Theocrats running amok at Air Force Academy?

[Diogenes the Cynic]

It seems that the US Air Force Academy has been getting hijacked by heavy handed evangelists lately.

The U.S. Air Force Academy is embroiled in a growing scandal over alleged religious coercion, following an investigation triggered by complaints from a Jewish student distressed over evangelical Christian proselytizing.

Earlier this year, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy group launched an investigation. Its report alleges that academy leaders, including faculty, chaplains and senior cadets, have created an environment inhospitable to those who are not evangelical Christians.

<snip>

The report alleges that while Christian cadets are routinely given special permission to attend off-campus prayers services on Sundays, Jews and other Saturday Sabbath observers are not given similar dispensations, and are forced instead to attend training exercises, parades and football games scheduled as official Saturday activities. It also alleges that some of the academy's senior leadership have insinuated their faith, which is often a form of evangelical Christianity, into their professional duties: A number of faculty members, it claims, have introduced themselves to their classes as born-again Christians and encouraged students to become born-again. Officials have allegedly opened mandatory meals, trainings and ceremonies with prayer.

<snip>

"It was really not a good situation," said Casey Weinstein, 22, who touched off the Americans United investigation when he shared such stories with his father, Mikey, an attorney who served in the Reagan administration. "The best way I can put it is that a large vocal minority had their way at the academy with nobody to hold them in check from crossing the line between church and state."

<snip>

In a conversation with the Forward, a spokesperson at the academy said leaders are facing issues of religious intolerance head on by asking students to come forward with complaints, and by mandating that all cadets and staff watch a 50-minute video on diverse values and beliefs. The video was produced last year after the academy surveyed cadets about these issues and found that over half had heard derogatory comments or jokes of a religious nature. The 16-person task force deployed by the Air Force to assess the academy's religious issues is expected to present its findings to acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez on May 23.

Despite these efforts, critics of the Air Force Academy say that its attempts at reform are disingenuous. The Americans United report asserts that last fall, weeks after the academy began the religious sensitivity program, head football coach Fisher DeBerry hung a banner in the locker room that read, "I am a Christian first and last; I am a member of Team Jesus Christ." The report also alleges that the very officer in charge of the academy's equal-opportunity office, Captain Joseph Bland, refused to recognize the complaint of a self-described atheist cadet and instead attempted to proselytize the student into Catholicism.

Several observers contacted by the Forward connected the rise in religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy to the increasing numbers of evangelical Christians within its leadership, as well as to the growth of the movement's overall size and political muscle. A central tenet of evangelical sects is the belief in proselytizing nonbelievers.

"Evangelical Christians and those who are affiliated with the religious right have been gaining a great deal of confidence in various political activities and pushing their agenda on the cultural front," said Randall Balmer, a Columbia University professor of religion. "They have a real sense that they have enough clout to force real change."

In this Chicago Tribune article, one chaplin says she was fired for resisting pressure to cover up the abuses.

Capt. Melinda Morton said she was fired last week by her boss, Col. Michael Whittington, the academy's chief chaplain, after he pressured her to deny a professor's account of a religious service for new cadets last year.

Call me paranoid but it seems to me like this kind of thing is becoming more and more prevalent in public institutions. There doesn't seem to be any meaningful political resistance to all this insidious, theocratic encroachment in state institutions. The political atmosphere is such that any elected official who expresses concern about anything like this is going to be shouted down as anti-Christian. I don't have much faith that the Academy is going to be very vigorous about policing itself.

All this public religiosity these days is really getting oppressive.

[elucidator]

Hmmm. What is the correct procedure for a Strategic Air Command pilot to "stand down" if he happens to be in-flight at a time that coincides with The Rapture?

[Kimstu]

I'm not sure the proselytizing involved counts as "running amok", but I definitely think some of the evangelicals there are going overboard. I must say, though, I was wryly amused by the best-defense-is-a-good-offense response from people like Focus on the Family, ascribing the complaints to "anti-Christian bigotry developing at the school". Complainants, they say, are "on a witch hunt here. They will not rest until religion is eradicated from that campus.” Uh-huh, yeah, sure.

[Scott Plaid]

I am sorry to differ, but I really have to protest, looking over the following list, it is quite clear that christians are an oppressed minority!

Life In Our Anti-Christian America

[Martin Hyde]

The Chair Force Academy needs to be shut down and the Chair Force needs folded back into the Army where it belongs.

And while were at it let's reassert the Navy's absolute control over the Marines, and have only 2 Armed Services branches, which is exactly how many we need.

[SteveG1]

Have things changed this much since the 1970's or is the officer corps different from the enlisted ranks? "In my day", we enlisted types didn't care what religion people were, or if they went to any church / temple / synagogue at all.

[elucidator]

Originally Posted by SteveG1

...or is the officer corps different from the enlisted ranks?....

I've heard a lot to that effect.

[SteveG1]

Yeah, officers get the hats with the shiny stuff on the brim











Ohhh sparklies!

[usar_jag]

Originally Posted by SteveG1

Yeah, officers get the hats with the shiny stuff on the brim

Mmmmmmm....shiny stuff!

[Paul in Qatar]

My contacts in Colorado Springs tell me this story is riding on the back of the (very real) sexual harassment problem at the USAFA. While there are no outright lies in the reporting, it is making a mountain out of a molehill.

The Academy (they report) is on top of this like a bear on a beachball.

[Zoe]

Scott, that list is in need of updating. Madalyn Murray O'Hair's TV show has been cancelled due to technical difficulties.

