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Evangelicals Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps

 
 
Reply Tue 12 Jul, 2005 09:16 am
July 12, 2005
Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
New York Times

COLORADO SPRINGS - There were personal testimonies about Jesus from the stage, a comedian quoting Scripture and a five-piece band performing contemporary Christian praise songs. Then hundreds of Air Force chaplains stood and sang, many with palms upturned, in a service with a distinctively evangelical tone.

It was the opening ceremony of a four-day Spiritual Fitness Conference at a Hilton hotel here last month organized and paid for by the Air Force for many of its United States-based chaplains and their families, at a cost of $300,000. The chaplains, who pledge when they enter the military to minister to everyone, Methodist, Mormon or Muslim, attended workshops on "The Purpose Driven Life," the best seller by the megachurch pastor Rick Warren, and on how to improve their worship services. In the hotel hallways, vendors from Focus on the Family and other evangelical organizations promoted materials for the chaplains to use in their work.

The event was just one indication of the extent to which evangelical Christians have become a growing force in the Air Force chaplain corps, a trend documented by military records and interviews with more than two dozen chaplains and other military officials.

Figures provided by the Air Force show that from 1994 to 2005 the number of chaplains from many evangelical and Pentecostal churches rose, some doubling. For example, chaplains from the Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministries International increased to 10 from none. The Church of the Nazarene rose to 12 from 6.

At the same time, the number of chaplains from the Roman Catholic Church declined to 94 from 167, and there were declines in more liberal, mainline Protestant churches: the United Church of Christ to 3 from 11, the United Methodist Church to 50 from 64.

Other branches of the military did not make available similar statistics, but officials say they are seeing the same trend.

The change mirrors the Air Force as a whole, where representation is rising from evangelical churches. But there are also increasing numbers of enlistees from minority religions as well as atheists. It has all created a complicated environment and caused tensions over tolerance and the role of the military chaplain.

Some conflicts have already become public. A Pentagon investigation into the religious climate at the Air Force Academy here found no overt discrimination, but it did find that officers and faculty members periodically used their positions to promote their Christian beliefs and failed to accommodate non-Christian cadets, for example refusing them time off for religious holidays.

Other conflicts have remained out of the public eye, like the 50 evangelical chaplains who have filed a class action suit against the Navy charging they were dismissed or denied promotions. One of the chaplains said that once while leading an evangelical style service at a base in Okinawa he was interrupted by an Episcopal chaplain who announced he was stepping in to lead "a proper Christian worship service."

There is also a former Marine who said that about half of the eight chaplains he came into contact with in his military career tried to convince him to abandon his Mormon faith, telling him it was "wicked" or "Satanic."


A Complex Religious Environment


Part of the struggle, chaplains and officials say, is the result of growing diversity. But part is from evangelicals following their church's teachings to make converts while serving in a military job where they are supposed to serve the spiritual needs of soldiers, fliers and sailors of every faith. Evangelical chaplains say they walk a fine line.

Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, the Air Force deputy chief of chaplains, said in an interview, "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched." The distinction, he said, is that proselytizing is trying to convert someone in an aggressive way, while evangelizing is more gently sharing the gospel.

Certainly, the religious environment encountered by the chaplains is complex. Statistics on enlistees provided by the Air Force show there are now about 3,500 who say they are either Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, pagans, druids or shamans. There are 1,600 who say they are atheists and about 50,000 who say they have no religious preference, out of a total of 280,000. Roman Catholics number about 60,000.

There are also growing numbers of enlistees from evangelical churches. In 2005, there were 1,794 members of the Assemblies of God in the Air Force, 597 from the Church of the Nazarene and 108 from the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Because so many churches cannot be comfortably categorized as evangelical or nonevangelical, and because so many enlistees identify themselves simply as "Christian," it is difficult to ascertain cumulative numbers.

