Four Air Force officers -- all graduates of the Air Force
Academy's
![](../../artman/uploads/swearing-in-1.jpg) |
U.S. Air Force Academy Class of 2008, Swearing In Ceremony |
class of 2004 -- have recently joined
a lawsuit
that accuses leaders at the academy of overtly pressuring cadets to undertake
evangelical religious instruction. The original lawsuit was filed in October by
Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force officer and graduate of the academy, whose
son experienced religious discrimination while attending the school.
Controversy over the influence of Christian fundamentalism at the
academy is nothing new, and the lawsuit is only the latest development in an
ongoing struggle -- the source and extent of which have been largely
underreported by the corporate media -- among evangelical organizations,
academy leaders, congressional lawmakers, and First Amendment advocates.
The Air Force Academy, located in Colorado Springs, is surrounded by
right-wing evangelical groups, several of which maintain close relationships
with the academy's faculty, staff, and cadets. These groups and the military
officials who follow them have been integrating evangelical Christianity into
official academy activities for at least 12 years. Over this time, they have
promoted evangelical beliefs to cadets, used their religion as a tool for
military training, and encouraged religious conformity on campus.
'Spiritual Gettysburg'
In addition to being headquarters for Air Force Space
Command, Northern Command, NORAD, numerous Air Force bases, and the Air Force
Academy, Colorado Springs is also home to the nation's largest, most
influential and politically active evangelical organizations: James Dobson's Focus on the Family, which is so large
that it maintains its own zip code, claims more than 200
million followers worldwide, and is located directly across the highway from
the academy.
Dobson, who is one of the most powerful
and influential religious leaders in the world, believes the Supreme
Court is guilty of "the biggest holocaust in world history";
regularly denounces "judicial tyranny" against Christians; and has
gone after the creators of Sponge Bob Square Pants and many other cartoons for
"promoting a homosexual agenda to children." Most recently
Dobson has been in the news for receiving
"inside" information regarding failed Supreme Court nominee Harriet
Miers' willingness to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Also
situated on the far north side of Colorado Springs is New Life Church, where it
was built, in part, so it could be seen from the Air Force Academy. [1]
Sporting Air Force colors, the silver and blue megachurch, along with its
leader Ted Haggard, are there not just to be seen, but to aggressively recruit
new members for what they believe to be a "spiritual war" of epic
proportions.
Haggard,
who many consider to be more influential than Dobson, meets
with President Bush or his advisors every Monday and leads the nation's most
powerful religious lobbying group: the National
Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which claims about 45,000
churches consisting of 30 million members nationwide.
Haggard's influence deserves notice because he preaches that
wars, disasters, and other tragedies are opportunities for spreading
evangelical Protestantism throughout the world [2] and that the end result of
globalization will be a final spiritual battle between Muslims and
evangelicals. "My fear," he told Jeff Sharlet of Harpers Magazine, "is that
my children will grow up in an Islamic state."
For this reason (see above link) Haggard believes
"spiritual war" requires a military component. He teaches a
"strong ideology of the use of power, of military might, as a public
service" and supports preemptive war because he believes the Bible
instructs Christians to proactively abolish sinners. He told Sharlet he believes
in violent warfare because "the Bible's bloody. There's a lot about
blood."
One New Lifer who spoke to Sharlet thinks of Colorado
Springs as a "spiritual Gettysburg" -- "a battleground between
good and evil." He believes God called him to Colorado Springs and says
many of the people he knows, including those working at the surrounding Air
Force Bases, feel the same way. [3] "I'm a warrior for God. Colorado
Springs is my training ground," he said.
Focus on the Air Force Academy
The religious organizations of Colorado Springs, which
literally surround the Air Force Academy, have been influencing school
activities and interacting with academy officials and cadets for over a decade.
