U.S. Air Force Academy cadets allege Christian conservative religious intimidation: Addendum

Air Force Academy Chapel

A U.S. Air Force Academy cadet has written in an email to Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) , warning that:

Mr. Weinstein, USAFA is literally overrun with Christian conservative fanatics. And the leadership here either knows this or is ridiculously blind to it. If any of us gave even the slightest indication that we weren’t one of their number, our lives would be even more miserable than they already are due to the fact that we are all living lies here. Despite the Cadet Honor Code we all lie about our lives. We have to. We don’t have a choice. Thus we are all “invisible” to our tormentors.

In the email published by Veterans Today, the cadet says he represents a group of about 100, mostly mainstream Protestant cadets who despair of command intervention.

"The MRFF and allies from a myriad of civil rights and interfaith groups sent a letter Tuesday to the Department of Defense (DoD) detailing the cadet's email and other startling complaints," writes Mike Ludwig of truthout, "including testimony from the parents of an academy graduate who believe their daughter was 'methodically brain washed' by a fundamentalist group there, demanding an investigation of the academy and the evangelical academy ministry Cadets For Christ."

The group also seeks official release of the recent USAFA study of the religious climate at the academy. It was leaked to the press. According to those leaked results, "353 cadets (almost 1 out of every 5 survey participants) reported having been subjected to unwanted religious proselytizing, and 23 cadets (13 of them Christians) reported living 'in fear of their physical safety' because of their religious beliefs."

Truthout further reports:

Mikey Weinstein, a USAFA graduate and MRFF founder, told Truthout that USAFA Superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould was dishonest about the results of the Climate Study, and told the public that everything was fine at the academy without releasing the actual results. He said it's time for a legitimate investigation of the "fundamentalist culture" in the academy.

At Veterans Today Darryl Wimberley wrote of the email which precipitated this controversy:

This cadet’s view, from what I saw in a recent year at USAFA, is truthful. Now, I can imagine a grad from, say ’71, reading the letter penned below with incredulity. The letter was sent to Mikey Weinstein’s MRFF organization to dispute USAFA’s public stand that it’s officially religion-neutral. The details will be hard for many/most to believe who haven’t been plugged into Academy life for a while. So for context here is a bottom-line judgment that I reached after a recent year in Fairchild Hall: USAFA has had a problem distinguishing religious freedom from religious harassment ever since the Frank Dobson center got established at the South Gate. The profile of young folks coming to USAFA has become more narrow with the end of Selective Service; the body is less diverse than during the years where a young man had to worry about the draft.

Addendum

The Air Force Academy decision to keep the climate study secret was protested in August by 50 AFA backers.

A portion of the study obtained by the Colorado Springs Independent's Pam Zubeck revealed problems. Zubeck wrote:

— 141 cadets said they have been subjected to unwanted religious proselytizing sometimes, often or very often. Another 212 said they had been once or twice. Staff numbers were lower.

— 263 cadets said they were less accepting of bisexual men or women, 330 were less accepting of gay men and 268 were less accepting of lesbians since coming to the academy. The numbers were about half for those who had grown more accepting.

— 25 percent of civilian females said women received less favorable treatment in performance evaluations, and 27.5 percent of civilian racial minorities said so. Also, 33.3 percent of racial minorities among the civilian ranks said they received less opportunities for leadership positions; 30 percent of civilian women said this about themselves.

— Although sexual assault numbers were "too small to report," the survey found 43 percent of female active duty personnel at the academy witnessed sexist behaviors and 40 percent of women witnessed crude or offensive behaviors. With men, the ratios were 18 percent and 23 percent.

— 14 male cadets and 47 female cadets reported feeling in fear of their physical safety because of their gender; 23 felt in fear due to religious beliefs (13 of them Christians), and 13 felt in fear due to their race (8 being Caucasian).

— 46 percent of female cadets said they witnessed harassment or discrimination based on gender, and 27 percent of minorities said they had witnessed harassment or discrimination based on race or ethnicity.

— Those who have experienced some for of discrimination or harassment broke down this way: physical assault or injury, 42; terrorized or tormented, 54; threats of violence or stalking, 36; taunted or ridiculed, 235; humiliated, 171; oppressed, 85; persecuted or treated unfairly, 159; insulted or offended, 372; ignored, snubbed or excluded, 281; looked down upon, 304. Permanent staff's reports trended the same by category but at lower numbers/.

Weinstein responded to Zubeck's account, saying, "The data is malodorous. It stinks, and it can't be explained away. It's the tarantula on the wedding cake; it's very hard to tell the bride and groom to just ignore it. And the ramifications are already being seen."