Military officials say the government is not promoting the change in the chaplain corps. Instead religious leaders who recruit for the military attribute it to factors including the general shortage of Catholic priests, the liberal denominations' discomfort with military interventions abroad, the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay men and lesbians, and evangelicals' broad support for the military.

The military is trying to grapple with the fallout. Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, sent a personal message to commanders on June 28, warning them against promoting their religious beliefs, saying, "The expression of personal preferences to subordinates, especially in a professional setting or at mandatory events, is inappropriate."

"Our chaplains," General Jumper wrote, "should set the example for mutual respect among different faiths and beliefs."


'We Are Not Generic Chaplains'


Air Force officials contend that the Spiritual Fitness Conference was not evangelical, pointing to the participation of a Catholic band leader and a Mormon expert on families. There was also an interfaith worship service in which all the chaplains planned to recite a Hebrew prayer together. They said that 10 Jewish chaplains stayed in the same hotel and were bused to the Air Force Academy for a separate program each day.

"We are not generic chaplains," said Col. Bob V. Page, who helped organize the conference. "We say, 'cooperation without compromise.' I cannot compromise my faith."

Chaplains are the often unsung members of the clergy who pray, counsel and go to war alongside American troops. Whatever their church or creed, when they join the military they pledge to serve the spiritual needs of every faith.

The military recruits chaplains through endorsing agents who work for about 100 different churches or religious denominations. The agents select potential candidates and refer them to the military, a system created to avoid the constitutional problem of government endorsement of religion.

In the Air Force, chaplain candidates must be under 40 and have a college degree. They must also have several years of ministry experience and be able to pass a physical fitness test. They also must attend an Air Force training program for chaplains.

The churches that once supplied most of the chaplains say they are now having trouble recruiting for a variety of reasons. Many members of their clergy are now women, who are less likely to seek positions as military chaplains or who entered the ministry as a second career and are too old to qualify. The Catholic Church often does not have enough priests to serve its parishes, let alone send them to the military.

There are also political reasons. Anne C. Loveland, a retired professor of American history at Louisiana State University and the author of "American Evangelicals and the U.S. Military, 1942-1993," said the foundation for the change in the chaplaincy was laid during the Vietnam War.

"Evangelical denominations were very supportive of the war, and mainline liberal denominations were very much against it," Ms. Loveland said. "That cemented this growing relationship between the military and the evangelicals."

Chaplain Edward T. Brogan, director of the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel, who recruits and recommends chaplain candidates for several Presbyterian churches, calls the change "a supply and demand issue."

"I regularly am contacted by military recruiters who would like to have more Presbyterians because they need baby baptizers," he said. Many evangelical ministers, according to their tradition, only baptize older children or adults.

The Presbyterian Church USA, a more liberal denomination, has had a 10-year drop in its Air Force chaplains from 30 in 1994 to 16 in 2005. For the same period, the Presbyterian Church in America, which is more conservative, has increased the numbers of its Air Force chaplains to 15 from 4.

The Air Force had a total of 611 chaplains at the start of 2005.

Though Chaplain Brogan has had problems finding chaplains to meet demands of the military, the Rev. Maurice J. Hart, the endorsing agent for the Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministers International, an evangelical church based in Irving, Tex., has not.

"It's been easy," Mr. Hart said. "They realize the men are really stressed out and in danger and harm's way, and they just feel like, 'that's my calling - I'd like to go and be a blessing.' "

In 1994, the Full Gospel Fellowship had no Air Force chaplains, but by 2005 it had 10 (and that with only 58 members on the Air Force rolls at that time). The number is impressive because many of the 100 denominations supply only a handful of chaplains each.

The evangelical chaplains are changing the concept of ministry in the military, said Kristen J. Leslie, an assistant professor of pastoral care and counseling at Yale Divinity School, who has observed chaplains at the Air Force Academy.

