Government Wants Air force Suits Dismissed

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Government Wants Air Force Suits Dismissed

Washington Post (Associated Press), February 3, 2006

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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