From The Associated Press, 2/3/06:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-academy-religion,0,3591179..story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
Government Wants Air Force Suits Dismissed
By Associated Press
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --
The Justice Department claims an Air Force Academy graduate has no
legal standing to sue the Air Force over allegations of proselytizing
by chaplains, and asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.
The government claimed Mikey Weinstein and his co-plaintiffs haven't
shown they would be harmed by the alleged proselytizing and said their
allegations have no substance.
The motion, dated last week, also faulted the lawsuit for citing Brig.
Gen. Cecil R. Richardson's quote from a New York Times article without
including the next sentence of the story.
Richardson was quoted as saying, "We will not proselytize, but we
reserve the fight to evangelize the unchurched."
Government lawyers said the next sentence read, "The distinction, he
said, is that proselytizing is trying to convert someone in an
aggressive way, while evangelizing is more gently sharing the gospel."
The government motion said that makes clear Richardson "rejects
aggressive efforts to convert individuals."
Weinstein said Friday evangelizing is merely a Christian form of
proselytizing. He said anytime a senior officer asks to discuss
religion, a lower-ranking service member would feel coercion.
Weinstein's lawsuit claimed the Air Force illegally pushed evangelical
Christianity on service members, including cadets at the Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs.
The case is in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., where Weinstein
lives.
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"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating
any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgement of
his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all
totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist." -- W. Churchill, Nov
21, 1943 (Or whether Christofascist Republican.)
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