Evangelicals administer "Bible-centered care" in which "the notion is that the religious message is core, and you bring everybody to it and that's how you create healing," Ms. Leslie said. If someone is struggling with a supervisor, a spouse or depression, an evangelical chaplain urges them to turn their life over to Christ and look for answers in the Scriptures, she said.

That is fine for a church setting, Ms. Leslie said, but what is required in a diverse religious environment like the military is the "pastoral care" approach: "You walk with the person in the midst of their brokenness, using the resources of their faith to help heal them."


A Push for Inclusiveness


Still, many evangelical chaplains say they understand the distinct nature of their work for the military, recounting in interviews that they have helped arrange Seders, the ritual Passover supper, for Jewish sailors or solstice celebrations for Wiccan marines.

General Richardson, the deputy chief of chaplains, said that although his faith required him to evangelize, he would help accommodate the faiths of others. "I am an Assemblies of God, pound-the-pulpit preacher, but I'll go to the ropes for the Wiccan," he said, if that group wanted permission to celebrate a religious ritual.

In the Navy some evangelical chaplains say they are the ones discriminated against. Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, of the Evangelical Episcopal Church, says he was warned by commanders that his approach to the ministry was not inclusive enough. When a Catholic sailor on his ship died, Lieutenant Klingenschmitt said he preached at a memorial service and emphasized that for those who did not accept Jesus, "God's wrath remains upon him."

After that and several other incidents, Lieutenant Klingenschmitt's commanding officer recommended that the Navy not renew his chaplain contract.

The lieutenant is fighting to remain in the military. "The Navy wants to impose its religion on me," he said. "Religious pluralism is a religion. It's a theology all by itself."

Lieut. Cmdr. David S. Wilder, a 20-year Navy chaplain who is a plaintiff in the class action suit against the Navy, said that his troubles began on Okinawa after the more senior Episcopal chaplain stepped in and interrupted his worship service. He says that that chaplain has blocked his promotion.

"There's a pecking order in the Navy chaplain corps," Commander Wilder said, "and at the very top is the Roman Catholics and just below them are the Episcopals and Lutherans. And if you're an evangelical non-liturgical Christian of some type you're down on the bottom."

A Navy spokeswoman said that many of the chaplains in the class action lawsuit were not promoted for reasons other than religious discrimination.

For the Mormon in the Marine Corps, interactions with chaplains made him decide to become one himself. A 29-year-old who left the service in the late 1990's, he is now applying to become a military chaplain with the intent, he said, of providing the troops a more "inclusive" form of pastoring. He insisted on anonymity so as not to undermine his application.

He said that his faith was frequently denigrated by fellow marines, and even by some of his commanders.

"What compounded it was when the chaplains would agree with them," he said. "That's what makes me want to become a military chaplain - not just that my faith and other minority faiths were underrepresented, but to make it a more spiritually accepting environment."
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neologist
 
  1  
Reply Tue 12 Jul, 2005 04:28 pm
You may be interested in a short story I wrote about a chaplain and posted elsewhere on a2k.
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Tue 12 Jul, 2005 06:42 pm
neologist
neologist wrote:
You may be interested in a short story I wrote about a chaplain and posted elsewhere on a2k.


Noun 1. neologist - a lexicographer of new words and expressions
lexicographer, lexicologist - a compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language.

Are you a fan of D'Aklembert, who was a close associate of Diderot's in the Encyclopedia project? A mathematician and philosopher, he wrote a "Preliminary Discourse" for the Encyclopedia in which he analyzes the sources which inspired Enlightenment thinking.

I sent your story to a friend, who is a retired minister. He and his wife and I were in an acting group once. The wife portrade Ann Culter and I played Franklin Roosevelt. The husband played George Carlin with all the naughty words. It was a hoot.

