So, what do you think happens when the Chief of Staff of the Air Force issues an important memorandum to the whole Air Force? If you guessed that it gets distributed to the whole Air Force, you would, of course, be correct. And that’s exactly what happened earlier this month when General Norton Schwartz, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, issued his watershed edict on “Maintaining Government Neutrality Regarding Religion.” This memorandum properly made its way down the chains of command at Air Force Bases everywhere, with one notable exception — the Air Force Academy, where the top leadership have apparently decided to keep it to themselves.
General Schwartz’s memorandum came on the heels of the recent revelation by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) that a mandatory part of the Air Force’s nuclear missile launch officer “ethics” training was a Christian theological presentation, nicknamed the “Jesus Loves Nukes speech” by some nuclear missile officers. Things moved fast once the content of this training was exposed by Truthout at the end of July. Not only did the Air Force immediately suspend the “Jesus Loves Nukes” training, but a review of all of the Air Force’s so-called “ethics” training, much of which is chock full of inappropriate and unconstitutional religious content, was initiated.
This memorandum, the clearest blanket statement of Air Force policy on religious activity ever issued, from the boss of every member of the Air Force, from cadets to generals, stated in no uncertain terms that no commander or supervisor can promote, or even give the appearance of promoting, their personal religious beliefs to any subordinate personnel.--snip--
Well, it seems that the leadership at the Academy, namely the Academy’s Superintendent, Lieutenant General Mike Gould, and the Dean of Faculty, Brigadier General Dana Born, decided to keep General Schwartz’s pronouncement to themselves and a small group of senior officers, and not let it go beyond their weekly staff meeting. Wouldn’t want all those pesky underlings to know that their Chief of Staff had just put into writing a definitive policy that would stop so many of the religion problems plaguing the Academy, now would we, Generals Gould and Born?
--snip--
What struck others was the sheer irony that General Schwartz’s memorandum wasn’t sent out to the entire Academy via its “Dist P” mailing list, the same base wide email distribution list that has been used to distribute exactly the kind of religious announcements from commanders that the memorandum specifically says commanders can’t send out.
As one Academy official put it:
“So far the Academy leadership has not sent an electronic copy of the letter in the type of blanket, base-wide e-mail (called ‘Dist P’) that is used to announce prayer luncheons and chaplains programs or the need for volunteers at a wild cow-milking competition. Apparently, wild cow-milking is more important than CSAF guidance here.”http://freethoughtblogs.com/rodda/2011/09/24/air-force-academy-apparently-finds-wild-cow-milking-more-important-than-religious-freedom/-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Air Force Academy was hijacked by evangelicals some time ago, and is noted for many problems regarding evangelical christianity brought to staff and cadets. Its going to take a while to root these folks out and make the Academy a tolerant place for everyone.
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