Linkmeister

Theocracy rising

Defenders of Christianity have defeated several amendments offered by Rep. Steve Israel, D-NY attempting to force the Air Force Academy to submit a plan to ensure religious tolerance at the institution. (userid & password: nickels) This comes after news broke that the Academy was espousing Christianity over other religions.

Several Republican lawmakers are using the controversy as an opportunity to air the view that it is Christians whose constitutional free-speech rights are being suppressed in the military. At a recent Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. John Hostetler, an Indiana Republican, derided the "mythical wall of church-state separation" as he argued that Israel's amendment "would bring the ACLU" and "the very silliness that's been present on... several courts of justice over the last 50 years" into the United States military. Israel's measure, he added, would "quash the religious expression of millions of service personnel."

[snip]

...Republicans remain dead set against any public airing of the Air Force Academy allegations, judging from the May 18 hearing of the Armed Services Committee, at which Israel's measure was killed.

At the hearing, Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, suggested that, contrary to what Israel was reporting about the Air Force Academy, the problem in the military was that some evangelical Christians feel they are "not being promoted" because of their faith, and Christian chaplains say they are not being allowed to conduct prayers referring to Jesus.

[snip]

Israel described the May 18 hearing as "a deeply disturbing event."

"The Republicans [on the Armed Services Committee] just jumped on me," Israel told the Forward. "The people who were coerced were represented as the problem. The people who coerced were represented as the victims."

Rep. Robert Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat on the committee, backed up Israel's account. "It was stunning how this quickly morphed into a discussion of how those of the dominant religion felt they couldn't express their religious views because of political correctness," he said. "It's not a matter of political correctness. It's a matter of constitutional law."

You know, twenty or thirty years ago there was a concern that the Armed Forces might be politicized. It now seems to me that the bigger concern might be that it's evangelized. If I were still a churchgoer, this behavior would cause me to reconsider.

(Hat tip to Skippy.)

Update: Apparently this has spread to Camp Anaconda in Iraq. Here's a letter to Stars and Stripes griping about proselytizing in the freaking mess hall there (scroll to "DFACS not for religion").

Posted by Linkmeister at June 6, 2005 12:01 AM