From today's Associated Press:

======================================

Updated: 05:52 PM EDT
Air Force Cadets Complain of Religious Harassment
By ROBERT WELLER, AP

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (April 19) - 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.

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.

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.

"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.

The superintendent, Lt. Gen. John Rosa, conceded there was a problem during a
recent meeting of the Board of Visitors, the civilian group that oversees the
academy.

"The problem is people have been across the line for so many years when you
try and come back in bounds, people get offended," he said.

The board chairman, former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, warned Rosa that
changing things could prove complicated. He said evangelical Christians "do not
check their religion at the door."

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.

Rosa and other academy leaders say some among the large number of Christian
cadets - nearly 2,600 are Protestant, some 1,300 are Roman Catholic, and about
120 are Mormon - may not realize that evangelism is unwelcome among their
fellow students. The corps of cadets also includes 44 Jews, 19 Buddhists and a few
Muslims, Hindus and others. There are 15 chaplains and one rabbi.

Rosa himself intervened when Christian cadets began promoting "The Passion,"
Mel Gibson's movie about the crucifixion of Christ. He told cadets they should
not use government e-mail or other facilities to promote their personal
agendas.

Two of the nation's most influential evangelical Christian groups, Focus on
the Family and New Life Church, are headquartered in nearby Colorado Springs.
Tom Minnery, an official at Focus on the Family, disputed claims that
evangelical Christians are pushing an agenda at the academy, and complained that "there
is an anti-Christian bigotry developing" at the school.


04/19/05 15:20 EDT

========================================

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *