Guards at a New Mexico Air Force base were cleared to continue using religious greetings while operating the facility’s gates, according to a statement provided to NOTUS — a policy that comes after complaints about the greetings spurred Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to defend the Christian service members.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for the separation of church and state within the military, last week reported receiving dozens of complaints regarding guards saying “Have a blessed day” or “God bless you” to people arriving at the base’s gates.
But after the headline-grabbing criticism, a spokesperson for Kirtland Air Force Base said there were no plans to police the “common phrases” that service members use to greet each other and visitors to the facility.
“Base officials have reviewed the feedback received from a small percentage of individuals with base access and, in line with Department of the Air Force policies and the law, have not issued, and have no plans to issue, any changes to procedures either mandating or restricting the use of common phrases while welcoming personnel to the installation,” base officials told NOTUS.
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Kirtland base officials added that gate guards are “expected to communicate professionally and courteously” with everyone entering the facility.
Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force captain who founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told NOTUS that he did not receive a faith-based greeting when he visited the base on Monday — though he said he heard a secondhand account of the religious greetings continuing this week.
Mandatory Air Force policy requires leaders and service members to “ensure their words and actions do not discriminate against any individual or group because of their faith, belief, or absence of belief, or extend preferential treatment for the same.”
If the religious greetings continue at the base, Weinstein said his group will pursue a writ of mandamus in federal court, which is an official court order that would require the Defense Department to follow its own regulations.
Hegseth sharply criticized the Military Religious Freedom Foundation last week and promised to intervene to protect the Christian greetings.
“The MRFF is a radical anti-Christian, pro-atheist group that attacks any/all faith inside the @DeptofWar,” Hegseth wrote Friday on X. “We will never cave to them. The @usairforce will confront this.”
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said Friday the policies on the greetings “are unchanged,” and there were no plans to restrict “the use of common greetings while entering our bases.”
The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.
Weinstein called the religious greetings a “blatant violation” of Air Force regulations that threaten religious freedoms for all military members.
“When differences become divisions, you destroy the unity, morale, discipline, and good order that are the compelling governmental interests that our U.S. Supreme Court talks about when it comes to the First Amendment in the military,” Weinstein said.
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