BBB
0 Replies
 
neologist
 
  1  
Reply Tue 12 Jul, 2005 06:59 pm
A lowly servant of same and not qualified to scrub floors in his home.
0 Replies
 
real life
 
  1  
Reply Tue 19 Jul, 2005 09:57 pm
Re: Evangelicals Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corp
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:
July 12, 2005
Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
New York Times

COLORADO SPRINGS - There were personal testimonies about Jesus from the stage, a comedian quoting Scripture and a five-piece band performing contemporary Christian praise songs. Then hundreds of Air Force chaplains stood and sang, many with palms upturned, in a service with a distinctively evangelical tone.

It was the opening ceremony of a four-day Spiritual Fitness Conference at a Hilton hotel here last month organized and paid for by the Air Force for many of its United States-based chaplains and their families, at a cost of $300,000. The chaplains, who pledge when they enter the military to minister to everyone, Methodist, Mormon or Muslim, attended workshops on "The Purpose Driven Life," the best seller by the megachurch pastor Rick Warren, and on how to improve their worship services. In the hotel hallways, vendors from Focus on the Family and other evangelical organizations promoted materials for the chaplains to use in their work.

The event was just one indication of the extent to which evangelical Christians have become a growing force in the Air Force chaplain corps, a trend documented by military records and interviews with more than two dozen chaplains and other military officials.

Figures provided by the Air Force show that from 1994 to 2005 the number of chaplains from many evangelical and Pentecostal churches rose, some doubling. For example, chaplains from the Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministries International increased to 10 from none. The Church of the Nazarene rose to 12 from 6.

At the same time, the number of chaplains from the Roman Catholic Church declined to 94 from 167, and there were declines in more liberal, mainline Protestant churches: the United Church of Christ to 3 from 11, the United Methodist Church to 50 from 64.

Other branches of the military did not make available similar statistics, but officials say they are seeing the same trend.

The change mirrors the Air Force as a whole, where representation is rising from evangelical churches. But there are also increasing numbers of enlistees from minority religions as well as atheists. It has all created a complicated environment and caused tensions over tolerance and the role of the military chaplain.

Some conflicts have already become public. A Pentagon investigation into the religious climate at the Air Force Academy here found no overt discrimination, but it did find that officers and faculty members periodically used their positions to promote their Christian beliefs and failed to accommodate non-Christian cadets, for example refusing them time off for religious holidays.

Other conflicts have remained out of the public eye, like the 50 evangelical chaplains who have filed a class action suit against the Navy charging they were dismissed or denied promotions. One of the chaplains said that once while leading an evangelical style service at a base in Okinawa he was interrupted by an Episcopal chaplain who announced he was stepping in to lead "a proper Christian worship service."

There is also a former Marine who said that about half of the eight chaplains he came into contact with in his military career tried to convince him to abandon his Mormon faith, telling him it was "wicked" or "Satanic."


A Complex Religious Environment


Part of the struggle, chaplains and officials say, is the result of growing diversity. But part is from evangelicals following their church's teachings to make converts while serving in a military job where they are supposed to serve the spiritual needs of soldiers, fliers and sailors of every faith. Evangelical chaplains say they walk a fine line.

Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, the Air Force deputy chief of chaplains, said in an interview, "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched." The distinction, he said, is that proselytizing is trying to convert someone in an aggressive way, while evangelizing is more gently sharing the gospel.

Certainly, the religious environment encountered by the chaplains is complex. Statistics on enlistees provided by the Air Force show there are now about 3,500 who say they are either Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, pagans, druids or shamans. There are 1,600 who say they are atheists and about 50,000 who say they have no religious preference, out of a total of 280,000. Roman Catholics number about 60,000.

There are also growing numbers of enlistees from evangelical churches. In 2005, there were 1,794 members of the Assemblies of God in the Air Force, 597 from the Church of the Nazarene and 108 from the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Because so many churches cannot be comfortably categorized as evangelical or nonevangelical, and because so many enlistees identify themselves simply as "Christian," it is difficult to ascertain cumulative numbers.

