The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is demanding an Air Force major be “aggressively punished” for having an open Bible on his desk
MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein accused Major Steve Lewis, a supervisor at the Reserve National Security Space Institute at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, of “harboring and encouraging a truly abhorrent example of First Amendment civil rights violations.”
Col. Damon Feltman, the commander of the 310th Space Wing says they are reviewing the incident.
He told Todd Starnes of Fox news, “He has removed the Bible voluntarily because he didn’t want this to cause attention or disruption to his unit. “I’ve performed a walk-through of the office and everything seemed to be in compliance with Air Force regulation.”
Whether or not Major Lewis will be able to return the Bible to his desk is awaiting the unit commander’s review of the situation.
He also stressed that Air Force personnel are free to exercise their constitutional rights to practice their own religion “as long as it is respectful of other individual’s rights to follow their own belief system in ways that support good order and discipline and don’t detract from (the) military mission.”
Travis Weber, the director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, said every service member has a right to the free exercise of religion saying, “It should be beyond clear that they are protected by the Constitution.”