When the Focus on the Family headquarters opened in 1993,
the academy's parachute team, the Wings of Blue, participated in the opening ceremony by delivering
"the keys of heaven" to James
Dobson's new facility -- directly from the sky. [4]
During official Air Force Academy reunions, graduates are invited to the Focus on the
Family headquarters for a tour that promotes James Dobson's religious/political
views and encompasses a video portraying Dobson as a hero receiving
accolades from such figures as Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and
George W. Bush.
Leaders from Focus on the Family and New Life Church are
regularly invited
to attend Bible Study programs on campus, and every week, New Life Church
dispatches vans to transport between 100 and 200 cadets to and from Friday
night services. According to Pastor Aaron Stern of New Life Church, these
cadets are encouraged to hand out fliers at the academy and recruit new
members.
Captain Melinda Morton, who until recently was the executive
officer to the chief chaplain at the academy, said
while she was there chaplain activities and events exclusively focused on
"conservative Christian evangelical ideology" and used only
"local and national evangelical presenters and resources."
Conversely, the former coach of the academy's football team,
Jim Weidmann,
is now executive director of Focus on the Family's Family Ministries and
is also vice chairman of the Focus on the Family National Day of Prayer Task
Force.
The current coach of the school's
football team, Fisher Deberry, while promoting his book, "For God and Country: Foundations of
Faith," received help from Focus on the Family, as well as
George H.W. Bush.
"Coach DeBerry defines 'winner' not just because
of his records and victories on the gridiron, but as much for his character and
faith", says former President George Bush. "What a great
American!'"
In his book, DeBerry describes openly how his
"Christian beliefs coincide with his career of preparing young men to
defend their country and possibly fight in wars and other international
conflicts." In order to motivate the players of the football team, Deberry
hung a banner in the locker room stating:
"I am a Christian first and last . . . I am a
member of team Jesus Christ. I wear the colors of the cross . . . I am a
Christian Competitor and as such, I face my challenger with the face of Christ
. . . I rely solely on the power of God. I compete for the pleasure of my
Heavenly Father, the honor of Christ and the reputation of the Holy
Spirit."
"I don't think you separate religion from normal,
everyday life," Deberry said at
a symposium in February. "Football, academics, military training --
everything -- all encompasses everything.
Religion is a part of life," he said.
Some evangelicals in Colorado Springs have even portrayed
the academy as a symbol for the fundamentalist movement in the area. Last
![](../../artman/uploads/bible.jpg) |
IBS Bible |
December, for instance, the Colorado Springs-based International Bible Study distributed
copies of the New Testament -- with a picture of the Air Force Academy's cadet chapel
on the cover -- in the local Colorado Springs Gazette.
Tom Minnery, vice president of
Government and Public Policy for Focus on the Family, said
the school's cadet chapel "is not there by accident."
"These cadets are being
trained to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country, to meet their
maker," he said.
'Legally Actionable Violations'
This spring, Americans United
-- a Washington DC-based organization created in 1947 to protect the
separation of church and state -- issued a report concluding that religious
"practices and policies" at the US Air Force Academy "constitute
egregious, systemic, and legally actionable violations of the Establishment
Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution."
"[C]omplaints from multiple sources make clear that
violations of the Establishment Clause are not merely aberrant acts by a few
rogue individuals, but instead are reflections of systematic and pervasive
religious bias and intolerance at the highest levels of the Academy command
structure." (Their emphasis)
According to the report, numerous former and current cadets
have issued complaints, which have been confirmed by academy officials, that
the Cadet Wing has been regularly pressured by members of the faculty, staff,
chaplains' office, and upper class, to attend worship services, undertake
evangelical religious instruction, and proselytize fellow students.
The Americans United report was published less than a year
after a Yale Divinity School report,
based on first-hand observations, which noted that during one worship service
led by Major Warren Watties:
"Protestant Basic Cadets were encouraged to pray
for the salvation of fellow BCT members who chose not to attend worship. . . . Cadets
were encouraged to return to tents, proselytize fellow BCT members, and remind
them of the consequences of apostasy."
