Air Force Academy Protestant Chaplain Promotes Anti-Semitism

NYTIMES.com

Yale Divinity Consultants Warned Air Force
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 21, 2005

DENVER (AP) -- Consultants from Yale Divinity School told the Air Force Academy last summer that a Protestant chaplain had promoted Christianity with a fire-and-brimstone warning during cadet basic training.

The Yale report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled after the visitors attended the training at the academy's request in July.

Academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker said Wednesday that commanders had taken the Yale report into consideration when they developed religious tolerance classes that are now mandatory for cadets and staff.

The classes were a response to complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the school that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become pervasive.

''We're making strides out here. We recognize the problem,'' Whitaker said.

The deprogramming classes meant to counter the reportedly pervasive religious intolerance are said to be about an hour long. Or 45 minutes shorter than the movie TopGun.

I expect the outcries of religious persecution (from lack of allowable persecution) to be much longer. They'll start along these lines...

Air Force Academy Students Denied Right to Practice Prosthelytizing
Fundamental Tenant of Christianity DENIED by US Government

In the religious tolerance classes, cadets and staff are told that teachers and commanders should not invite cadets to attend their churches. Whitaker said the academy is developing a follow-up program that will include firmer boundaries on permissible behavior.

And it's the JEWS fault!!!

If it's any conciliation for fundamentalist Christians worried they've lost control of the US military now on top of the legislature, judiciary, Hollywood and other phantom persecutors, hating "fags" is still cool in the Air Force. So you've always got that.

But...I can't access the rest of the article, and it doesn't say if there is any record other than Yale's report that supports that the chaplain made these comments. People will see biggotry where they want to if they try hard enough. After all, The Passion was considered anti-semitic according to some. Nevermind it was apparent that Jesus was a Jew, too.

For that matter, the book of Judges, in the Jewish Torah, could be considered anti-semitic, as well. Need more info.

Originally posted by junglejake
Need more info.

This is all there is to the rest of the article (but sign-up is free).

The academy, still emerging from a sexual assault scandal, had asked the Yale team to review how the school's chaplains serve cadets.

Kristen Leslie, a Yale professor of pastoral care who led the group, said the chaplain told 600 cadets ''to go back to their tents and tell their fellow cadets that those who are not born again will burn in the fires of hell.''

She said the fact that the people speaking to cadets were in positions of power ''suggests the cadets were supposed to assume this was the party line.''

Telling 600 cadets "to go back to their tents and tell their fellow cadets that those who are not born again will burn in the fires of hell'' is pretty cut and dry harrassment in my mind.

And Academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker "recognized" the problem, so I guess that's agreement.

But it's an interesting situation regarding prosthelytizing as I was alluding. I mean that's how it's increasingly done. That's evangelicalism to some people. And it's harrassment to everyone else.

Unclear if this is the pastor or sesitivity training.

Government Sponsored Intolerance?

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) -- Less than two years after it was plunged into a rape scandal, the Air Force Academy is scrambling to address complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the school that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become pervasive.

There have been 55 complaints of religious discrimination at the academy in the past four years, including cases in which a Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and another was called a Christ killer by a fellow cadet.

The 4,300-student school recently started requiring staff members and cadets to take a 50-minute religious-tolerance class.

''There are things that have happened that have been inappropriate. And they have been addressed and resolved,'' said Col. Michael Whittington, the academy's chief chaplain.

More than 90 percent of the cadets identify themselves as Christian. A cadet survey in 2003 found that half had heard religious slurs and jokes, and that many non-Christians believed Christians get special treatment.

''There were people walking up to someone 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,''' Vice Commandant Col. Debra Gray said.

That's what gets me. It's not just intolerance to Jews. It's kind of a my demonination or the highway to hell thing.

And there's the tax thing...

Critics of the academy say the sometimes-public endorsement of Christianity by high-ranking staff has contributed to a climate of fear and violates the constitutional separation of church and state at a taxpayer-supported school whose mission is to produce Air Force leaders.

The sex thing...

They also say academy leaders are desperate to avoid the sort of uproar that came with the 2003 scandal in which dozens of women said their complaints of sexual assault were ignored.

The cynical hypocrisy of the cursory "seminar" thing...

''They are deliberately trivializing the problem so that we don't have another situation the magnitude of the sex assault scandal. It is inextricably intertwined in every aspect of the academy,'' said Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, N.M., a 1977 graduate who has sent two sons to the school. He said the younger, Curtis, has been called a ''filthy Jew'' many times.

And a whole host of other things...

Other critics point to a series of incidents, including:

--The Air Force is investigating a complaint from an atheist cadet who says the school is ''systematically biased against any cadet that does not overtly espouse Christianity.''

--The official academy newspaper runs a Christmas ad every year praising Jesus and declaring him the only savior. Some 200 academy staff members, including some department heads, signed it. Whittington noted the ad was not published last December.

--The academy commandant, Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, a born-again Christian, said in a statement to cadets in June 2003 that their first responsibility is to their God. He also strongly endorsed National Prayer Day that year. School spokesman Johnny Whitaker said Weida now runs his messages by several other commanders.

--Some officer commission ceremonies were held at off-campus churches. In a letter dated April 6, Weida said the ceremonies would be held on campus from now on.

And the fact that unwelcome evangelism from peers and superiors in a work situation is as bad as any other harrasment, sexual, racial or otherwise.