Air Force Sued For Religious Intolerance
by TChris
Contending that the Air Force Academy has encouraged evangelical Christians to impose their religious viewpoints on cadets in a coercive fashion, Academy graduate Mikey Weinstein filed suit against the Air Force yesterday to end the school’s tolerance of religious proselytizing.
Over the past decade or more, the suit claims, academy leaders have fostered an environment of religious intolerance at the Colorado school, in violation of the First Amendment.
Among the complaints:
[A] Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and that another Jew was called a Christ killer by a fellow cadet. A banner in the football team's locker room read: "I am a Christian first and last ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."
Also, there have been complaints that cadets were pressured to attend chapel, that academy staffers put New Testament verses in government e-mail, and that cadets used the e-mail system to encourage others to see the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of the Christ."
An Air Force review concluded that no overt religious discrimination occurred, but “a team from the Yale Divinity School issued a report last month saying it found lingering problems among the academy's chaplains.” TalkLeft background on the dispute can be found here, here, here, here and here.
| < Dem. Report Advises Centrism Over Liberalism | Clemency Urged for Lovitt > |