According to the report, Major Watties told the cadets the
penalty for refusing to accept his encouraged proselytizing would be to
"burn in the fires of hell."
Other issues that raised concerns amongst the two groups
include:
- Protestant
cadets were commonly told that Jesus had "called" them to the
academy as part of God's plan for their lives.
- Cadets
who chose not to attend after-dinner chapel services were made to suffer
humiliation by being marched back to their dormitories in what was called
the "Heathen Flight."
- Commission
ceremonies for graduating officers have been held at off-campus churches.
- In December
of 2003, in the academy's newspaper, hundreds of staff members --
including the then-dean of the faculty, the current dean of faculty, and
16 department heads or deputy department heads -- expressed their belief
that "Jesus Christ is the only real hope for the world" and
directed students to contact them so they could "discuss Jesus."
- The academy
commandant, Brigadier General Johnny Weida, a born-again Christian, said
in a statement to cadets in June 2003 that their first responsibility was
to their God. He has also strongly endorsed National Prayer Day, an event sponsored by
Focus on the Family and chaired by James Dobson's wife, Shirley.
- The academy
has provided passes for Christian cadets who wish to attend church
services and activities off campus, such as at New Life Church. They,
however, have denied Jewish, Seven-Day Adventist, and those with other
beliefs, the right to leave the campus for non-evangelical religious
services.
- Several
faculty members have introduced themselves to their classes as born-again
Christians and encouraged non-evangelical students to convert to
evangelical Christianity throughout the course of the term.
- Staff
and faculty members have led prayer sessions at several mandatory school
activities, such as academic exams, meals at the dining hall, awards
ceremonies, military-training-event dinners, and basic training cadet
cadre meetings.
"When we start off some of the most important
nights of my cadet career with a religious invocation, I completely disagree
with that," a recent graduate said. "I don't
think there should be any religious involvement in military activities or
ceremonies of any nature like that."
Many other students and staff members have similarly
reported that the sponsorship of evangelical Christianity has created an
uncomfortable and hostile atmosphere for non-evangelicals.
A cadet survey
in 2004 found that more than half of the student population had heard religious
slurs and jokes, and many believed evangelical students received special
treatment.
One cadet said
the academy is "systematically biased against any cadet that
does not overtly espouse Christianity."
A staff member who spoke to The New York Times on the
condition of anonymity said:
"There's certainly an impression that evangelicals here have that the
leadership is kind of on their side. And there's a feeling among people who are
atheists or people who are other varieties of Christian that the leadership
does not really accept them."
According
to Vice Commandant Col. Debra Gray, "There were people walking up to
someone [at the academy] and basically they would get in a conversation and it
would end with, 'If you don't believe what I believe you are going to
hell.'"
A Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the
death of Jesus and another was called a Christ killer by fellow cadets. The son
of Mikey Weinstein, the father who is suing the academy, was called a
"filthy Jew," among other slurs.
"It's a shocking disgrace that I had to file this
thing," Weinstein told the Associated Press.
Weinstein says he has been contacted by
more than 117 current and former cadets, staff, and faculty members who have
witnessed and experienced religious discrimination and intolerance at the
academy, however many have not gone public because they fear disciplinary
action, he says.
When asked
if he thought the religious activists in the area were responsible for the
problems at the academy, Weinstein said, "it would be counterintuitive in
the extremist to presume that there isn't a strong nexus between [the problems
and] the incredible amount -- there's over 100 of the nation's largest
evangelical organizations in Colorado Springs."
"My problem is not with Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity
or even evangelical Christianity," he said. "It's that whenever a
religion -- in this case a group of people -- tries to engage the machinery of
the state, it is constitutionally repugnant and violative."
Captain Melinda Morton, formally the No. 2 chaplain at the
academy, believes she was removed from her position for speaking out against
the influence of religious groups at the military school. In May, she said
the academy "is surrounded by very powerful evangelical organizations . .
. that have a lot of influence at the Air Force Academy and at the White
House."
