Religious Freedom Under Siege at the Air Force Academy
Sarah Posner
April 16, 2008
After the Air Force Academy paid three speakers who claim to be ex-Muslim terrorists-turned-fundamentalist-Christians to speak against Islam in February, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), which battles against the Christianization of the U.S. military, sought an event of its own.
Featuring MRFF's president, Mikey Weinstein, Ambassador Joe Wilson, and writer Reza Aslan, last week's event was designed, according to Weinstein, to show that "we are losing the war on terror" because of the type of Islamophobia presented at the February event. They were scheduled to show a segment from the forthcoming film Constantine's Sword, which showed Weinstein's exposure of aggressive proselytizing of fundamentalist Christianity in the military when Bill Donohue of the Catholic League protested. The film, based on former priest and writer James Carroll's book about the historical and religious roots of anti-Semitism, is deemed by Donohue -- like so many other things -- to be anti-Catholic.
"We wanted to show a segment dealing specifically with New Life Church and the Academy... there was nothing in [the segment] about Catholicism," Weinstein told me. But Academy officials "begged" Weinstein not to show the film after pressure from Donohue. The film, which was shown at film festivals last year, opens in New York on April 18th.
Sarah Posner, author of God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, has covered the religious right for the Prospect, The Nation, The Washington Spectator, AlterNet, and other publications.
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