NYT: Air Force Chaplain Tells of Academy Proselytizing

Air Force Chaplain Tells of Academy Proselytizing
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: May 12, 2005


A chaplain at the Air Force Academy has described a "systemic and pervasive" problem of religious proselytizing at the academy and says a religious tolerance program she helped create to deal with the problem was watered down after it was shown to officers, including the major general who is the Air Force's chief chaplain.

The academy chaplain, Capt. MeLinda Morton, 48, spoke publicly for the first time as an Air Force task force arrived at the academy in Colorado Springs on Tuesday to investigate accusations that officers, staff members and senior cadets inappropriately used their positions to push their evangelical Christian beliefs on Air Force cadets.

The academy began developing the tolerance program, called Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People, or R.S.V.P., in response to a survey it took last year. The survey found that more than half of the cadets said they had heard derogatory religious comments or jokes at the academy.

For more than a year, the Air Force has been struggling to respond to accusations from some alumni, staff members and cadets that evangelical Christians in leadership positions at the academy were creating a discriminatory climate. Air Force officials say the task force they dispatched this week shows that they are taking the accusations seriously. The investigators are to make a preliminary report on May 23....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/education/12academy.html

I swear my husband was almost demoted for that one. I saw so much shit in the military that was swept under the rug - but vote Dem and you are publicly chastised.

though, to see that this is at least getting some attention. As sad as it is...

I'ma comin boulder!

I just read it this month and It will be available online when June's issue comes out. It addressed this topic of the Evangelicals and the AFA with interviews with Pastor Ted (pres. of American Evangelical assoc.) who, it just so happens, calls and chats with the chimp** every Monday morning.

This is very scary stuff folks....

<snip from NYT>

Critics including Captain Morton attribute the problem in part to the academy's location in Colorado Springs, headquarters to dozens of the largest evangelical ministries and churches. They say there is significant crossover between the leadership of the academy and those organizations and churches in or near Colorado Springs, including Focus on the Family, the Navigators and the Officers' Christian Fellowship.

A report sent to the Air Force in late April by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an advocacy group based in Washington, said that academy officers and staff members opened mandatory events at the academy with prayer, sent e-mail academy-wide with religious taglines, and published advertisements in the academy newspaper asking cadets to contact them to "discuss Jesus." The report is based on interviews with current and former academy staff and faculty members and cadets.

Fliers advertising a showing of the movie "The Passion of the Christ" were placed at every seat in the dining hall, with the tagline, "This is an officially sponsored USAFA event," according to the report.



http://www.harpers.org/MostRecentCover.html

Most particularly among the white officer corps. It is a form of white power pretending to be something else. It is a way to get your ticket punched. If you aren't a part of it, you are swimming upstream.

Maj. Gen. Charles C. Baldwin, the chief of chaplains for the entire Air Force, screened the R.S.V.P. program in October, Captain Morton said, and afterward asked her, "Why is it that the Christians never win?" in response to some of the program's dramatizations of interactions between cadets of different religions.
- - -
What I find most annoying about these stories is that it seems the evangelicals are focusing their energy primarily on people who already think of themselves as Christians. Apparently the evangelicals feel mainstream religion just isn't pure enough or intense enough. Sort of like Saudi Arabia...

and so many self-professed Christians there, doesn't it make you wonder just how "moral" the Academy's values are?

When you take into account that American evangelical christianity has a strong focus on men's superiority over women, does it come as any surprise that at an institution where evangelicals have been allowed to become bullies that rape -- a sick demonstration of power and control -- is pervasive?

:shrug:

On so many levels, I don't know where to begin.

:banghead:

We have "religious freedom" in Murka, but these fuckwits are so far across the line of infringing on others' rights that they must be stopped.

A top Air Force Academy chaplain said Thursday she was fired for speaking up about anti-Semitism and other reports of religious intolerance among cadets and staff, including allegations that evangelical Christians wield too much influence.
...
Morton also said a religious tolerance training program she helped create was watered down after Air Force officials screened it last fall. She said Baldwin ordered the removal of several video clips, including one from the Holocaust movie "Schindler's List" and another about American Indian religion.

She said he also objected to dramatizations of interactions between cadets of different religions, saying they were unfair to Christians.

Morton recalled him asking: "I would just like to know why in your presentation Christians never win."

"Our mouths fell open," she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/12/AR2005051201214.html

our way or the highway. Very disturbing. Thanks for posting this update, Rose.

Fundie fliers will make great, enthusiastic killers, but,

on the down side, we will have an air force with a collective IQ of 73.

Who will fly the fighter jets?

Fundie christianists would make great doorgunners on a chopper though.