Air Force Academy Blowback
April 10, 2008
by: Kiera McCaffrey
Yesterday, the U.S. Air Force Academy decided to cancel the scheduled showing of movie clips from “Constantine’s Sword” to an audience of faculty and cadets.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:
“I am delighted that the Air Force Academy made the right decision not to show footage of this movie; the film is based on an anti-Catholic book written by an angry ex-priest who has no credentials in the subject area.
“Lt. Gen. John F. Regni, the Superintendent of the Air Force Academy, called me this morning and we had an honest and fruitful exchange. I commended him for his intervention in this matter—it proved to be decisive. He was emphatic in his position that the event was not about religious intolerance, rather it was about the war on terror. A panel discussion titled, ‘USA’s War on Terror: Not a Battle Between Christianity and Islam,’ was held and by all accounts it was a productive exercise.
“We know there have been accusations of religious bias on the campus, and if that is true, it needs to be rooted out. What can never be tolerated is to slam one religion while purportedly addressing religious intolerance expressed toward another religion.
“Because clips of the offensive film were cancelled, I consider this matter closed. And in fairness, I will write to all those public officials I wrote to yesterday asking them to ignore my request for an investigation of this matter. It is no longer necessary.”
Kiera McCaffrey is the director of communications for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Catholics Need Not Enlist
April 09, 2008
by: Kiera McCaffrey
The U.S. Air Force Academy is mandating that hundreds of students and faculty members attend a closed-door lecture on religious intolerance. It will also show clips from “Constantine’s Sword,” an upcoming movie. Catholic League president Bill Donohue registered his objections to this event today:
“The person pushing this agenda is Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation; he also appears in the film. In the mission statement of his organization, he stakes out a position against any member of the armed forces being ‘compelled to conform to a particular religion or religious philosophy.’ But evidently Weinstein has no problem orchestrating a propaganda film that trashes Catholicism—in the name of fighting religious intolerance—all the while insisting that the cadets and faculty be ‘compelled’ to attend.
“The movie is based on the widely discredited book by James Carroll, an embittered ex-priest. The book says the Gospels are inherently anti-Semitic and that unless the New Testament is gutted to the point where the messiahship of Jesus is rejected, Christian anti-Semitism will not end.
“The New York Review of Books said of Carroll that ‘He is not a historian; everything he has to say on the subject of anti-Semitism is borrowed from other writers, and much of what he offers as fact is in reality highly contentious.’ The authoritative interreligious journal, First Things, said, ‘He has no degrees in the subject and, to judge from this book, no expertise in either Jewish history or church history.’ Penn State professor Philip Jenkins went further saying, ‘He is overrepresenting his case in order to justify a ‘reform agenda’ that amounts to a blueprint for the annihilation of the Catholic Church.’
“We are sending copies of books by noted authors on this subject to the Academy’s library, and we will also contact Superintendent Regni to see if he wants more. Moreover, we are contacting Colorado public officials, as well as D.C. officials who oversee the military academies, about this outrageous assault on Catholicism.” Contact [email protected]
Kiera McCaffrey is the director of Communications for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
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