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PDF versionReligious liberty blossoms at the U.S. Air Force Academy
by Tom Gallagher on Nov. 28, 2011
"We're here to accommodate all religions, period," [says Chaplain Maj. Darren] Duncan, branch chief of cadet faith communities at the academy. The building of the Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle on the hilltop, he says, is no different from the past conversion of chapel rooms into worship spaces that serve this year's 11 Muslim, 16 Buddhist and 10 Hindu cadets. There are also 43 self-identified atheist cadets whose beliefs, or lack of them, Duncan says are also to be respected.
The newly minted and urgently created U.S. Bishops Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty will be tickled to learn that the U.S. Air Force Academy is officially making room for pagans, druids, witches and Wiccans, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times:
"It is very nice to have our own space," says Cadet 1st Class Nicole Johnson, a 21-year-old senior from Florida who became a pagan after entering the academy.
This is not about religious tolerance — a phrase Duncan, a Christian, rejects as implying that the majority religion is simply putting up with the minority. He calls it a 1st Amendment issue. If the military is to defend the Constitution, it should also be upholding its guarantee of religious freedom. "We think we are setting the standard," Duncan says.
In addition to providing worship space, new policy dictates that all cadets take courses in understanding the religions of those who may someday fall under their command. Recently he's fielded calls from West Point and Annapolis about replicating the Air Force's efforts.
This is a potentially
This is a potentially important step. The Air Force has, unfortunately, had a long history of making evangelical Christianity the de facto standard of "faith" in the service. They famously had a "Christian" training program which ALL officers assigned to ballistic missiles had to take -- a sort of "Jesus loves missiles" program. Only within the past few months was this training abolished -- presumably part of the same religious-freedom emphasis as the Air Force Academy changes.
At the same time, one wonders whether officers now have a place to discuss the morality/ethics of what they might be required to do. And one also wonders whether all the chaplains out in the field have gotten the message and changed their approaches to match. The previous protocol was often hard on Catholic Christians as well as others of different faiths or of no faith.
I have read about some
I have read about some Catholic cadets who were harassed by cadets who were Evangelical Christians, trying to convert them. The Evangelicals were apparently in control at the academy and were very aggressive. This is wrong and should be stopped.
I just finished reading
I just finished reading chaplain and Capt. James Yusuf Yee's chronicle For God and Country and highly recommend we all with any interest in religious freedom read it.
My favourite therapist went
My favourite therapist went some years ago to the Airforce academy to attempt to save it from the right wing. I'm sorry I've never been able to track him down, since I would like to assist. I was in the old army, before this new right wing religion had gotten any traction. There may have been random abuses, but the authorities would not support them.
Br'er Scanlon, thank you for the book reference, I'll be looking for it.
Is there some way we could correspond by email? What we have here are only commentary, and I'd like to ask you some questions that would be off topic.
Nils K. Hammer
(as seen seen in Google Groups)
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