Posted on 05/12/2005 12:41:32 PM PDT by wagglebee
Here’s a story that will throw you for a loop: a "chaplain” at the U.S. Air Force Academy is complaining that the school’s administration has a "systemic and pervasive” problem of promoting religious religious values with a Christian bent.
The chaplain, Capt. Melinda Morton, a "Lutheran minister” spoke out publicly on Tuesday as an Air Force task force arrived at the academy to investigate charges that officers and staff members pushed their religious beliefs on cadets.
And she claimed that a tolerance program developed at the academy, called Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People (R.S.V.P.), was watered down after it was shown to officers.
Maj. Gen. Charles C. Baldwin, chief of chaplains for the Air Force, screened the 90-minute R.S.V.P. film in October, according to Capt. Morton, and asked her: "Why is it that the Christians never win?” in reaction to some of the program’s depictions of cadet interactions.
"Chaplain” Morton’s complaints about too much religion at the military academy is creating waves, and earned her hero status in a report in the New York Times Thursday.
Gen. Baldwin acknowledged in an interview that he felt too many scenes in the film portrayed Christians at fault for excessive evangelical proselytizing.
He also said he asked that the Air Force cut segments on non-Christian religions such as Buddhism, Judaism and Native American spirituality.
The problem in dealing with proselytizing and church-state issues at the academy, he explained, "always is, when is a person crossing the line, or when are they being a positive person of faith, like our president.”
Last year, the Colorado Springs academy invited Yale Divinity School professor Kristen Leslie and six Yale graduate students to visit the school and observe how the chaplains minister to the cadets.
A memo from the Yale team cited the "stridently evangelical themes” at a worship service attended by 600 new cadets.
Leslie said a chaplain urged cadets to pray for those who didn’t attend and "remind them of the consequences ... those not ‘born again will burn in the fires of hell.’”
But academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker disputed that account, saying several other chaplains told him that no one mentioned burning "in the fires of hell.”
Morton, a 48-year-old "Lutheran minister," said she was removed from her post as executive officer to the chief chaplain, Col. Michael Whittington, last week. She claimed the dismissal came after he pressured her to deny details of what happened at the religious service.
But Whitaker said Whittington sent Morton an e-mail on May 4 saying he was removing her "to ensure a smooth and complete transition” for new leaders.
Morgan said she had stepped forward because "it’s the Constitution, not just a nice rule we can follow or not follow. That includes not using your power to advance your religious agenda.”
She acknowledged that after speaking out, "I don’t think I have much future in the Air Force.”
Right on! The Bible speaks clearly to this issue.
AFA starts sensitivity training (03/30/05)
Respect for religious diversity is emphasized
snip
"The issue is not about religion," said Chaplain Capt. Melinda Morton, who led the training. "It's about respecting everyone's right to believe as they choose."
That's essential in an environment dominated by power hierarchies, she said, because cadets can perceive they'd score points by adopting an instructor's or military leader's religious beliefs.
Laws and policies mandate equal opportunity regardless of religious affiliation - a tenet imperative to carrying out the mission, she said.
He said something like "Think not that I have come to bring peace on earth, I bring not peace but a sword".
Elmendorf is nice. She should go to Thule, Greenland.
Excuse me?
ELCA press release (search for Melinda Morton)
If you want to read something really offensive to anyone who knows, loves and serves Christ Jesus, read this link.
Isn't there some Air Force installation in Antarctica, now that I think about it?
LOL!
Lutheran-in-name-only...
Morton was teaching an RSVP — Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People — class, a 50-minute exercise in trying to stop what critics called a culture of intolerance on campus. Over the last four years, there have been 55 complaints of insensitivity, many dealing with alleged harassment of religious minorities by evangelical Christians.
Cadets and employees are being told they can't proselytize on campus, use government e-mail to send religious messages, put up posters with religious themes or use positions of authority to endorse a particular faith. They must also attend one RSVP class.
About 90% of cadets here are Christian and many of them, as well as teachers and high-ranking officers, are evangelical.
Academy Commandant Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida is a self-described born-again Christian. Last year, football coach Fisher DeBerry hung a banner in the athletic complex that said, "I am a Christian first and last … I am a member of Team Jesus Christ." He later removed it and underwent sensitivity counseling.
http:///www.tinyurl.com/b5pnw
Lets create a new one at the south pole for her. An igloo for one.
Agreed.
Should I don my flame suit? :-)
Freep her email:
I would like to see the poll questions and a link to his study. It appears the number ONE area where the 'believers' are flagging, is in the believing of the Bible as the Word of God.
Believers who don't...
'believe,' that is.
Good grief. No wonder liberal Protestant churches are losing members.
Do MS even have women pastors?
Group may sue U.S. Air Force Academy
By Robert Weller, Associated Press Writer | April 29, 2005
DENVER -- A national group that monitors the separation of church and state says it may sue the Air Force Academy, claiming the school allows evangelical Christians to harass cadets who do not share their faith.
"This is the most significant, systemwide example of religious discrimination I have seen in a military setting. Every cadet should be treated as a first-class citizen but instead those who are not evangelical Christians have a lower status," said Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Lynn's group said it conducted a two-month investigation that included contacting about 15 cadets and staff, and has sent a report to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
The investigation found that former and current cadets said that their fellow students, faculty, staff and members of the chaplains' office frequently pressured them to attend chapel and receive religious instruction. In one case, a professor required a prayer before a test, and faculty members have promoted their religion in class, the group said.
An academy spokesman declined comment. Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Amy Rogerson said Friday the report had not yet been received and she could not comment on its contents.
"The Air Force's position is that one's religious beliefs, or the absence of beliefs in an established religion, should never be grounds for unlawful discrimination," Rogerson said. "The Air Force senior leadership has total confidence in the academy."
The academy has launched mandatory religious tolerance classes after complaints from Jews and other cadets that they are the target of religious harassment and insults by Christians. Some have also questioned the activities of senior leadership at the prestigious school near Colorado Springs.
Lynn said his group would work with the Air Force and Congress, but warned a religious discrimination lawsuit is possible if there is no progress in 30 days.
"It's a man, baby."
We can only hope.
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