Support NeoGAF

[videogamer]

Air Force Academy, still recovering from rape and sexual harassment scandals, now is facing charges that some Christian cadets have bullied and berated Jews and students of other religious backgrounds.

Officials at the Colorado Springs school said yesterday that they had received 55 complaints over the past few months and were requiring students - and eventually all employees - to attend courses on religious tolerance.

"Some complaints had to do with people ... saying bad things about persons of other religions or proselytizing in inappropriate places," said academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker. "There have been cases of maliciousness, mean-spiritedness and attacking or baiting someone over religion."

About 90 percent of the 4,300 cadets at the academy identify themselves as Christians.

The school's leader, Commandant Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, describes himself as born again.

Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate and lawyer in Albuquerque, N.M., said his son, Curtis - who is in his second year at the academy - had been called a "filthy Jew."

"When I visited my son, he told me he wanted us to go off base because he had something to tell me," Weinstein said. "He said, 'They are calling me a [expletive] Jew.,and that I am responsible for killing Christ.' My son told me that he was going to hit the next one who called him something."

Weinstein, 50, said he wants Congress to investigate what he says is a pervasive Christian bias built into the academy.

'Systemic problem'

"When I was at the academy, there wasn't this institutional notion that if you didn't accept Christ you would burn eternally in hell," he said. "I want the generals to come out and say, 'Yes, we have a systemic problem, and we are working to fix it.' "

Air Force officials said they first got an inkling of a problem after reading the results of a student survey last May.

Many cadets expressed concern over religious respect and a lack of tolerance.

Then, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's film about the crucifixion, was released.

Hundreds of small movie posters were pinned up in the academy dining hall advertising the movie. Cadets did mass e-mailings urging people to go see it.

School leaders denounced the e-mails saying students shouldn't be using government equipment to promote their religion. Then they began looking into the situation.

"We started getting people coming forward," Whitaker said. "Folks sent e-mails to the chaplain describing events - none of which were reported when they happened. Many of the complaints have been addressed."

Yesterday, Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy at Focus on the Family, denounced any acts of bigotry, but said it is Christians who are facing discrimination.

"If 90 percent of cadets identify themselves as Christian, it is common sense that Christianity will be on evidence on the campus," he said. "Christianity is deeply felt and very important to people ... and to suggest that it should be bottled up is nonsense. I think a witch hunt is under way to root out Christian beliefs. To root out what is pervasive in 90 percent of the group is ridiculous."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/na...=bal-nationworld-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

 

[Iceman]

effing christians.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

I blame South Park for the phrase 'filthy jew'.

 

[Fusebox]

I want someone there to wake up and go ... "HOLY SHIT GUYS! We're learning to be fighter pilots ffs. Did anyone here ever think that maybe NONE of our Gods would want us to do this shit? Instead, lets go paint poor peoples fences and make homeless people some food - thats some religious charitable shit right there y'all."

 

[Deleted member 1235]

God, Christians can be so gay.

:lol at the Christians telling that one kid that he was the one responsible for killing christ.

 

[sc0la]

everytime a christian "blames" some one for "killing christ" I want to punch their fucking face.

jesus thinks you are a hypocrite

 

[Rorschach]

Then, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's film about the crucifixion, was released.

Hundreds of small movie posters were pinned up in the academy dining hall advertising the movie. Cadets did mass e-mailings urging people to go see it.

...sounds like an episode of South Park...

Was this the leader of the group?

 

[Xenon]

They should make them all watch this.

 

[impirius]

God, Christians can be so gay.

:lol at the Christians telling that one kid that he was the one responsible for killing christ.

everytime a christian "blames" some one for "killing christ" I want to punch their fucking face.

You two are gonna feel pretty silly when it turns out he really did it

 

[Dice]

I'm all for treating people right, and if people are name-calling and mistreating others it should be handled, but I'm also a fan of freedom of belief so I have issues with comments like this:

"When I was at the academy, there wasn't this institutional notion that if you didn't accept Christ you would burn eternally in hell,"

Ummm... that "institutional notion" is a rather vague term to hide behind. If 90% of the academy has different personal views about God, heaven, hell and how you end up in either place, then it should be expected that you'll hear those views and you need to learn to tolerate it. You shouldn't act like it's a problem with the institution when it's just a fact of the majority around you.

Of course I don't think you should walk around throwing your belief of peoples condemnation in their face like a jerk or anything, but if you believe Jesus is the only way to heaven then you should be allowed to believe and express that insofar as there are times when it's appropriate for people to practice their free speech. If I go to a place where the majority of people are athiests you won't hear me complaining about some common notion that I won't have an afterlife.

 

[sc0la]

You two are gonna feel pretty silly when it turns out he really did it

:lol

I can't wait to see that episode of CSI:Jerusalem! It will have this great zoom in CGI effect so your POV gets to pierce christ's wrists with the nail when the filthy jew does him in.

 

[videogamer]

I'm all for treating people right, and if people are name-calling and mistreating others it should be handled, but I'm also a fan of freedom of belief so I have issues with comments like this:

Ummm... that "institutional notion" is a rather vague term to hide behind. If 90% of the academy has different personal views about God, heaven, hell and how you end up in either place, then it should be expected that you'll hear those views and you need to learn to tolerate it. You shouldn't act like it's a problem with the institution when it's just a fact of the majority around you.

Of course I don't think you should walk around throwing your belief of peoples condemnation in their face like a jerk or anything, but if you believe Jesus is the only way to heaven then you should be allowed to believe and express that insofar as there are times when it's appropriate for people to practice their free speech. If I go to a place where the majority of people are athiests you won't hear me complaining about some common notion that I won't have an afterlife.

Did you try reading this:

"This is not a Jew-Christian thing, it's an evangelical versus everyone else thing," he said.

Members of the Yale Divinity School, who visited the academy last year to observe pastoral care on campus, were surprised by the overtly evangelical tone they found. They sent a memo to school leaders.

During Protestant worship services, the report said, cadets were encouraged to proselytize to others and "remind them of the consequences of apostasy."

"Protestant cadets were reminded that those not 'born again will burn in the fires of hell,' " the report said. "Protestant cadets were regularly encouraged to 'witness' to fellow Basic Cadets."

Kristen Leslie, an assistant professor in pastoral care at Yale, led the team.

"There was a religious arrogance," Leslie said. "It suggested that you would have to learn a whole different way of being to survive in that environment if it wasn't your faith tradition."

The word institutional seems appropriate.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002252215_academy25.html

 

[Escape Goat]

This news shocks and surprises me.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

55 complaints received about Christian cadets bullying other faiths at academy

Hey I know why don't we ban Christianity, then everything would be better. Obviously humans didn't have these problems when the Roman Gods ran the show.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

"Some complaints had to do with people ... saying bad things about persons of other religions or proselytizing in inappropriate places," said academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker. "There have been cases of maliciousness, mean-spiritedness and attacking or baiting someone over religion."

Sounds like GAF.