The Right to Religious Expression at the Air Force Academy

Bertha, Carlos, The Humanist

STORIES ABOUT RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) started hitting the media in November 2004 with the Colorado Springs Gazette taking the lead. The problem of religious favoritism and intolerance was identified shortly after the results of a spring 2004 faculty survey were analyzed.

The Academy had just weathered a brutal sexual assault scandal, so cynical reactions to this new attention abounded. Some complained that the media was blowing things out of proportion again. Others insisted that this issue of religious intolerance was a movement led by bleeding-heart liberals and secularists to trample on Christians' rights to exercise their religion and express their faith.

Speaking as a faculty member at the Academy, though admittedly a biased one, I can say that the media didn't blow anything out of proportion--if anything, they missed out on some of the more objectionable examples of theocratic mischief. But it's the second reaction that most concerns me; clearly, the right to religious expression could use some clarification.

There are two main issues here: the mission of the institution and what sort of institution it is. According to page one of the USAFA Officer Development System Handbook of February 2004, the mission of the …

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Publication information: Article title: The Right to Religious Expression at the Air Force Academy. Contributors: Bertha, Carlos - Author. Magazine title: The Humanist. Volume: 67. Issue: 5 Publication date: September-October 2007. Page number: 8+. © 1999 American Humanist Association. COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group.

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