Outsports Discussion Board > God's Own Air Force

Outsports Discussion Board > Outsports > Politics & Religion

fenwayguy

May 3 2005, 10:28 PM

Now THIS is scary!

QUOTE

Last week, the Washington-based group Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued a 14-page report charging that there is \"systematic and pervasive religious bias and intolerance at the highest levels of the (U.S. Air Force) Academy command structure.\"

The report said that during basic training, cadets who declined to go to chapel after dinner were organized into a \"Heathen Flight\" and marched back to their dormitories. It said the Air Force's \"Chaplain of the Year\" urged cadets to proselytize among their classmates or \"burn in the fires of hell\"; that mandatory cadet meetings often began with explicitly Christian prayers; and that numerous faculty members introduced themselves to their classes as born-again Christians and encouraged students to become born again during the term.
...

\"Mikey\" Weinstein, a White House attorney in the Reagan administration who graduated from the academy in 1977 and has sent two sons there, said yesterday that \"a colossal failure of leadership is resulting in a constitutional train wreck\" at the school.

- Air Force to Probe Religious Climate at Colorado Academy, Washington Post (Free reg req'd), 5/4/05

How incredibly unprofessional and un-American. Can you imagine the same kind of religious coercion at Annapolis or West Point? Unthinkable.

millerbeach

May 3 2005, 11:37 PM

Welcome to the new Amerika....a land where the US Constitution no longer has meaning and can be changed at will to suit the party in power.

dfwAggie99

May 4 2005, 01:08 PM

Thou shalt turn thyself into a mindless, flying, killing machine...

Was that the 11th commandment?

gmginsfo

May 5 2005, 09:21 AM

No, actually I believe it first appeared in the code of Bushido, and was later incorporated into some verses of the Koran. As far as I know, it's never been part of the Judeo-Christian "culture of life."

jqueer

May 5 2005, 10:53 AM

Then you really haven't been paying attention. I can't say more people have died in the name of Christ than in the name of Allah, but when the numbers get that high, does it really matter?

gmginsfo

May 5 2005, 11:10 AM

I believe we're talking suicides here, JQ. Actually, wasn't there some sort of Jewish mass suicide atop a mountain during a revolt against Roman rule? Magallah or something like that?

jqueer

May 5 2005, 12:43 PM

Who mentioned suicide? I don't see that anywhere in this thread prior to your post. The incident you're referring to was at Masada during the Roman occupation of the Land of Israel. An unofficial State motto in Israel is "Never again" referring to both Masada and the Holocaust.

To my knowledge, there has been no indication of the US Air Force Academy turning out suicidal zealots intent on the destruction of their enemies at the cost of their lives. If that's your defense of the the Academy, at least they're not suicidal, it's a very weak defense.

Ms. de Blazer

May 5 2005, 01:14 PM

Other reports state that Jews have been baited as "Christ killers" and ostracized. But of course the Traditional Values Coalition or Focus on the Family or whatever hate group the article I read quoted (sorry, I can't keep them straight) said that really it was Christians who were being persecuted.

fenwayguy

Jun 22 2005, 10:00 PM

The Air Force released it's own report today, acknowledging that faculty, staff and cadet leaders had shown "insensitivity" and "a lack of awareness... as to what constitutes appropriate expressions of faith", and recommending "(clear) policies on religious expression so religious minorities do not feel discriminated against or pressured."

In a dramatic statement of dissent, Capt. MeLinda Morton, the former Academy chaplain who has publicly expressed her concerns about the pervasive promotion of Evangelical Christianity there, yesterday resigned her commission after 13 years in the Air Force. On Nightline tonight, she made her opinion clear that external oversight will be needed in order to end the serious (and in my opinion, dangerous) constitutional violations that continue to receive the support and approval of Academy leadership.

I'll be following the action at the Website of Americans United for Separation of Church and State...

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