Earlier in December, MRFF President Mikey Weinstein, an Air Force Academy alumnus and former military lawyer, called the practice of cadets assuming a posture of prayer on one knee a “disgrace” and a “putrid example of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, triumphalism and exceptionalism.”

When players with the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Fighting Falcons football team take the field for the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, they will be free to take a knee and pray before the game, the Air Force Academy has ruled after an internal investigation prompted by a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Earlier in December, MRFF President Mikey Weinstein, an Air Force Academy alumnus and former military lawyer, called the practice of cadets assuming a posture of prayer on one knee a “disgrace” and a “putrid example of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, triumphalism and exceptionalism.”

On Wednesday, Dec. 23, the Air Force Academy issued a statement that said the academy places “a high value on the rights of its members to observe the tenets of their respective religion or to observe no religion at all.”

“Recently the United States Air Force Academy received a complaint about its football players kneeling in prayer. An inquiry was initiated, which found the football player’s actions to be consistent with Air Force Instruction 1-1 and its guidance on the free exercise of religion and religious accommodation. The United States Air Force Academy will continue to reaffirm to cadets that all Airmen are free to practice the religion of their choice or subscribe to no religious belief at all. The players may confidently practice their own beliefs without pressure to participate in the practices of others.”

Weinstein, however, rejects the official Department of Defense agency’s interpretation of its own military regulations. In a statement Dec. 28, Weinstein said the academy’s “internal review of this matter is a pathetic sham and transparent farce of the highest order.”

“Let us not forget that it was hardly a respected, deconflicted and disinterested third party entity or outside agency that inquired into MRFF’s charges against the Academy of unlawful, orchestrated, Christian-sectarian team praying by its football players,” Weinstein said.

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