MRFF Objects to “Ask an Atheist Day” at USAFA

Dear Mikey,

Replying to the Latest:

A few thoughts related to the discussion(s) attached, not tirelessly edited, from someone already tired. But see if these remarks don’t sound reasonable.
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Mikey’s detractors are right on one point– the vitriol related to expressions of belief or faith, with competing claims of persecution by cadets and faculty, have surely gone too far at USAFA. But the ire directed at Mikey W is misplaced. Constitutional issues aside, no endorsed position from any person in the chain of command regarding preferences related to faith or politics is conducive to good order and discipline in a military environ. That’s why we have regs intended to forbid public religious and political expression of any sort from any military member in any chain of command.

The phrase to be emphasized is– “public expression”. The USAF Academy is not a town square; it is a garrison. In this environment, there is no perfect balance between free expression for individuals and the necessity to maintain a unit’s order and discipline. I am assuming, of course, that all parties agree that the US military has no right to endorse any given religion or philosophy. If you really believe the AF is the sword of Jesus, there is no common ground from which to reason. Other folks, I hope, realize that in any military environ some balance between individual freedom and corporate discipline must be struck.

It is either silly or dishonest to insist that Christian cadets who are denied limitless expression of their beliefs are persecuted at USAFA. The Academy can recognize the right of free speech and expression at the individual level, and in academic discourse within a classroom, while also insisting that not all physical space in a military environ is a free-speech zone. Specifically, the cadet area is not a free-speech zone. A fourth classman should not post outside her door and see New Testament proclamations of Jesus’ authority on the door of a third classman, or second classman, or firstie down the hall. The AF Academy is not Berkeley or Florida State. Those civvy freshman may experience peer pressure– cadets feeling pressure coming from the chain of command endure a wholly different and more serious animal that can tear apart the unit’s cohesion. We don’t have to look that far back in history to see a time when Catholic and Protestant soldiers could not imagine fighting a common enemy side by side. Not even for their own survival. Is that the model we want future cadets to embrace?

This does not mean that there are not areas where cadets can feel free to worship, or meditate. Cadets can pray, or not, in the privacy of his or her room. Cadets can meet in designated areas, off duty (that’s AFTER duty hours) for group meetings, whether for Christian cadets, free thinkers, Muslims, Wicca…whatever. Cadets should realize that these meetings are NOT Academy sponsored in any way. Cadets meeting for religious or political communion should NOT utilize Academy email or any other official conduit for coordination or communication. Cadets have their own email accounts and cell phones. It is no impingement of a cadet’s right to worship to insist that he/she use non-military means to coordinate meetings intended for religious or political communion.

And, no, you can’t come back and post your group’s beliefs on your door.

No cadet, or officer, should be advertising a political party, an ideology, or religious affiliation in any common area– not at the coffee shop, the squadron area, the field house— you get the idea. The areas commonly used by ALL cadets cannot become forums for tribal IDs. USAFA can certainly support cadets’ religious needs and encourage any range of beliefs while instructing young men and women about the difference between a town hall, a church, and a dorm at the Academy.

The single and crucial public space where cadets should be encouraged to air differences related to religion or politics or any other topic is in the damned classroom. The CLASSROOM levels chain of command; THIS the space where a university is supposed to invite vigorous and critical discourse, and is the space, literal and figurative, that all military academies are obliged to provide. Debate in classrooms should be freely engaged, on any subject, with an instructor’s mediation. But no cadet has any business advertizing his faith, or lack, in quarters commonly held by cadets who hold a variety of feelings, beliefs, or philosophies. There is a reason you see rank and name-tags on cadets at USAFA– these are the ONLY signifiers of identity. These are the only IDs that can be allowed if good order and discipline are actually to be maintained at USAFA. The Academy can be tolerant of expression without being slavish to complaints of its limit or regulation.

The Academy has to be careful, in its inimitable fishbowl, NOT to mime the political polarization that many cadets experience before taking the oath to protect and defend our Constitution. The moment that religious, political, or tribal identifiers begin to compete for dominance in the cadet area, there will be a tendency for the majority-held view to violate private expressions of the minority, and to begin to pressure, however subtly, cadets holding minority views to either silence themselves or dissemble to accommodate the dominant view. You get a gang from this dynamic, not an element, a flight, a squadron, or a wing.

The Academy’s leadership, in response to episodic complaints related to these issues, is taking the position of an impotent umpire. The cadets, and their officers, need somebody with stars on her/his shoulders to simply say– “The space on all sides of our terrazzo is NOT a frat house, or a coffee shop, or a town hall. We have no PDA at the Air Force Academy. No public display of affection. No public display of Politics. No public display of Faith. Keep your politics and spiritual beliefs, if any, private during duty hours. The only identifier east of the cadet chapel shall be your name, rank, and serial number. ALL other associations are private and should be privately nourished.”

A word about off-campus influences. There are too many adults, touting the rhetoric of character development, spiritual growth….etc. who do not belong in the cadet area at all. A supe or commandant could, with a word, banish civilians, whether with bibles or korans or garlic wreaths, out of the cadet coffee shop and out of any squadron area. Church affiliation should occur “over the fence”, not inside the fence. A supe or comm. could easily require cadets to meet civilian clerics or mentors within the offices of the Academy’s chapel and, except for urgent circumstances, only during off-duty hours. Duty time and tax-paid space belong to the AF. A cadet’s room is private. The chapel is private. But the terrazzo and cadet areas, the athletic fields and hallways, cannot become dueling grounds for competing expressions of faith or political orientation. Cadets will do what they are told to do. But ambiguous bromides from USAFA’s generals, and competing voices over newspapers and op-eds, will not provide the guidance that good order and discipline require.

It takes real work to strike a balance.

(name withheld)