Air Force Academy chief has work ahead tackling "Team Jesus" climate

[intheflow]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_2781370

AFA chief has work ahead tackling "Team Jesus" climate
By Jim Spencer
Denver Post Columnist

(snip)

Air Force Academy superintendent John Rosa is not as sarcastic or insensitive in summing up his school's problem with religious intolerance.

(snip)

Rosa called religious slurs "vicious." He called proselytizing inappropriate. He admitted that too many of his non-Christian cadets, faculty and staff feel the academy doesn't support their religious freedom. He predicted that changing the school's overwhelmingly Christian culture so that people of all faiths feel mutual respect will take "five to six years if everything goes well."

(snip)

No one thinks sexual assault is good, Rosa pointed out. No one thinks alcohol abuse is good.

But surveys show religious intolerance is not a problem for 84 percent of Rosa's Christian cadets and 92 percent of his Christian faculty and staff.

(more)

*Edited for typo.

[DBoon]

1. I find it frightening that our military leaders come out of this

Defend the constitution and the law of the land, or launch a military coup in the name of Jesus?


Giving the license to use deadly force in the hands of folks who have "no problem" with religious intolerance is chilling

[Kolesar]

7. Is it any wonder that our military is a republican culture?

To get into the academy, it means you have to be appointed by a congress member. That means that they are selecting for wealthy, well-connected, establishment cadets.

[saigon68]

17. They are raising future Thugs, War Criminals and Hoodlums

No wonder these crusaders love to kill Islamic children and other brown people.---- "After all they are only Rag-Heads" </sarcasm>

[Kolesar]

18. This war was racist from its conception

Yes, bush* used WMDs as the reason to invade, but the real appeal to Americans was to their worst racist instincts. The media displayed no skepticism to counter bush's misinformation about Moslems and Arabs.

[SteppingRazor]

2. Sad to see the "values" of the surrouding community affecting the AFA

When I lived there, back in the early 1990s, the biggest problems were with binge drinking and whatnot -- the usual problems for any university campus. Sad to see that the so-called values of the surrounding community -- Colorado Springs (fun fact: home to more fundamentalist Christian organizations than any city in the country, including James Dobson's Focus on the Family) -- have poisoned the academy.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. The AF Acadamy is right in James Dobson's back yard

Why does this not surprise me? It strikes me as suspicious that this influence is so prevalent in an Armed Forces acadamy when it is right there in Colorado Springs. Is Annapolis anything like that? West Point? I doubt it.

[atreides1]

4. These cadets and the faculty and staff should all resign.

If religious intolerance is not a problem for 84% of the Christian cadets and 92% of the Christian faculty and staff, then General Rosa should request that these men and women tender their resignations from the United States military immediately.

They all swore to defend the U.S. Constitution, and they all swore their allegiance to that very same document. If for any reason they cannot uphold that oath they should be immediately removed from the service.

They might even be able to be discharged under false enlistment regulations. Any JAG experts out there.

[UCLA Dem]

5. Very disturbing.

[davidinalameda]

6. of course not

because they're the chose ones--if anyone has a problem with it, it's the atheists, heathens, etc

everyone else is going to hell so it's their duty to spread the good word, no matter what

onward Christian soldiers!

[intheflow]

20. You realize the UU irony in your post?

"Onward Christian Soldiers" was written by Julia Ward Howe, a 19th century Unitarian to spur on the Union soldiers during the Civil War. Of course after she saw the devastation of war, she worked the rest of her life promoting peace, including starting Mother's Day (originally called Mother's Peace Day, so that mother's would never again have to lose a child to war).

So here it is, over 125 years, and not only is there still war and still "Christian soldiers," but Mother's Day has become a fluffy Hallmark holiday. :grr:

[gratuitous]

8. Gotta wonder about the Christ of Team Jesus

Would Jesus fly a stealth bomber? Would he drop bombs on people who can't fight back and can't get away, civilians who never posed any threat whatsoever to anyone else? Would Jesus bomb even armed enemies, when he famously declined to summon 12 legions of angels at the time of his arrest?

What sort of person would cloak their militaristic tendencies in religion? Is it to gain greater acceptance of the unacceptable? Is their mission so weak that it needs the bolster or cachet of religion to make it palatable to the public?

[havocmom]

9. Still wondering: Does one still need a Congressional recommendation

along with grades, so on, to get into the Academy? I know that used to be the case, a young person had to have a Congressman recommend them.

Well, folks, look at the US Congress and the crowd they have been pitching too for about 20 years. So, are the majority of young people getting the nod from their Congress Critters of the Ultra RW Faith? One might consider just what that means.

Rummy and the Wolf saw to it there was a big purge of top brass that would hesitate to march in lock step with the neocon junta. Now we see a disturbing trend of ultra RW religious followers wielding a rather heavy hand among the up and coming of the AF officers' corp. Think about that. And understand how important it is to change the composition of the US Congress. And that means: make elections honest and accountable.

We are being taken over by a small but very determined bunch of intolerant religious zealots. They have to be stopped if America is to survive as a democracy.

[benddem]

10. still have to have a recommend n/t

[havocmom]

11. Hmm, as I feared.

People, we are in trouble.

[pfitz59]

13. You got it!

Think of the cadets Brownbeck, Delay, Santorectum etc would nominate. Billy Graham's grandson went to West Point! Military is inhabited by snake-handling, speak-in-toungues homeschoolers!

[Spinzonner]

12. Well, it does make it easier to get them

to bomb the infidels for Jesus

[Joey Liberal]

14. Close the AF Academy

It's become obvious over the past several years that the AF does not have the ability or the desire to properly run the AF Academy. It's become an abuse of taxpayer money. I think AF ROTC is just as good, with a lot less problems. We do not need a taxpayer funded Dr. Dobson University.

[bluedeminredstate]

15. I wonder if Dobson could answer

WWJA - who would Jesus assault? Who would Jesus dominate through religion? This school always seems to have a "problem" that is most un-Christian. I would think the "Christians" would want this behavior stopped, but that's apparently not the case.
You're right. Shut it down or move it and start again. When that many staff and faculty don't see a problem with religious intolerance there is a HUGE problem that won't be fixed with religious tolerance classes. That's like going to driving school - who is really paying atention? If they are intolerant that probably won't change.
The AFA has failed its mission and what's going on there is unConstitutional.
You have the answer - close it down.

[Steely_Dan]

16. Yep...Very Scary

I brought this up a couple of weeks ago. Will the turn to the right never end.

-Paige

[leesa]

19. Hire a team of deprogrammers.

[Az_lefty]

21. This is outrageous!!

what the hell have they been teaching these cadets for the last 4 years?
This type of climate doesn't just happen. Whoever was in charge of this should be reprimanded at the least.

[Rex]

22. Is Team Jesus like the A-Team?

nt

[Chovexani]

23. Like the button says

Who Would Jesus Bomb? :shrug: