USAFA Non-Commissioned Officer addresses proselytizing double-standards at Academy

I, (rank withheld) am the (position withheld) for the (withheld) course here at USAFA… I’m not a Christian. I used to be a Pagan and for the sake of this post, lets say I still am.

To all those who like to throw around their religious freedom like a sling blade; I say to you:

What if I started or ended my safety briefings with prayer to Pagan gods and/or goddesses? I could be very careful and keep it as “non-denominational” as possible like our chaplains claim to do. I wouldn’t have to use the names of any of the numerous gods or goddesses. I could easily use words such as “Deity” or “God” just like the chaplains do, but believe me, you’d definitely know that it wasn’t a “Christian prayer”. Maybe instead of asking everyone to bow their heads and join me in prayer; instead I’d ask them to remove their shoes, create a sacred circle, and face each direction as we invoke the gods from each of those directions.

Or not even a prayer. What if I just wanted to talk to the freshman cadets about Paganism? It would be a great learning experience for them, let me tell ya. I could tell them all about how people worshiped thousands of years before the God of Abraham was even a thought and how spells are the same as prayers.

Can you honestly sit here and say that you believe it to be ok for me to do something like that?

Oh, but the cadets could just get up and walk away if they didn’t want to hear what I was saying, right? As a freshman cadet, you get up and walk out of a class when a Senior NCO or Officer is speaking to you and see what happens.

P.S. Practice in private all you want, but be careful what you wish for when you want to being religion into work and especially the government.