“… The evangelical leaders of our community see these actions as a reflection of the continued secularization of our culture. We understand that as our culture becomes increasingly secular, attacks against biblical Christianity will increase.”

Recent actions by the U.S. Air Force Academy could appear as if commanders are on a mission to rid the institution of Christian influence, but a nearby pastor says the actions are the result of intense pressure from one man.

The most recent flap involved a lunchtime announcement and subsequent email encouraging cadets to participate in Operation Christmas Child, an annual program of Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse relief organization.

“Please consider spending some of your valuable time and money to love on a kid around the world,” the email said.

Commanders initially said there was nothing wrong with the academy’s involvement in the program, but when pressed further, they apologized and assigned the project to the academy’s chaplains who can legally recruit for religious endeavors, The Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

Before that, it was an ethics class on just war theory that was halted because complaints were raised about Scripture verses being used in the course. In February, an annual prayer luncheon drew a lawsuit and caused commanders to clarify that the event was sponsored by chaplains and not the academy.

In November, the Los Angeles Times carried this headline: “Air Force Academy adapts to pagans, druids, witches and Wiccans.”

“In the still of a cold November evening, a small gathering of pagans, led by two witches, begins preparations for the coming winter solstice,” the article began. “But these are not just any pagans, and this is not just any setting. They are future officers of the United States Air Force practicing their faith in the basement of the Air Force Academy’s cadet chapel.”

It turns out this year the academy dedicated an $80,000 outdoor “Stonehenge-like” worship center, as the newspaper put it, for cadets with “Earth-based” religions.

“We’re here to accommodate all religions, period,” Chaplain Maj. Darren Duncan said, noting the current cadet class includes 11 Muslims, 16 Buddhists, 10 Hindus and three pagans as well as 43 self-identified atheists.

Not only does the academy now provide worship space for all, it requires all cadets to complete religious respect training.

Mike Routt, pastor of Circle Drive Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., told Baptist Press the hostility toward Christianity at the Air Force Academy is not the result of the leadership there but is in response to pressure from Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Weinstein, an Air Force Academy graduate, is described on the foundation’s website as “the undisputed leader of the national movement to restore the obliterated wall separating church and state in the most technologically lethal organization ever created by humankind: the United States armed forces.”

For a decade, Weinstein served as a military attorney, and he worked in the White House as legal counsel for President Reagan. In 2006, he began focusing his attention on “the nonprofit charitable foundation he founded to directly battle the far-right militant radical evangelical religious fundamentalists.”

Weinstein is the author of the book “With God On Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military.” This year he was named the inaugural “person of the year” by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Routt, who serves on the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, described Weinstein as a person who angrily threatens lawsuits and pushes unsubstantiated claims on his foundation’s website, militaryreligiousfreedom.org.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on bpnews.net—however, the original URL is no longer available.]