The Military Religious Freedom Foundation — an atheist advocacy group — is up in arms after learning the Peterson Air Force Base exchange was selling so-called “Jesus” candy.
The sale of the candy at the Colorado Springs military base is proof positive religious freedom in the U.S. is “under constant attack,” according to the MRFF.
“Peterson Air Force Base, located deep in the intolerant, fundamentalist Christian enclave of Colorado Springs, Colorado, has consistently been one of the most horrendous military installation abusers of the Constitutional mandate to NOT establish Christianity (or any other faith or even ‘non-faith’) as the de facto armed forces state religion,” MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein told Crooks and Liars, a left-leaning outlet.
Weinstein went on to tell the site MRFF “has fought many battles throughout our long years of civil rights activism at [Peterson] against this wretched, fundamentalist Christian, religious extremist bigotry and prejudice.”
What else?
Mike Berry, who serves as a lawyer for the First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious freedom organization, told Fox News Weinstein’s argument doesn’t have a leg to stand on, labeling the MRFF’s push a “publicity stunt.”
“This is just the latest publicity stunt by a bunch of activists,” said Berry, a combat Marine veteran. “A real constitutional expert — or any first-year law student — knows that selling candy canes at Christmas is perfectly legal.”
Berry has a good point. MRFF, which is essentially a military version of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, is going to have a hard time making the case against selling candy canes at Christmastime. But that apparently isn’t stopping Weinstein.
In fact, his complaint isn’t too different from that of a Omaha, Nebraska, elementary school principal who was placed on leave after she banned candy canes from the school because the “J” shape represents Jesus.