Flying Over the Line

[JohnnyBz00LS]

Flying Over the Line

By Richard Cohen

Thursday, June 9, 2005; Page A21

We should all attend the Air Force Academy. We should do so not just to learn about military flying but also -- actually, mainly -- to find out what happens when religion is not kept in its place. At the academy, the result has been utter contempt for separation of church and state and a form of religious persecution. Its own top guy, Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa Jr., in an unintended homage to the movie "Apollo 13," put it this way: "We have a problem." I'd "roger" that.

The problem, as Rosa described it in a meeting last week with the Anti-Defamation League, "is very insidious." He said it would take "probably six years" to solve if only because until relatively recently the academy itself did not realize that it had a problem. In other words, a culture of militant Christianity, intimidation and outright bigotry was so entrenched and so ordinary that no one, with the understandable exception of the occasional victim, noticed that anything was amiss.

What, exactly, are we talking about? We are talking about what a former chaplain at the academy called a "systematic and pervasive" effort at religious proselytizing in which both students and faculty participated. We are talking about semi-official efforts to promote Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ." We are talking about e-mails sent to the entire student body with religious messages and classes that opened with a prayer and the intimidation -- a form of hazing -- of secular or non-Christian students by others.

In his talk, Rosa quibbled with news accounts of what was happening at the academy, so maybe it is best to just stick to what he himself acknowledged, in a transcript the ADL posted on its Web site. The one that is probably the most troubling has to do with a banner the football coach hung in the locker room. It said, "I am a Christian first and last . . . I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."

"It came down right after it went up, but clearly, clearly over the line," Rosa told the ADL's national director, Abe Foxman, and his delegation. "I personally sat down with the football coach. We talked and had a two-hour discussion." Rosa said he told the coach, Fisher DeBerry, that the government was "paying him to coach" football and not, by implication, religion. This must have been news to the coach. His own posted bio emphasizes his religious faith.

The so-called "Competitor's Creed" can be found in plenty of locker rooms, but the Air Force Academy is not just another school. It is an entirely government-supported institution whose graduates go off to work for the government -- which is to say you and me. It is downright impermissible for anyone to, in effect, establish an authorized form of religion that makes anyone else feel like an outsider. The Air Force Academy is not a Christian institution. It is a military school, attended mostly by Christians. That's a big difference.

Some blame the academy's troubles on its location, Colorado Springs. The city is the headquarters of many fundamentalist Christian groups and churches. That's bound to have an effect. But the real trouble is one of leadership. DeBerry has been at the academy for more than 20 years. Last year cannot be the first time he either hung such a banner or in some other way made known his religious views. The same holds for whoever thought "The Passion of the Christ" ought to be, in effect, a required course -- or the others who made Jews and Catholics and moderate Protestants feel singled out. This is just the first time all of this has come to the attention of outsiders.

If Rosa did not know what was happening at the academy -- he's been superintendent less than two years -- then others on the faculty or in the cadet corps certainly did. They took no action. By now, some of them are important Air Force officers. Don't they know anything about the Bill of Rights and separation of church and state? After all, little in life better exemplifies the state and its power than a military academy. It simply cannot be in the church business.

The next time anyone asserts that religion is being shoved around in America, tell him to look at the Air Force Academy. And the next time anyone suggests that courts have gone too far in protecting the rights of religious minorities, tell him to look at the Air Force Academy. In the meantime, Congress ought to look -- and look hard -- at the academy and the officers it has graduated. They know how to fly, but maybe they don't know what they are flying for.

This explains alot.

 

[FreeFaller]

You're swingin' that bat a little close to my front door there Johnny...

Now I'm gonna keep this civil. You and Mr. Cohen are full of SH!T. I am an Atheist and my best friend is a Jew. We have never...EVER been made to feel less, unwelcome or uncomfortable. This article is laughable...and your support of it only shows your true nature.

 

[FreeFaller]

Here's an article with a little less "I hate the military so I'll take any chance to degrade them" flair... It states the problem that was percieved and solutions on how to combat it.


