{"id":8106,"date":"2010-11-17T00:20:35","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T05:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=8106"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:15:39","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:15:39","slug":"usafa-faculty-underwriting-attacks-on-usafa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/17\/usafa-faculty-underwriting-attacks-on-usafa\/","title":{"rendered":"USAFA Faculty Underwriting Attacks on USAFA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Weinstein and his self-founded MRFF have occasionally cried foul at the participation by US Air Force Academy members in groups sponsored by off-base organizations.\u00a0 The most recent was a small Bible study going by the name Cadets for Christ<\/a>.\u00a0 Officers’ Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade, and the entire SPIRE system have also been criticized.<\/p>\n

Weinstein appears to have his own inroads to the Academy, however.\u00a0 He routinely publicizes information privy only to those at USAFA, and he cites “hundreds” of staff and cadets as party to his complaints.\u00a0 In fact, just yesterday<\/a> Weinstein cited an “anonymous” USAFA faculty member to support his latest charge against USAFA.\u00a0 (Weinstein complained the MRFF wasn’t invited to the USAFA “religious respect” conference<\/a> — while simultaneously\u00a0calling that same conference “propaganda.”)<\/p>\n

Some of the people he cites are not without influence.\u00a0 A few\u00a0who have made themselves known after leaving USAFA:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Edith Disler<\/em><\/strong>, LtCol (Ret), recently left\u00a0the USAFA English Department\u00a0and joined Weinstein’s\u00a0MRFF advisory board.\u00a0 Then-LtCol Disler made news when she invited a group of homosexual USAFA alumni<\/a> to\u00a0her cadet class without obtaining appropriate approval.\u00a0 After her retirement, she admitted she was homosexual<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Martin L. Cook<\/strong> <\/em>was the Deputy\u00a0Head of the USAFA Philosophy Department, essentially equivalent to a tenured Lieutenant Colonel (O-5), until last year.\u00a0 He now instructs at the prestigious Naval War College<\/a>.\u00a0 A public donation was made to the MRFF in his name, and\u00a0his public speeches to date on religion in the military seem to align with MRFF positions.<\/p>\n

Darryl Wimberley<\/em><\/strong>, a former Air Force officer and USAFA graduate, was a fourth-class (freshman) English composition instructor for two semesters<\/a> in 2008-2009.\u00a0 After receiving information from Weinstein, Wimberley\u00a0recently wrote a\u00a0widely-cited letter\u00a0substantiating cadet\u00a0accusations against the Academy.\u00a0 His letter<\/a> carried the weight of a “former USAF Academy Professor” (notwithstanding\u00a0a few factual errors).<\/p>\n

Disler and Cook are both former<\/em> faculty members, though they were present during some of the most controversial religious issues at USAFA, including vitriolic attacks by Weinstein on the Academy.\u00a0 Wimberley’s unusually short tenure and timing likely made him far less influential, though the public statements rely on his former faculty position to buttress his stature.\u00a0 While the Philosophy\/English departments seem noticeably overrepresented, they are by no means the only professors or faculty who seem to have close ties with Weinstein — and simultaneously held\u00a0significant influence over cadets.<\/p>\n

It is not unusual for Weinstein to cite “anonymous” USAFA cadet and faculty sources, which sometimes creates the appearance\u00a0of a more substantial issue.\u00a0 For example, Weinstein once released an “anonymous” letter<\/a> from a USAFA faculty member who had already<\/em> lodged a public complaint. \u00a0The practice also allows a single person to lodge complaints on multiple issues; the veil of anonymity may obscure personal agendas and give a false sense of pervasiveness.<\/p>\n

While Weinstein may complain of\u00a0the influence of other<\/em> groups over cadets and USAFA staff, it appears his own organization\u00a0has\u00a0had some success proselytizing\u00a0with that same access.<\/p>\n

If Weinstein is ever successful getting outside groups banned from the USAFA campus, his own cult-like group — made up of conspiracy theorists claiming Dick Cheney and James Dobson are leading US military Christians\u00a0on a quest for\u00a0global domination — would be included in that ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Weinstein and his self-founded MRFF have occasionally cried foul at the participation by US Air Force Academy members in groups sponsored by off-base organizations.\u00a0 The most recent was a small Bible study going by the name Cadets for Christ.\u00a0 Officers’ Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade, and the entire SPIRE system have also been criticized. Weinstein appears to have his own […]<\/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":[1424,1171,1154,1155,85,2,5218,7,10,65],"class_list":["post-8106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-conspiracy","tag-darryl-wimberley","tag-edith-disler","tag-martin-l-cook","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion","tag-usafa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8106","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=8106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}