"They have a very clear social and political agenda. .
. . The evangelical tone is pervasive at the academy, and it's aimed at
converting these young people who are under intense pressure anyway," she said.
[5]
Even prior to any reports being published by members of Yale
Divinity School and Americans United there were many in the community speaking
out against the integration of religion with academy activities. [6] A former
Air Force officer and Vietnam veteran of Colorado Springs expressed his
concerns in a letter
to the commandant, superintendent, and head football coach of the academy:
"What has transpired and continues to transpire
despite lip-service to the contrary, is a true bastardization of the US
Constitution and an homage to the majority religion.
"The actions and words of the Commandant,
Superintendent and Head Football Coach, which appear to me to advocate a total
subordination to a brand of extreme Christianity, are a chilling reminder of
what can happen when those, enthralled by religious dogma, begin to commingle religion
and nationalism which, even according to Pope John Paul II, is a 'dangerous
enterprise.'"
In March, speaking out on an Internet forum for the Free Thinkers of
Colorado Springs, one town resident wrote:
"Why did the AFA (Air Force Academy) go way out
of its way to promote 'The Passion of the Christ' by placing posters all over
campus and at every place setting in the dining hall? Why does the AFA have
such close ties to the Focus on the Family church group? . . . When [the
football coach] put up a poster saying, "I am a Christian first and last .
. . I am a member of team Jesus Christ," was [he] spelling out that his
loyalty to this nation and its defense comes second to his belief in and
service to some religion? Seems so."
As above mentioned, at one point signs were placed on every
plate in the Cadet Dining Hall and posted throughout the academy for a
Christian-themed program related to the movie, The Passion of the Christ.
The flyers stated, "This is an officially sponsored USAFA event -- please
do not take this flyer down." [7]
After complaints were filed, the academy turned to Brig.
Gen. Johnny Weida to address the problem. This, however, as noted by Americans United and explained
below, provides an ideal example of just how engrained evangelical Christianity
has become with everyday academy life, and just how difficult reforming the
environment may prove to be.
When instructed to advise the Cadet Wing about the fliers,
Weida, who incorporates religion with military training on a regular basis,
opened his speech with a call-and-response chant based on a Biblical metaphor
-- part of a system of code words he has developed to inspire religious
nationalism and proselytizing amongst the cadets. [8]
Additionally, according to Americans United, throughout what
was supposed to be Major Weida's "apology" speech, a quotation from
the New Testament was projected onto several large screens strategically
positioned throughout the dining hall.
According to Americans United, "General Weida has
cultivated and reinforced an attitude -- shared by many in the academy
Chaplain's Office and, increasingly by other members of the academy's Permanent
Party -- that the academy, and the Air Force in general, would be better off if
populated solely with Christians."
Despite the concerns raised by Americans United, after an
internal investigation the Air Force cleared
General Weida of any wrong doing and claimed there were no pervasive or
systemic religious problems at the academy.
"When those things happen and the chain of command
doesn't stop it, it's tacitly approved by chain of command," said Kristen Leslie of Yale, who
holds a doctorate in pastoral care and counseling. In this type of atmosphere,
she told the Colorado Springs Gazette, "For anyone to differentiate
themselves is very problematic and even threatening."
According to the Air Force, perceptions of intolerance were caused
by some officials' "lack of awareness" of appropriate behavior and a
"failure to accommodate all members' needs." The findings of the Air
Force's investigation can be found in this 40
page report, much of which is dedicated to playing down the
reports of religious intolerance, while portraying the Air Force's response as
prompt and effective.
Representative Lois Capps of California, who along with 45
other Democrats asked the secretary of the Air Force to get involved with the
issue, believes
the Air Force's probe is a step in the right direction, however she said the
report "downplays the full extent of an environment consumed by religious
intolerance."
Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), one of the most outspoken House
members regarding the religious problems at the academy, feels the same way.
The report "could have been far more forthright than it is," he said.