Military officials say the government is not promoting the change in the chaplain corps. Instead religious leaders who recruit for the military attribute it to factors including the general shortage of Catholic priests, the liberal denominations' discomfort with military interventions abroad, the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay men and lesbians, and evangelicals' broad support for the military.

The military is trying to grapple with the fallout. Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, sent a personal message to commanders on June 28, warning them against promoting their religious beliefs, saying, "The expression of personal preferences to subordinates, especially in a professional setting or at mandatory events, is inappropriate."

"Our chaplains," General Jumper wrote, "should set the example for mutual respect among different faiths and beliefs."


'We Are Not Generic Chaplains'


Air Force officials contend that the Spiritual Fitness Conference was not evangelical, pointing to the participation of a Catholic band leader and a Mormon expert on families. There was also an interfaith worship service in which all the chaplains planned to recite a Hebrew prayer together. They said that 10 Jewish chaplains stayed in the same hotel and were bused to the Air Force Academy for a separate program each day.

"We are not generic chaplains," said Col. Bob V. Page, who helped organize the conference. "We say, 'cooperation without compromise.' I cannot compromise my faith."

Chaplains are the often unsung members of the clergy who pray, counsel and go to war alongside American troops. Whatever their church or creed, when they join the military they pledge to serve the spiritual needs of every faith.

The military recruits chaplains through endorsing agents who work for about 100 different churches or religious denominations. The agents select potential candidates and refer them to the military, a system created to avoid the constitutional problem of government endorsement of religion.

In the Air Force, chaplain candidates must be under 40 and have a college degree. They must also have several years of ministry experience and be able to pass a physical fitness test. They also must attend an Air Force training program for chaplains.

The churches that once supplied most of the chaplains say they are now having trouble recruiting for a variety of reasons. Many members of their clergy are now women, who are less likely to seek positions as military chaplains or who entered the ministry as a second career and are too old to qualify. The Catholic Church often does not have enough priests to serve its parishes, let alone send them to the military.

There are also political reasons. Anne C. Loveland, a retired professor of American history at Louisiana State University and the author of "American Evangelicals and the U.S. Military, 1942-1993," said the foundation for the change in the chaplaincy was laid during the Vietnam War.

"Evangelical denominations were very supportive of the war, and mainline liberal denominations were very much against it," Ms. Loveland said. "That cemented this growing relationship between the military and the evangelicals."

Chaplain Edward T. Brogan, director of the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel, who recruits and recommends chaplain candidates for several Presbyterian churches, calls the change "a supply and demand issue."

"I regularly am contacted by military recruiters who would like to have more Presbyterians because they need baby baptizers," he said. Many evangelical ministers, according to their tradition, only baptize older children or adults.

The Presbyterian Church USA, a more liberal denomination, has had a 10-year drop in its Air Force chaplains from 30 in 1994 to 16 in 2005. For the same period, the Presbyterian Church in America, which is more conservative, has increased the numbers of its Air Force chaplains to 15 from 4.

The Air Force had a total of 611 chaplains at the start of 2005.

Though Chaplain Brogan has had problems finding chaplains to meet demands of the military, the Rev. Maurice J. Hart, the endorsing agent for the Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministers International, an evangelical church based in Irving, Tex., has not.

"It's been easy," Mr. Hart said. "They realize the men are really stressed out and in danger and harm's way, and they just feel like, 'that's my calling - I'd like to go and be a blessing.' "

In 1994, the Full Gospel Fellowship had no Air Force chaplains, but by 2005 it had 10 (and that with only 58 members on the Air Force rolls at that time). The number is impressive because many of the 100 denominations supply only a handful of chaplains each.

The evangelical chaplains are changing the concept of ministry in the military, said Kristen J. Leslie, an assistant professor of pastoral care and counseling at Yale Divinity School, who has observed chaplains at the Air Force Academy.

