It wouldn’t be the Christmas season without a Grinch trying to trample on religious freedom and liberty in our community.

Religious expression and the First Amendment are intimately intertwined in this country. The Constitution ensures that individuals are able to openly show their religious beliefs. This includes Air Force Academy football players who have committed their lives to defending our great nation.

Apparently, those at the misleadingly named Military Religious Freedom Foundation think that the yearslong tradition of kneeling in a silent end zone prayer before a football game is an “unconstitutional outrage.” And yet, somehow, according to the MRFF’s own count, 57 of the 60 players felt comfortable enough to do so.

It is simply astonishing that the Air Force Academy is now being harassed because of a constitutionally protected action that 95 percent of the football team wishes to participate in. Has our society become so captive to political correctness that 95 percent of the football players engaging in a brief and voluntary prayer is considered to be a problem in need of a solution? I certainly hope not.

That’s why I initiated an effort, along with my fellow religious freedom leaders in Congress, to ensure that the Air Force Academy preserves the constitutional rights of the brave men and women who have dedicated their lives to protecting our cherished freedoms. We have made it clear that this complaint should be dealt with expeditiously and dismissed, so that no Air Force Academy cadets have their First Amendment rights infringed.

Preventing the free and voluntary public expression of faith would be a deeply disturbing and un-American precedent to set. Instead of condemning a peaceful action taken by 95 percent of a particular group, people should focus their energies on the real problems facing our nation. And let us resolve in this new year to relegate the attention seekers and their exaggerated problems to the sideline where they belong.

Doug Lamborn