Both representatives believe the academy needs to take immediate and decisive action
to remedy the problems.
Attempting Reform
In order to help correct the problems
they observed at the academy, the team that first brought the issue into light
from Yale Divinity School developed and proposed a program designed to
thoroughly teach religious tolerance to the cadets and to make clear the
importance of keeping official duties religiously neutral.
However, the program was substantially modified after a
visit from the Air Force's chief of chaplains, Major General Charles Baldwin,
and, as a result, the program does not teach the fundamental aspects of
separation of church and state.
Moreover, Baldwin removed parts of the program that were
meant to increase understanding of non-Christian religions, such as Buddhism,
Judaism and Native American spirituality, and also took out a clip from
"Schindler's List," the 1993 movie on the Holocaust.
Captain Morton, who helped design the original religious
tolerance program with the team from Yale, says it has been watered down and is
no longer an effective tool for correcting the problems.
Americans United summarized: "firsthand, eyewitness
reports confirm that this . . . program is woefully inadequate to address the
pervasive problems of official religious intolerance, discrimination, and
coercion at the academy."
The classes were further undermined, according to American
United, by senior academy officials, who while on official duty have attended
religious programs, held by an evangelical Christian group, which define
"secularism" and "pluralism" as threats to "the
followers of Jesus." In effect, the cadet program has acted to further
polarize the academy, as many evangelical faculty members, cadets, and generals
now believe their religious rights are being attacked.
"The problem is people have been across the line for so
many years when you try and come back in bounds, people get offended," said
Lt. Gen. John Rosa. In June, Rosa said the "issue is very
insidious" and could take six to eight years to fix.
Facing mounting criticism and congressional action, at the
end of August the Air Force issued new guidelines
restricting military officials from promoting their religious beliefs. "We
will not officially endorse or establish religion, either one specific religion
or the idea of religion over non-religion," the Air Force's official
statement declared.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research
Council (a Christian conservative think tank originally founded by James
Dobson) believes the new
guidelines are a sign that the Air Force is "caving in" to the
lawsuit. "These developments raise disturbing questions
about the rights of Christians in uniform," he wrote on October 11.
Focus on the Family, in an attempt to reverse the
newly released guidelines, has started a campaign aimed at discrediting Yale Divinity
School and Americans United. In "Architecture of a
Smear," the associate editor of Focus on the Family's Citizen
Magazine, Stephen Adams, blames the allegations at the academy on a few
radical liberal activists who he believes are attacking the Christian majority.
Calling their millions of followers to action, the
Focus on the Family website is asking members to "contact President Bush
and urge him to restore the right to religious expression in the Air
Force."
"We want to be sure that the president hears
that a lot of people are concerned about this, and that [he] should help the
Air Force cadre apply these principles fairly and constitutionally," said
Tom Minnery, vice president of
Government and Public Policy for Focus on the Family.
Minnery believes
"there is an anti-Christian bigotry developing" at the school.
"We fervently hope that this ridiculous bias of a few against the religion
of the majority -- Christianity -- will now cease," he said.
Jim Backlin, vice president for
legislative affairs of the Christian
Coalition (a religious political group seeking to "change
policy and influence decisions" from "the school boards to
Washington, DC") says he
recently met with
the Air Force secretary's general counsel to discuss the issue. "I told
the secretary we are concerned that the guidelines as written would have a
chilling effect and are already having a chilling effect," Backlin said.
More than 70 members of the House have joined the cause and
signed a letter
to President Bush asking him to issue an executive order overriding the Air
Force's new guidelines. "Christian military chaplains are under direct
attack and their right to pray according to their faith is in jeopardy,"
the letter states.
Rep. Walter Jones, the conservative Republican who wrote the
letter, said, "We believe that the Air Force's suppression of religious
freedom is a pervasive problem throughout our nation's armed forces" and
"it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christian chaplains to use the
name of Jesus when praying."
If Bush agrees to issue an executive order permitting
chaplains to proselytize, Mikey Weinstein says he will add the president's name
to his lawsuit's list of defendants.