Evangelicals administer "Bible-centered care" in which "the notion is that the religious message is core, and you bring everybody to it and that's how you create healing," Ms. Leslie said. If someone is struggling with a supervisor, a spouse or depression, an evangelical chaplain urges them to turn their life over to Christ and look for answers in the Scriptures, she said.

That is fine for a church setting, Ms. Leslie said, but what is required in a diverse religious environment like the military is the "pastoral care" approach: "You walk with the person in the midst of their brokenness, using the resources of their faith to help heal them."


A Push for Inclusiveness


Still, many evangelical chaplains say they understand the distinct nature of their work for the military, recounting in interviews that they have helped arrange Seders, the ritual Passover supper, for Jewish sailors or solstice celebrations for Wiccan marines.

General Richardson, the deputy chief of chaplains, said that although his faith required him to evangelize, he would help accommodate the faiths of others. "I am an Assemblies of God, pound-the-pulpit preacher, but I'll go to the ropes for the Wiccan," he said, if that group wanted permission to celebrate a religious ritual.

In the Navy some evangelical chaplains say they are the ones discriminated against. Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, of the Evangelical Episcopal Church, says he was warned by commanders that his approach to the ministry was not inclusive enough. When a Catholic sailor on his ship died, Lieutenant Klingenschmitt said he preached at a memorial service and emphasized that for those who did not accept Jesus, "God's wrath remains upon him."

After that and several other incidents, Lieutenant Klingenschmitt's commanding officer recommended that the Navy not renew his chaplain contract.

The lieutenant is fighting to remain in the military. "The Navy wants to impose its religion on me," he said. "Religious pluralism is a religion. It's a theology all by itself."

Lieut. Cmdr. David S. Wilder, a 20-year Navy chaplain who is a plaintiff in the class action suit against the Navy, said that his troubles began on Okinawa after the more senior Episcopal chaplain stepped in and interrupted his worship service. He says that that chaplain has blocked his promotion.

"There's a pecking order in the Navy chaplain corps," Commander Wilder said, "and at the very top is the Roman Catholics and just below them are the Episcopals and Lutherans. And if you're an evangelical non-liturgical Christian of some type you're down on the bottom."

A Navy spokeswoman said that many of the chaplains in the class action lawsuit were not promoted for reasons other than religious discrimination.

For the Mormon in the Marine Corps, interactions with chaplains made him decide to become one himself. A 29-year-old who left the service in the late 1990's, he is now applying to become a military chaplain with the intent, he said, of providing the troops a more "inclusive" form of pastoring. He insisted on anonymity so as not to undermine his application.

He said that his faith was frequently denigrated by fellow marines, and even by some of his commanders.

"What compounded it was when the chaplains would agree with them," he said. "That's what makes me want to become a military chaplain - not just that my faith and other minority faiths were underrepresented, but to make it a more spiritually accepting environment."


Unbelievable. The Catholics have 94 chaplains (having had in recent times 167), the Nazarenes have 12. And the NY Times is freaked out over the "influence" the Nazarenes are gaining. EEEK !

Until 1994 by these figures, the Full Gospel AF personnell had NO chaplains at all. I don't think they were frothing about the unfairness of it all back then , were they ?

But the New York Times says it's a crisis. So it must be.
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Wed 12 Oct, 2005 10:58 pm
Cadets' Father Sues Air Force Academy
After years of complaints about the Academy's actions and so-called internal investigations that have not produced change, finally an Albuquerque father has filed a suit against the Air Force Academy. It will be interesting to watch this close up. ---BBB

Friday, October 7, 2005
Cadets' Father Sues Air Force Academy
By Scott Sandlin
Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

Michael "Mikey" Weinstein, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy whose two sons were also cadets, has gone to federal court alleging zealous promotion of evangelical Christianity at the taxpayer-supported institution violates the Constitution.

Weinstein contends that a pattern and practice has developed at the academy over the past decade or more in which senior officers and cadets have attempted to impose evangelical Christianity into secular military venues.

