Air Force Academy Fails Religion Test In Wake Of Tree Of Life Massacre

[turbinetree]

11/09/18 5:00am

Two days after the Tree of Life massacre, a freshman Jewish Air Force Cadet was forced to listen as upperclassmen vilified his faith: "The 11 Jews murdered would now be burning in hell forever.”
By Paul Rosenberg


Two days the massacre at the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue, a Jewish cadet at the Air Force Academy had to listen to upperclass cadets—who outranked him—disparage the victims for their faith, saying, "The 11 Jews murdered would now be burning in hell forever because none of them had accepted Jesus as their savior prior to being shot and killed." This according to his parents, who are considering withdrawing him from the Academy.

“These upperclass cadets were ‘loud and proud about saying it’ as our son told us. We are all in tears here,” they said in a letter to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. “We had heard about the Air Force Academy’s long history of religious intolerance before our son applied and accepted his appointment. We had been assured that those days were over. As a result of what has just happened to our son we were obviously wrong.”

“The Air Force Academy is not a problem, issue or challenge, it's a constitutional—or unconstitutional—train wreck, and it's been this way, basically since February 2004, which is when we started this fight,” MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein told Crooks and Liars. In fact, Weinstein had a similar experience of open anti-Semitic prejudice as a freshman cadet in 1973.

“Please let people know about this so that other families do not have to go through what we are now going through,” the parents said in their letter. “We have Holocaust survivors in our family and if they knew of what our son had to hear from his upperclass cadets about the Pittsburgh massacre it would be a tragedy,” they said. “But not the worst tragedy. The worst would be the Air Force Academy doing nothing about the hateful atmosphere that exists there. Our son and our family do not deserve this. Nobody does.”

https://crooksandliars.com/2018/11/air-force-academy-fails-religion-test-wake

[LAS14]

1. It's hard to believe how more and more and more awful things surface. nt

[ck4829]

2. I don't think a place filled with those cadets like that would ever be Heaven

I'm a spiritual person, if I died and woke up in a place and it was filled with those cadets, then I would be sure it's not Heaven.

[ChicagoRonin]

3. I am sadly not surprised

[link:https://www.newsweek.com/trump-evangelicals-god-prayer-air-force-secret-christian-online-ministry-1070772|

[turbinetree]

5. So maybe the administrator at the Academy should be brought in and asked some pointed questions

about how our my tax dollars should not be spent to create a theocracy and to bring in this Mathis character................

[leftynyc]

4. Assholes

If that's what's making up our Air Force, we're in serious trouble. They're filth.

[malaise]

6. First they came for...

Disgusting

[dembotoz]

7. My kid wanted to serve..I suggested air Force

Brother in law went that route and liked it better than the army... long story....
Now IAM not so sure if the officer Corp iswing nut central

[octoberlib]

8. I've read about evangelicalism infesting the Air Force.

This is a long standing problem.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-evangelicals-god-prayer-air-force-secret-christian-online-ministry-1070772



https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-air-force-swear-to-godor-get-out


https://www.alternet.org/story/67385/the_evangelical_christian_takeover_of_the_military


and from 2005 Seattle times https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/evangelical-christians-dominate-air-force-academy-report-says/

Evangelical Christians dominate Air Force Academy, report says
Originally published April 30, 2005 at 12:00 am

Religious intolerance is systemic and pervasive at the Air Force Academy and, if nothing changes, it could result in "prolonged and costly"...


DENVER — Religious intolerance is systemic and pervasive at the Air Force Academy and, if nothing changes, it could result in “prolonged and costly” litigation, according to a report issued by a group advocating strict separation of church and state.

The 14-page report, released Thursday, listed incidents of mandatory prayers, proselytizing by teachers, insensitivity to religious minorities and allegations that evangelical Christianity is the preferred faith at the institution.


“I think this is the most serious, military-related systemic problem I have ever seen in the decades I’ve been doing this work,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “There is a clear preference for Christianity at the academy, so that everyone else feels like a second-class citizen.”

But the academy — which is recovering from rape and sexual-assault scandals that broke out there two years ago — has acknowledged that some individuals have gone too far in pushing their faith. There have been 55 complaints of religious insensitivity over the past four years, often made by cadets who feel evangelical Christians dominate the institution.

[smirkymonkey]

11. My brother went there and we thought he was going to turn into a Christian fundie. He was influenced

a lot by the girl he was dating who was also a student at the Academy. Fortunately, after being away from there for a few years and after finding a new girlfriend (now wife) he managed to get over it pretty much completely. But it's true. The atmosphere there is almost cultish.

[Solly Mack]

9. K&R

[Initech]

10. There's a lot of fundie bigotry at the USAF.

But I really hope these assholes get the book thrown at them. This kind of hate should not be tolerated.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

12. As a Navy veteran, I am pretty sure the mouthy, antisemitic cadets ruined their military careers