DtC, I've mentioned this before, but when I first started teaching, a Jewish teacher complained to the principal in a faculty meeting about the daily Bible readings over the intercom. The administrator slammed his fist down and yelled that he would not stop reading the Bible aloud until he got a court order to stop. (Such a peaceful and loving Christian attitude.)

The teacher's husband was an ACLU attorney. The readings stopped.

Capt. Melinda Morton said she was fired last week by her boss, Col. Michael Whittington, the academy's chief chaplain, after he pressured her to deny a professor's account of a religious service for new cadets last year.

The chief chaplain asking another chaplain to bear false witness? Say it isn't so!

[Zsofia]

Isn't that the same place with the rape epidemic?

[yanceylebeef]

I just finished my "religious sensetivity" training last week, coincidentaly taught by Capt. Morton.
I'll agree to a certain extent with Paul in Saudi's sources. It is riding the coattials of the Sexual Harrassment issue, but there is a bit more to that.
Things like the "Heathen Flight' in BCT (Basic Cadet Training) are a part of the military. In basic training in the 80's we were instructed that we would go to church on Sunday, and that anyone who had a "No Religious Preference" on their Dog Tags would spend Sunday's cleaning the barracks. I went to every service I could find. No one yelled at me, and there was usually cookies. That's when I found out my athiestic principles could be traded for some nice quiet chatting and cookies. Everyone has a price.
Back to the Academy. There is a very strong Evangelical community here on campus. We're within spitting distance of the Focus on the Family center for Christs sake. (Intended)
The Christian Leadership Ministries conducts brown bag lunches to discuss things like evolution, our "culture in crisis" and the last one I attended featured a YEC appologist/geologist. One on one bible study is conducted in the cafeteria, and I have personally heard an instructor saying that "non christians should just toe the line, we are the majority after all." Of course he didnt' know anyone else was in the room, and after he noticed me, he shut up immediatley.

I'm not sure if the sensetivity training will do any good. Most of the God Squad here feel suddenly persecuted, and will withdraw until the investigation or inquiry or whatever you want to call it is over. A good start would be to bring in a whole new senior staff, but that is expensive and right now the Air Force needs it's pilots and senior officers in the arena as it is concentrating on winning the war against terra.

This will take a wholesale change in attitude that has had decades to develop, and a fifty minute class isn't going to stop anything, especially when these folks believe with all their heart that they are right.

The overwhelming belief here in the Academy Staff is that your religion directly affects your promotion potential, not to mention assignment preferences, postings and Performance reports. It will be a long uphill battle.

[mhendo]

Originally Posted by yanceylebeef

We're within spitting distance of the Focus on the Family center for Christs sake.

Well, if you have to be anywhere near Focus on the Family, i think that spitting distance is perfectly appropriate.

[jayjay]

Originally Posted by mhendo

Well, if you have to be anywhere near Focus on the Family, i think that spitting distance is perfectly appropriate.

I can think of other precious bodily fluids one could excrete in Dobson's direction...

[Kimstu]

ylb: The overwhelming belief here in the Academy Staff is that your religion directly affects your promotion potential, not to mention assignment preferences, postings and Performance reports.

Thanks for the Straight Dope from the field, yancey.

If there really is such a strong pro-Christian bias in the Academy, to the extent of affecting your career in the ways you describe, then I don't see how these complaints are "making a mountain out of a molehill" concerning religious discrimination. Sounds to me like you do have an actual mountain there, or at least a tallish hill.

[Latro]

Originally Posted by yanceylebeef

the war against terra.

Haven't seen that one before....
Funny.

[elucidator]

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot One Niner, do you copy, Praise the Lord?"

"Hossanna, Trinity Base, thats affirmative in the highest, amen."

[Hentor the Barbarian]

Originally Posted by elucidator

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot One Niner, do you copy, Praise the Lord?"

"Hossanna, Trinity Base, thats affirmative in the highest, amen."

Copy that. I'm at angels 7, saints 1-5, and blessed virgins 1. Amen."

[dropzone]

Originally Posted by Hentor the Barbarian

...and blessed virgins 1.

I'd say something like, "Not anymore--she got raped on the quad," except that would be a cheap shot.

[CynicalGabe]

Originally Posted by elucidator

Hmmm. What is the correct procedure for a Strategic Air Command pilot to "stand down" if he happens to be in-flight at a time that coincides with The Rapture?

Good thing they did away with the airborne alert.

[sturmhauke]

Originally Posted by Diogenes the Cynic

It seems that the US Air Force Academy has been getting hijacked by heavy handed
evangelists lately.

Onward Christian Fighter Aces!

[Liberal]

In other news from the Forward, Uppity Black Candidate Treated Like Rock Star, and Darth Vader is Galaxy's First Neoconservative.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

I also linked to the Chicago Tribune, Lib, and someone else linked to MSNBC. If you can find anything in the Forward piece that's factually inaccurate, please let us know what it is.

[Liberal]

Originally Posted by Diogenes the Cynic

I also linked to the Chicago Tribune, Lib, and someone else linked to MSNBC. If you can find anything in the Forward piece that's factually inaccurate, please let us know what it is.

Don't know about factually inaccurate. Or accurate for that matter. Neither does anyone else here. However, I could certainly rewrite it so that it's still factually the same but with a much different slant. Maybe we should wait and see what the Airforce reports on the 23rd.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Yeah, we know the Air Force report will be beyond reproach.

[Miller]

Originally Posted by Hentor the Barbarian

Copy that. I'm at angels 7, saints 1-5, and blessed virgins 1. Amen."

That's sports, and now here's Chuck with the weather. Chuck?