Weinstein on Thursday asked Senior Judge James A. Parker for a permanent injunction barring the Air Force from evangelizing, proselytizing "or in any related way attempt(ing) to involuntarily convert, pressure, exhort or persuade a fellow member of the USAF to accept their own religious beliefs while on duty."

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque by attorney Sam Bregman, claims the Air Force is violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment. That clause says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Air Force Academy spokesman Lt. Col. Laurent Fox said he could not comment specifically on the allegations in the lawsuit.

But he said the academy has taken affirmative steps to address perceptions of a lack of respect for other religions. He said the academy has begun three phases of "religious respect training" for all academy personnel. The training, which started in February, was a 50-minute session conducted by a chaplain, a commander and a lawyer aimed at instilling respect for "the spiritual values of all people," he said.

"We did that for over 9,000 in a small setting of 30 people," he said. "We wanted interaction. We wanted people to raise their hands."

Subsequent trainings are planned to educate personnel on world religions "because some of the problems here were based on ignorance." A third phase will look at policy issues, Fox said.

Weinstein, who has a son currently at the academy, alleges cadets have been encouraged by certain chaplains to "witness" to other cadets to try to convert them to evangelical Christianity and that cadets have also been coerced into non-secular prayers during mandatory or official events.

Upperclassmen have also pressured classmates and underclass cadets to engage in religious practices generally, and especially evangelical Christian practices.

The violations are severe, systemic and pervasive and have resulted in discrimination and harassment toward non-Christian and non-religious cadets and staff, the suit says.

In addition to slurs toward cadets who are Jewish, atheists or from other minority religious groups, the lawsuit claims Christian cadets are favored by their eligibility for "non-chargeable" passes that don't count as leave, while those who observe the Sabbath on other week days have not been able to get those passes.

Despite claims by the Air Force that it has changed its policies, "officials have made it clear that they have no intent to actually remedy the unconstitutional practices of the USAF," the suit says.
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Wed 12 Oct, 2005 11:00 pm
Air Force steps back from 'code of ethics'
Albuquerque father wins partial victory in lawsuit against Air Force Academy.---BBB

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 ยท Last updated 5:32 p.m. PT
Air Force steps back from 'code of ethics'
By ROBERT BURNS
AP MILITARY WRITER

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force has withdrawn from use by its chaplain service a code of ethics that endorsed the practice of evangelizing military service members who are not affiliated with any specific religion.

The move, disclosed by Air Force officials on Tuesday, came in the wake of a lawsuit by a Jewish graduate of the Air Force Academy, Mikey Weinstein, of Albuquerque, N.M., who claims that senior officers and cadets illegally imposed Christianity on others at the school.

The code of ethics - issued by the Ai

r Force Chaplain Service in January 2005 - includes the statement: "I will not actively proselytize from other religious bodies. However, I retain the right to instruct and/or evangelize those who are not affiliated."

Jennifer Stephens, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the code of ethics was withdrawn "for further review" on Aug. 10. She did not say why it was withdrawn, but she stressed that it was separate from a code of ethics written by the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces, a private organization of religious bodies that provides chaplains to all of the military services.

That group's code also says military chaplains reserve the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated with any religious faith, but Stephens said the Air Force "has no authority over the statements of that organization."

Last week, Mary L. Walker, the Air Force's top lawyer, wrote in a letter to an attorney for Weinstein that an Air Force chaplain service document "might have been understood to represent such a policy statement" on evangelizing but that the document was withdrawn from use. Stephens said Walker was referring to the Air Force code of ethics statement.

Weinstein filed his suit last week in federal court in New Mexico. Among the evidence he cited was a July 12 article in The New York Times that quoted the Air Force's deputy chief of chaplains, Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, as saying, "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched."

