Inquiry Into Dismissal of AF Chaplain (criticized religious proselytizing)

New York Times:
Inquiry Into Dismissal of an Air Force Chaplain
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: May 24, 2005


The Department of Defense inspector general's office is looking into accusations that a chaplain at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs was dismissed from her administrative job and given orders to transfer to a base in Japan because she had criticized the religious proselytizing of academy cadets.

An Air Force spokeswoman said Monday that the service had asked the inspector general to investigate the case of the chaplain, Capt. MeLinda Morton, who went public this month with her criticisms of the religious climate at the academy.

The announcement came on the day a task force was to finish a preliminary report on an inquiry into complaints that some officers permitted harassment and inappropriate proselytizing at the academy. The report will not be released for several weeks, Jennifer Stephens, an Air Force spokeswoman, said.

On Monday, Captain Morton and two other prominent critics of the academy wrote to 46 Congressional Democrats who had demanded an inquiry and said the task force had failed to do a thorough investigation. They said that Captain Morton was given only a cursory interview, and that the two other critics, Mikey Weinstein and Prof. Kristen Leslie of the Yale Divinity School, had not been interviewed at all.

Mr. Weinstein says he has been collecting complaints about religious intimidation at the academy for over a year, and Ms. Leslie spent a week there last summer assessing the chaplaincy's pastoral program at the invitation of the academy....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/24/politics/24academy.html

is not just another whitewash)

They were "Promise Keeper" types and their wives had to read a "manual" on how to be a "proper Air Force wife" (read:Stepford) back in the early 70's.

Guess they figure those airplanes make them closer to Gawd, or they become Fundies in order to deal with the fact that they deal out Death by remote control from the safety of altitude....

When I first saw this story on t.v. it was said that she was being transferred to Iraq, but this article states that she is being transferred to Japan. I wonder if the exposure made them rethink deploying her to a war zone, which definetly stinks of retaliation, or if Japan is just a short stop on her way to Iraq.




DMM, sorry for the dup post, I didn't search well enough :)