his\u00a0Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers\u00a0paint quite a different picture — and Torpy looks like a calm foil to Weinstein’s blustering grandstanding: Continuing what is now nearly a year of collaboration, the Air Force Academy has made significant changes to training as a result of reviews […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[20,5284,175,1424,117,253,107,85,2,5218,7,10,171,65],"class_list":["post-14084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-atheism","tag-chaplain","tag-chris-rodda","tag-conspiracy","tag-freethinker","tag-jason-torpy","tag-maaf","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-usafa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}