I'm personally not a big fan of religion, simply a personal choice.

However, I am a big fan of religious freedom...something this country was built upon.

I think a few facts need to be emphasized:

1. The article states that the incident happened "during boarding." I've yet to fly an airline which boards passengers with the door(s) closed.
2. If the FA(s) flexed their muscle while the door was open, why were they concerned about the situation?
3. United.com says the plane left four minutes late, due to "Air Traffic Control." Now, I know you can cite that for slot time, but 9:19 p.m. does not come over to me as a problem with slot time.
4. The plane clearly did not push back yet. I've also yet to board a plane that has boarded people after pushback. Again, the plane was four minutes late. It takes MUCH longer than that to get ground staff alerted, re-open doors, etc IF the doors closed.
5. PA and TSA says they weren't involved, only "security" people. If the cops or TSA weren't involved, that tells me something else, something fishy and not up to snuff (on the part of UA) was going on.

Like I said earlier, either some lax reporting or someone at UA is telling a little white one.