As of this writing the only legislation Jones and his colleagues have
been able to pass has been highly symbolic in
nature, ensuring rights that according to Americans United already existed.
However, although the wording of the guidelines has, for the most part, been upheld, it
still remains to be seen if they will be effective at correcting the long-term
systematic problems that have become engrained at the academy.
Abraham Foxman, who leads the Anti-Defamation League, said
the new guidelines "say all the right things. The major question is, how
will be they become a reality? A lot of the people implementing this are the
people who violated it."
Also, as The Washington
Post recently pointed out, the guidelines "do not say
whether Air Force officials can provide office space or other assistance to
professional missionaries who train cadets to evangelize among their
peers." This is of note because a Colorado Springs-based evangelical
group, known as The Navigators, has
recently
![](../../artman/uploads/navigators.jpg) |
Cadets follow along during a voluntary Navigators' "SPIRE" meeting. According to Captain Melinda Morton, the academy's SPIRE program, or Special Program in Religious Education, which is limited to Monday nights, should not be confused with the Navigators' efforts to be in continual contact with cadets throughout the week. "This Navigator thing is a whole different thing," she said." |
assigned a pair of full-time ministers to the academy where they are
doing just that: training cadets to evangelize among their peers. The
missionaries are part of The Navigators' Military Ministry,
which seeks to "reach the nations of the world through the military."
"The Navigators' mission at the U.S. Air Force
Academy is to impact eternity by multiplying disciples through spiritual
generations." As a result of the lawsuit, they've attempted to keep their
efforts partially secret. [9]
Another evangelical group, which, as of the Air Force's
investigation, is still active at the academy (see page 30),
is the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA),
whose mission "is to present to
athletes and coaches and all whom they influence the challenge and adventure of
receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord". [10] It was FCA's Competitors Creed that Coach
Fisher Deberry hung in the locker room to motivate the players of his team.
Deberry is a member of FCA's Hall of Champions, which FCA
created "to recognize servant-leaders who faithfully served Christ through
the vehicle of FCA."
Even further doubt was raised in regards to the Air Force's
handling of the situation, when, just weeks after the Air Force's report was
published, the Air Force deputy chief of chaplains, Brig. General Cecil R.
Richardson, told The
New York Times, "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to
evangelize the unchurched."
His statement closely resembled the Air Force's code of
ethics, which, until it was changed in the face of growing criticism, stated:
"I will not actively proselytize from other religious bodies. However, I
retain the right to instruct and/or evangelize those who are not affiliated.''
"The guidelines are worthless," said
Mikey Weinstein. "They're making it up as they go along," he said.
Nonetheless, on October 17, Weinstein offered
to settle his lawsuit if the Air Force would agree to a stipulated order in
federal court stating that the Air Force will not "in any way attempt to
involuntarily convert, pressure, exert or persuade a fellow member of the USAF
to accept their own religious beliefs while on duty.''
In an editorial,
one writer from Weinstein's hometown said any new rules "must ensure
that this policy is not hollow, that it is taken seriously and enforced at the
academy. [The academy] must be prepared to take disciplinary action against
officers, cadets, faculty or staff who violate it."
"I don't know that the Air Force can show a single
instance of any one of its members being disciplined for proselytizing,''
Weinstein recently told
the Associated Press. "If this was happening in the private sector, it
would last about three seconds,'' he said.
Weinstein said he just wants the Air Force to stop wasting
"time, effort, blood, sweat, tears and money'' and agree to uphold the
U.S. Constitution.
As of this writing no settlement has been made between
Weinstein and the academy. In contrast, as mentioned at the beginning of this
article, four officers have actually joined
the lawsuit. Second lieutenants' Casey Weinstein (one
of Mikey Weinstein's sons), Jason Spindler, Patrick Kucera and Ariel Kayne are
all now pursuing legal action against the military school for violating the
First Amendment.
