RE: Colo. Spgs. Independent Story Just Out

Published On: August 18, 2011|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|0 Comments|

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Dear Military Religious Freedom Foundation,

Having read today’s article in the “Colorado Springs Independent”, I am convinced more than ever the leadership at my beloved USAFA is only dedicated to fluffy, empty statements when it comes to dealing with the need to tolerate and respect beliefs different than those of the dominionist “Christians” that hijacked our institution over twenty years ago. The consequences have been devastating to the lives of hundreds and hundreds of outstanding cadets, officers, enlisted, and civilians.

The fact that the USAFA leadership sees anyone, who wants to uphold the establishment and practice clauses of the First Amendment, which is part of the Constitution we swore or affirmed to defend, as trying to undermine the institution’s goals is ludicrous and cowardly.

As a cadet in the early 1990s, I saw blatant evangelization by the officer and cadet minions of the New Life Church and other dominionist organizations. Back then I was too immature too understand the seriousness of the problem, and I just wanted to survive the rigors of USAFA. On active duty I have run into dominionists in every assignment, and I finally woke up when I read what the Weinstein family and other fine individuals had to put up with.

I made it a personal goal to teach at USAFA because of my love for the institution and the inspiration a handful of great instructors gave me. I came in knowing there were still serious problems thanks to the valiant efforts of Mikey Weinstein and MRFF. In my first month alone, I noticed during the New Instructor Orientation that they breezed through a couple of PowerPoint slides taking about religious tolerance, notice I didn’t mention respect. The briefer was just an action officer, instead of one of the three generals. During that orientation, one of my new colleagues started talking about her religion, and I told her that needed to be kept out of the work environment, and that the cadets have designated times (SPIRE) and places (the chapel) where they can practice and share their faith. She replied that it was her duty to spread the gospel.

My Department Head is a dedicated member of the New Life Church and only pretended to care about improving the religious climate at USAFA. During my first few months at USAFA, his wife asked my wife what she thought about Colorado Springs at USAFA so far. My wife replied that she was happy, but was appalled at how people can’t keep their religion to themselves. Needless to say, things got awkward very quickly, and I’m sure the Colonel’s wife mentioned my wife’s comments to him. The same zealous instructor I dealt with during my first week, invited my wife to a get together at her house, which wound up being a trap to come to Bible Study.

My Department Head’s blatant dishonesty manifested itself earlier this year. He ostensibly was very motivated to get us all to participate in a very important Dean of Faculty climate survey that would give us an opportunity to note the good, the bad, and the ugly about how things were going. He promised to address every single concern at the next department meeting. I took the survey, which had places for open comments. The survey did not do a very good job protecting our identity because you could narrow things down by rank, position, etc. I decided to point out two black and white incidents that could create a perception of favoritism and unprofessional behavior among our young cadets: 1) An instructor from the New Life Church constantly having cadets from that same church in her office to talk about nothing but religion. 2) That same instructor and another instructor from her church bashing our President for his alleged lack of religion. These two incidents occurred in a corridor in my department, where there is a lot of cadet traffic. What did cadets think when they heard this? I would definitely think they would pick up the favoritism aspect.

When the time came for the Colonel to share the result of the survey, he prefaced his comments with, “I have to share something very disturbing.” My initial thought was relief that he was about to share my concerns and those of others. Instead, this spineless senior officer had the temerity to say that religious discrimination was not a problem, but “reverse religious discrimination” was growing. He specified by saying that many evangelicals in the Faculty felt they were being attacked and ridiculed constantly. Really, Colonel? This was one of the most pathetic acts of desperation I have seen from the very people that started the very problem we are trying to fix. I never heard anyone attack the dominionists. They have a right to believe and practice their faith with the simple condition that they do not do it in an unsolicited manner or use their rank and power to impose it in the work environment. I will also add that in the hallways of my department I heard a tenured member say “Fucking Mikey Weinstein is at it again” when MRFF complained about that poor excuse for an investigation also known as “The Gamble Report. Again, this was not only unprofessional; it could also have been overheard by cadets who look to us to be the example.

My last few months at USAFA also witnessed the farcical National Character and Leadership Symposium”, where General Gould’s wife, a retired Colonel, and a graduate known [well] for his football skills shoved their religion down the throats of the attendees. Again, most of us are mature enough to call that out, but cadets are generally idealistic, impressionable and not mature enough to understand. On my last week of official activities at USAFA, I had the honor of attending the commissioning ceremony of one of my outstanding cadets, only to be outraged by the way in which the program for the ceremony was written. The entire oath was written in the program with no option to “affirm” and the words “SO HELP ME GOD” being the only ones in all capital letters. The ceremony was held at the home and in the presence of Brigadier General Clark, the same General who sent an email essentially telling cadets to disregard a September 2010 comment at USAFA from our Chief of Staff, General Schwartz, where he aptly had stated “Service is our faith”, as he was trying to enforce the need to fix the persistent religious problems at USAFA. How do you think the cadets who do not believe in God or would prefer not to “swear” felt during what is supposed to be a very special moment for them?

My four years at the USFA faculty where thoroughly enjoyable given the fact that I worked with outstanding colleagues and cadets, notice I did not say leaders. Two of our three generals are more committed to their religion than they are to their duty. The third, Brigadier General Born, is simply a limp leader, who only tells her people what they want to hear. She lacks to moral courage to speak up. As for Chaplain Bruno, a Catholic priest, I should have sat down with him to tell him how my AOC and his cronies told me I could not be saved for belonging to a cult like the Catholic Church, and how many of the dominionists at USFA have used the word “Great Whore” to describe a church that is part of my culture. With VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS, my impression of Department Heads and the three generals at USAFA is that they are comfortable in their positions and prefer not to make any noise, even if it’s the right thing to do.

General Schwartz: Sir, if you decide to replace these three individuals, it would only be part of the solution. The full solution is to replace them with people dedicated to upholding our Core Values, which includes having the guts to protect and respect the rights of our members to practice or not practice any faith, and most importantly not declaring an official religion at USAFA.

The current leadership at USAFA practices a gross combination of passive defiance and foot-dragging when it comes to enforcing religious tolerance and respect. Talking to cadets in evangelical code or using the “reverse religious discrimination” card are simply delaying tactics.

Most cadets are just like me 20 years ago: they want to survive a very arduous four-year journey and have little time, and too much fear of retribution, to report problems. I applaud those cadets and permanent party members who have stood up. Above all, I continuously hail Mikey and the MRFF for putting their credibility and personal safety on the line to make sure we are heard!

(Recent Former USAF Academy Professor and Graduate’s name, rank, AFSC and military installation all withheld)

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