Proselytizing At Air Force Academy Must End

There has been serious trouble brewing at the US Air Force Academy for sometime. Evangelical Christians – officials at the military school and students– have been charged with proselytizing. The Constitutional separation of church and state forbids such activity. An investigation is underway but there are real concerns the academy is trying to whitewash the incidents. The Washington Post ran an editorial today explaining the situation:

THE REPORTS OF the religious climate at the Air Force Academy are unsettling: A chaplain instructs cadets to try to convert classmates by warning that they "will burn in the fires of hell" if they do not accept Christ. During basic training, freshman cadets who decline to attend after-dinner chapel are marched back to their dormitories in "heathen flights" organized by upperclassmen. A Jewish student is taunted as a Christ killer and told that the Holocaust was the just punishment for that offense. The academy's head football coach posts a banner in the locker room that proclaims, "I am a Christian first and last. . . . I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."

Though there are disputes over the specifics of some of these cases, academy officials don't disagree that there has been a problem on campus with religious tolerance. They argue that they recognized and responded to it promptly, instituting training programs for students and faculty alike. But critics say the response was belated and grudging, treating the problem as one of a few instances of insensitivity by out-of-line cadets rather than, as they see it, a broader culture of intolerance fostered from the top down.

A task force appointed by the Pentagon to examine the religious climate on campus reported last week to acting Air Force Secretary Michael L. Dominguez about its findings, and a public report is due soon. Although the task force's work should not be judged in advance, it is of concern that the group doesn't seem to have spent much time with those who have been most outspoken about the issue. Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 academy graduate who says his cadet son has been harassed for being Jewish, said his only contact with the task force was a phone call asking him to stop criticizing it. Capt. MeLinda Morton, a chaplain who spoke out against what she considers strident evangelizing on campus, said she was interviewed for a scant 15 minutes on the task force's last day of investigation. A Yale Divinity School professor who helped flag the religious problems at the academy was never contacted.

Click here to read the full editorial.

Religion News Service reports that “an executive with Focus in the Family, a conservative Christian oganization based in Colorado Springs, described the campaign against evangelicals at the Academy as ‘a witch hunt.’”  We'll be hearing a lot more from the religious right about this issue.  They seem fully committed to ignoring the facts and using the issue for their own purposes.

Kristen J. Leslie, Assistant Professor in Pastoral Care and Counseling at Yale Divinity School, was the professor who helped to bring some of these issues to light. She and several Yale Divinity students spent a week at the academy and during that short time observed and learned of several instances that were troubling.  Yale reports:

As an example, the YDS team cited exhortations at general Protestant worship services, which included not only evangelicals but other Protestants as well, for cadets to go back to their tents and remind compatriots that those not “born again” will “burn in the fires of hell.” Leslie and her students urged a reconsideration of worship dynamics in favor of an approach “focusing on aspects of ecumenical teamwork and developing an appreciation of spiritual diversity.” The YDS team's observations stood alongside reports from other groups and individuals that made claims such as:

• Commandant Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, a born-again Christian, sent an e-mail to cadets saying, “The Lord is in control. He has a plan... for every one of us.”
• Faculty members have introduced themselves to their classes as born-again Christians and have encouraged their students to become born-again during the course of the term
• A “Christmas Greeting” published in the Academy newspaper was signed by 300 Academy personnel who declared a belief that “Jesus Christ is the only real hope for the world” and that there is “salvation in no one else.”
• A banner hanging in the Academy football team locker room said, “I am a Christian first and last... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.”
• Although Christian students are able to obtain “non-chargeable” passes to attend religious study sessions off campus on Sundays, Jewish or Seventh-Day Adventist cadets are unable to obtain such passes to worship off-campus on Saturday.

These are clearly serious issues. Congress should follow up on the academy’s investigation with one of their own – where those who have raised these concerns can be heard.  "Cadets need to know that they can serve the Air Force, and their country, even if they haven't signed up for Team Jesus Christ," states the Washington Post.  Amen.

Related Link:  Memorandum to Air Force Academy Explaining Concerns From Yale Divinity School

Related Link:  Report of Americans United for Separation of Church and State on Religious Coercion and Endorsement of Religion at the United States Air Force Academy

Comments

[Ryan Scott]

Do you want to ban Christianity? I thought the Constitution protected religious practices.

[Chuck Currie]

Yes, I am a United Church of Christ Seminarian preparing for ordained Christian ministry who wants to ban my own faith.

Any more questions?

[Duane]

Ryan, in case you didn't catch it, Chuck was being sarcastic.

[Martin]

The new Air Force song should read:

Off we go, thumping our Chaplains' bibles
climbing high, away from all sin.
Here they come, coming to teach us Darwin
At 'em boys, never give in.
Down we dive, spouting our right-wing doctrine,
Off, with one fundamentalist roar!
Our hands are clasped, our eyes downcast, Oh!
Nothing will stop the U.S. Prayer Corps