Religious Climate Review Team

Mr. Gamble,

Since I was a co-plaintiff in Mullin et al v. Gould last February, numerous cadets, faculty, and former faculty have contacted me with strong evidence that there are systemic violations of their civil rights by those who adhere and practice establishmentarianism. These are individuals in the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) chain of command from the top and downward who violate the No Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In superior roles they abuse military relationships to pressure vulnerable subordinates to adopt their beliefs.

In fact, I share many of the doctrinal Christian beliefs of the establishmentarianists. For my whole adult life I have been an evangelical Christian. I am politically conservative. But promoting one religion – even my religion – over any other through coercion, however subtle, is tyranny. This is the very force that our Founding Fathers opposed.

Personally I am offended that the establishmentarianists invoke the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. With captive audiences of cadets and USAFA workers, the establishmentarianists often substitute slogans in place of serious evangelism and retribution instead of practicing apologetics. They misinterpret superficial agreement by their subordinates as conversion. Instead they breed quiet suffering.

The establishmentarianists are not limited to USAFA, but are commonplace in the U.S. Armed Services. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the foremost organization that protects both military and civilian who work for the National Defense of the United States, has over 22,000 clients overall and over 200 clients at USAFA. MRFF has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for good reasons. I have been made quite well aware that you are not going to have a face-to-face meeting with MRFF representatives and, instead, are demanding that anything from MRFF be restrictively sent and relegated to a USAFA e-mail address.

To my knowledge, none will come forward with their stories of victimization by the establishmentarians. Why? Because of what the Religious Climate Review Team is not. You are a former USAFA Commandant, another member is a former USAFA Dean of Faculty, and another was a Permanent Professor for over 30 years. Therefore, you cannot credibly claim that the team is disinterested. You have no investigative powers, no legal authority, and no legitimate means of confidential communication.

You claim that you can guarantee confidentially. But you cannot. If there is a breach of confidentially you cannot offer any legal recourse to the victims. A demonstration of the lack of your seriousness of confidentially is the use of the USAFA email system to attempt to solicit sensitive, private information. The USAFA email system is maintained by the 10th Communication Squadron which reports to the USAFA chain of command, a clear conflict of interest.

What is the remedy? To do exactly the opposite of what you say the team does not do: (1) conduct a formal and aggressive investigation with sufficient staff support; (2) engage a compliance inspection that is truly external, disinterested, and unbiased; and (3) establish independent methods of communication to ensure confidentiality; (4) write a formal, final,and comprehensive report that is available to the public.

As a consequence I recommend that the Religious Climate Review Team recuse itself and call for appropriate officials commence immediately with these actions as specified in the preceding paragraph.

Sincerely,

R. David Mullin

(Note: Dr. Mullin, an honored MRFF Client, is currently and has been a professor for the last 13 years at the US Air Force Academy.)