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Report: Academy grapples with religion in the public forum

by Staff Sgt. C. Todd Lopez
Air Force Print News

6/22/2005 - WASHINGTON -- A team looking at the religious climate of the Air Force Academy found an institution grappling with a challenge that is the subject of significant debate in the public arena.

Part of the problem appears to be a lack of operational guidance as to what is and is not acceptable in the area of religious expression, they found.

That is but one of the findings of the group sent to investigate allegations of religious intolerance at the Colorado institution, said Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady, Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel.

"There is a lack of operational guidance that tells commanders and senior supervisors exactly what is appropriate in regard to free exercise of religion," the general said. “There were some faculty and staff, in efforts that were probably well-intentioned, who expressed their faith in ways that were inappropriate for somebody in a position of authority.”

The Department of Defense and the Air Force both have policies that address discrimination, accommodation and the requirement to not restrict the free exercise of religion, but operational guidance as to what is acceptable in the area of religious expression is lacking, General Brady said.

"What are the considerations commanders must take into account when they decide where and when it is appropriate to have a public prayer, for instance?" he asked. "There is no cookbook answer that applies to every situation, but we need to provide commanders and supervisors a framework of considerations they can use to make decisions in this area."

Air Force officials are working to fill the academy’s need for that guidance, the general said.

General Brady was chosen by Michael L. Dominguez, acting secretary of the Air Force, to lead the team of 16 people to the academy in May to conduct an investigation into allegations of religious intolerance at the school.

The team met in open sessions with more than 300 people, including the superintendent, training wing commander, dean of faculty, director of athletics, and other staff, faculty and cadets.

Besides noting a lack of guidance and finding instances of questionable religious expression on the part of some faculty and staff, the general said the team observed that the school in some cases was not accommodating enough to students of minority faiths.

“It is not that minority cadets cannot get accommodation,” he said, “but that the academy was not addressing the issue up front, such as including holy days on the calendar. So in some cases, it made cadets feel like the academy was not as sensitive to those needs, and was putting the burden on the cadet to ask for the accommodation."

Finally, the team found that some of the situations that lead to a perception of religious intolerance at the school come from the youth and inexperience of some members of the student body, General Brady said.

"We found there was a certain amount of behavior on the part of some 18-to-22-year-olds that is less than it should be,” he said. That behavior included religious slurs, jokes and disparaging remarks made by some cadets.

“That is neither surprising nor acceptable,” he said. “We bring about 1,300 new young Americans into the academy every year. Some come from very diverse environments, but some of them have never lived with anybody who sounds different or looks different or believes differently than they do. Sometimes they react in ways that are not acceptable in our Air Force.”

General Brady said cadets indicated religious slurs and jokes have decreased at the academy over the past few years. To further bolster that trend, and in light of recent attention on religious issues, the academy has created a new program specifically designed to help young cadets of any background become more aware of the diversity around them.

The Respecting Spiritual Values of all People program has been in place for a few months.

"This program, which is new, tells cadets that people believe different things and come from different places,” the general said. “We must respect that diversity in our force and use it as a strength in our force."

Respecting diversity in all areas is critical to the future of the military, General Brady said, especially in light of its expeditionary mission in the war on terrorism.

"The United States Air Force, and the United States military at large, cannot afford to operate in any other way than be respectful of cultural differences,” he said. “We must respect each other and respect and understand our coalition partners who may be of different cultures. It is not only the right thing to do, it’s an operational imperative.”

 

[JohnnyBz00LS]

"lack of operational guidance ..........."

Sounds like a disease that keeps popping up in many arms of our military.

The Respecting Spiritual Values of all People program has been in place for a few months.

"This program, which is new, tells cadets that people believe different things and come from different places,” the general said. “We must respect that diversity in our force and use it as a strength in our force."

That's good news, at least they recognize the problem and have taken steps to address it. Denial is a bitch. :Beer