The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is taking on the Air Force Academy once again for failing to demonstrate the spirit of church-state separation. This time, it's the annual Prayer Luncheon causing a stir, as officials have invited former Marine Lt. Clebe McClary to speak. McClary refers to USMC as standing for "US Marines for Christ."
MRFF Research Director Chris Rodda posts a letter from Vietnam Veterans for America founder Bobby Muller:
I am…appalled that the United States Air Force Academy has invited someone with such a religiously divisive and sectarian message to speak at its upcoming National Prayer Luncheon, an event that should be inclusive of Airmen of all faiths.
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Lt. McClary…appears in the uniform of a Marine before both military and civilian audiences, not with the message of "Once a Marine, Always a Marine," but a message of "Once a Marine, now 'a member of the Lord's Army.'"Proselytizing and Christian supremacy have no place in the United States military, and I urge the Air Force Academy to reconsider its choice of Lt. McClary as the speaker for its Prayer Luncheon, and to replace him with a speaker who can deliver a message that is inclusive of members of all faiths.
If there is a problem with inviting McClary, it is not the fact that he is an evangelical Christian, nor his religious views generally, divisive as they may be. What makes him a questionable choice is his apparent insistence on conflating military service with Christian service. Giving such a platform to a speaker who espouses those views runs the risk of sending a message that is it the Academy's view as well, or at least that the Christianization of the military is tolerated.