They, however, continue to face opposition. In early November, the
Alliance Defense Fund (another Christian conservative group founded by James
Dobson) filed
a motion on behalf of Air Force Major James Glass and Captain Karl Palmberg
to oppose Weinstein's lawsuit, claiming it "seeks to silence religious
speech in the Air Force."
Additional Notes:
1. From Jeff Sharlet's Soldiers of Christ, published in May
of 2005 by Harpers Magazine:
"New
Life Church was built far north of town in part so it would be visible from the
Air Force Academy. New Life wanted that kind of character in its
congregation."
2. This was especially the case during the tsunami disaster
in Indonesia because, as Haggard noted during one worship service attended by
Jeff Sharlet of Harpers Magazine, the waves hit the "number-one exporter
of radical Islam."
While
speaking with Sharlet about the tsunami, one New Lifer said he was
"psyched" about what God was "doing with His ocean" while
another said he wished he could "get in there" because the victims'
souls were "ripe."
3.
According to Yale Divinity School, academy officials passed this same
belief on to cadets:
"Protestant
Basic Cadets were commonly told that Jesus has called them to the academy and military life. Protestant
Basic Cadets were informed that God's plan for their life included attending
the USAFA."
4. While
speaking on MSNBC's Hardball, Mikey Weinstein stated:
"I can tell you that, 12 years ago, the famous
Air Force Academy parachute team, the Wings of Blue, was sanctioned by some
idiot prince at the academy to parachute out of the azure blue Colorado skies
carrying -- quote -- 'the keys of heaven' on the same day that James Dobson
opened up his campus for Focus on the Family across the highway.
And they landed down on the lawn and they walked over
and handed him the keys of heaven. Hello? Does anyone see a problem here?
Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, hello?"
5. In addition, Morton said
Brigadier General Weida has used his position to promote New Life Church's
evangelical worship services and theatrical productions to cadets. She also
said Air Officers Commanding (AOCs) were "counseling cadets concerning the
'will of God.'" She was especially concerned about the AOCs that
"counsel women cadets to abandon the pursuit of Air Force pilot positions
because, for women, such activity conflicts with 'God's plan.'"
6. Criticism of the
religious influence in Colorado Springs is not limited to the academy. A common
bumper sticker in the area reads: "Focus On Your OWN Damn Family."
7. Many have
attributed the religious slurs and jokes at the academy to the movie and the
way it was promoted on campus.
At the time, groups such as Focus on the Family and New Life
Church were heavily involved with the promotion of the movie. While it was
still being edited, Ted Haggard and James Dobson, along with 30 other prominent
evangelical leaders, were given a
private screening
in Colorado Springs in order to review the film for Biblical accuracy.
8. See page 6 of AU report
and page 16 of the AF report. To symbolize a firm foundation in Jesus, as the New
Testament does with a parable about a house built on a rock foundation (see
Mathew 7:24-29; Luke 6:46-49), Gen. Weida has trained cadets to shout
"Rocks!" in response to a "J for Jesus" hand signal and the
phrase "Airpower!" The chant, in addition to inspiring religious
nationalism, gives evangelical cadets a chance to proselytize those who inquire
about the meaning. Several cadets went along with the chant without knowing the
meaning and later said they felt duped after discovering it was religiously
based.
9. In a letter to supporters, The Navigator missionaries wrote,
"Praise God that we have been allowed access by the academy into the cadet
areas to minister among the cadets. We have recently been given an unused
classroom to meet with cadets at any time during the day." The postscript
stated, "We respectfully request that you not share this letter publicly.
Due to the lawsuit recently filed, the contents of this letter are
confidential."
In addition, according to Captain Morton, The Navigators
"used to have an informal agreement that they could meet cadets in the
library." But because it was "too visible," they were asked to
stop.
10. Athletes in Action (AIA), which is a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ
("an interdenominational ministry committed to helping
take the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations"), is another
evangelical group that has been proselytizing on campus.