In her letter, Walker disputed that statement. "There is no existing Air Force policy endorsing 'proselytizing' or 'evangelizing' 'the unchurched,'" she wrote.
---------------------------------------------

On the Net:

National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces at http://www.ncmaf.org/

Air Force at http://www.af.mil
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Wed 19 Oct, 2005 06:15 pm
Duke City Air Force Grad Offers to Settle Suit
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Duke City Air Force Grad Offers to Settle Suit
By Sue Major Holmes
Albuquerque Journal & The Associated Press

A Jewish graduate of the Air Force Academy who contends senior officers and cadets illegally imposed Christianity on others at the school has offered to settle his lawsuit if the Air Force will agree that none of its members will attempt to convert other members.

Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that he wants the Air Force to stop wasting "time, effort, blood, sweat, tears and money" and agree to uphold the Constitution.

Sam Bregman of Albuquerque, Weinstein's attorney, asked the Air Force Tuesday to agree to a stipulated order in federal court that no one in the Air Force, including a chaplain, will "in any way attempt to involuntarily convert, pressure, exert or persuade a fellow member of the USAF to accept their own religious beliefs while on duty."

Bregman also asked that the service not permit or advance one religion over another, or over no religion. He made the offer in a letter faxed to Mary L. Walker, the Air Force's top lawyer in Washington.

"As you can plainly see, we are asking for nothing more than the Constitution already requires of the United States Air Force," Bregman wrote.

Capt. David W. Small, secretary of Air Force public affairs at the Pentagon, said the offer had been referred to the Department of Justice.
"The Air Force and the Department of Justice will respond at an appropriate time and by appropriate means," he said in an e-mail Tuesday to the AP.

Weinstein's lawsuit alleges that during the past decade or more, academy leaders have fostered an environment of religious intolerance at the Colorado school in violation of the First Amendment.

The Air Force has withdrawn a code of ethics issued by the Air Force Chaplain Service in January that endorsed the practice of evangelizing military service members who are not affiliated with any specific religion. The Air Force has said the code of ethics was withdrawn for review on Aug. 10, but it did not disclose that action until earlier this month after Weinstein filed his lawsuit.

The code includes the statement: "I will not actively proselytize from other religious bodies. However, I retain the right to instruct and/or evangelize those who are not affiliated."

Walker, in an earlier letter to Weinstein's attorney, said the document "might have been understood to represent such a policy statement" on evangelizing but that "there is no existing Air Force policy endorsing 'proselytizing' or 'evangelizing' 'the unchurched.' ''

But Bregman wrote Tuesday that based on Walker's letter, "apparently from some as yet undetermined time period until at least August 10, 2005, the Air Force was in fact endorsing the 'evangelizing' of the 'unchurched.' ''
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Tue 25 Oct, 2005 03:54 pm
New Air Force Academy head vows safety
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Academy_Superintendent.html

Monday, October 24, 2005
New Air Force Academy head vows safety
By ROBERT WELLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- A new superintendent took command of the Air Force Academy on Monday, saying his goal is to make the school a safe environment for cadets amid complaints of sexual assault and religious intolerance.

"We have to have a positive learning environment, one that is free from discrimination and assault," Lt. Gen. John Regni said. "Right on the heels of that is safety."

He succeeds Lt. Gen. John Rosa, who was brought in to help the academy recover from a sexual assault scandal. Dozens of female cadets said they were punished or forced out after reporting sexual assault.

Regni said his job would be easier thanks to widespread changes that Rosa oversaw in his 2 1/2 years at the academy.

In recent months, the school has been shaken by allegations that evangelical Christian staffers and cadets at the academy had harassed students of other faiths. In October, an academy graduate filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the school's leaders fostered an environment of intolerance.

The Air Force issued new guidelines on religion in August.

Regni was previously commander of the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Rosa is retiring from the Air Force and will become president of his alma mater, The Citadel, the state military college in South Carolina.
---------------------------------------------

On the Net:
Academy: http://www.usafa.af.mil/
0 Replies
 
 

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