Laser Guided Evangelism
Some forms of religious proselytizing can often be funny - think of the evangelical skater dudes we've mentioned before. However, when it fosters a "discriminatory culture" within an organization wielding multi million dollar weapons, it really should be kept in check.
A chaplain at the Air Force Academy has described a "systemic and pervasive" problem of religious proselytizing at the academy and says a religious tolerance program she helped create to deal with the problem was watered down after it was shown to officers, including the major general who is the Air Force's chief chaplain.Keep in mind it was a Lutheran chaplain who created the tolerance program that was ultimately marginalized. It sure sucks that extremists are screwing it up for the moderates. Seems like they have more in common with Muslims than they'd like to think.
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The academy began developing the tolerance program, called Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People, or R.S.V.P., in response to a survey it took last year. The survey found that more than half of the cadets said they had heard derogatory religious comments or jokes at the academy.
For more than a year, the Air Force has been struggling to respond to accusations from some alumni, staff members and cadets that evangelical Christians in leadership positions at the academy were creating a discriminatory climate.
posted by Fenton Harwick III at 1:29 PM
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1 Comments:
At first glance, the new U.S. Air Force’s policy on religious expression appears reasonable and fair, but when this policy silences the public expression of religious beliefs and proselytizing those beliefs—this policy interferes in the “Free Exercise Of Religion,” and thus violates the First Amendment.
The right to “Preach to the choir” and the right to “Preach to no one except the choir” are two different rights.
Americans enjoy Freedom Of Religion and not The Freedom To The Private Expression Of Religion Only. The revised guidelines state "WE WILL RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF CHAPLAINS TO ADHERE TO THE TENETS OF THEIR RELIGIOUS FAITHS AND THEY WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE IN RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING PUBLIC PRAYER, INCONSISTENT WITH THEIR FAITHS." Does this mean that those Chaplains etc. convicted to pray in the name of Jesus...will be respected by not being allowed to lead public prayers? Make it nonsectarian, or private, or don't participate? Let's hope not! "...Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times..." Perhaps the rules for Baghdad and Bahrain should be a little different from for Boise and Boston, but an Air Force wide ban on religious proselytizing goes too far. Just as there must not be a Carte Blanche right to encourage religious conversion; there must not be a Carte Blanche prohibition against proselytizing Christian or otherwise. The possibility of purging Christian evangelism from every American campus has never been closer. Other nations can claim to have "freedom of religion," and than ban Christian missionaries and proselytizing--the United States Of America, because of the blood spilled, cannot and must not.
In the first century the authorities said, “But to keep this matter from spreading any further among the people, let us warn these men never again to speak to anyone in the name of Jesus.” What are we saying today?
Since even silence is not neutral, the U.S. Air Force is left with the inevitability of a religious bias both in the private -and the public realms The changed guidelines resolve some questions, the right to religious expression, especially to proselytize, needs specific clarification.
Thank You
Terry Hodson
Golden Colorado
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