A Bible that an Air Force officer kept on his work desk at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado has infuriated a group opposed to allowing military members to exercise their faith in public.
WND reported last week that the Air Force removed the Bible from the desk of Maj. Steve Lewis of the 310th Space Wing after a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
The organization claimed the Bible’s presence violated Air Force policy and the U.S. Constitution.
At the time, Mikey Weinstein, president of the group, said, “The 310th ‘Space’ Wing is NOT called the 310th ‘Space For My Personal Proselytizing Christian Bible Shrine’ Wing for a damn good reason.”
But when the Air Force investigated and found “no abuse of liberties,” Weinstein erupted, charging that the probe was a “sham.”
He immediately lashed out with a letter to the Department of Defense’ inspector general, Glenn Fine, as well as Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., Air Force Secretary Deborah James, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein and others.
Weinstein is demanding “immediate remedial action.”
“The Evidence Bible” is now available and includes, besides the King James version, dozens of articles expanding answers to questions such as why is there suffering, explanations about what Muslims believe and scientific facts written millennia before man discovered them.
“In my capacity as founder and president of MRFF, I wrote to Col. Damon Feltman, the 310th Space Wing Commander, demanding that Major Lewis’s unconstitutional religious display be removed and that his actions be immediately investigated. I was assured – and, therefore, our 33 MRFF client complainants were assured – that a ‘fair, open, and transparent’ investigation would be commenced.
“I regret to inform you, sir, that we received no such thing. To the contrary, it seems clear that our clients’ valid civil rights complaints were dismissed and the subsequent ‘investigation’ was merely a charade.”
He said he received information that the investigation was carried out by Col. Lisa Johnson, the “very commander” of the Reserve National Security Space Institute “who allowed Major Lewis to openly disregard constitutional law and USAF regulations for years.”
Such an arrangement would be a “glaring conflict of interest,” he claimed.
If Johnson did not conduct the investigation, he said, its results “cannot in any way be described as ‘fair, open, and transparent,'” he claimed.
He said that’s because the Air Force did not respond right away to his demand for information about who was doing the investigation.
The conclusion that the presence of the officer’s Bible constituted “no abuse of liberties” will not be tolerated, he said.
“MRFF insists on behalf of our USAF member clients that you, as the Department of Defense Inspector General, take immediately control of this situation and perform a true investigation, both into Major Lewis’s actions and into the sham investigation.”
Weinstein called the presence of the Bible on the officer’s desk a “brazen display of sectarian Christian triumphalism and exceptionalism.”
The Air Force removed the Bible during the investigation, which, the Examiner reported, “failed to uncover a nefarious plot or a violation of regulations.”
The Air Force said: “As pledged, we have reviewed the situation there. We have concluded that no abuse of liberties has occurred, and Maj. Lewis’s behavior and the workplace environment at the RNSSI are well within the provisions of Air Force Instruction 1-1, Air Force Standards, paragraphs 2.11 and 2.11, ‘Free Exercise of Religion and Religious Accommodation’ and ‘Balance of Free Exercise of Religion and Establishment Clause.'”
The rules allow for religious expression as long as it does not “display partiality” or “coerce” members of the military.
“The Evidence Bible” is now available and includes, besides the King James version, dozens of articles expanding answers to questions such as why is there suffering, explanations about what Muslims believe and scientific facts written millennia before man discovered them.