The Air Force Academy has become a Theocratic institution, it seems.

Read the Seattle Times report below for some outrageous examples of the coercive intolerant religious atmosphere permeating the Air Force Academy.

Those students who refuse religious instruction after dinner are marched away in a procession called “Heathen Flight”. That’s just one example.

I wrote a bit sometime back about how, when I was in the Navy there was constant pressure to join the evangelical movement. The pressure came from fellow sailors, though, one on one, and was never exerted from superiors.

But according to the Seattle Times, the pressure at the Air Force Academy is ALSO being exerted directly by the topmost people at the institution.

I suppose that the evangelical community would like to see the entire Government exert direct coercive power to get people to join the evangelical movement.

According to the Seattle Times report, cadets feel pressured to at least pretend to become evangelicals, in order to appease the powers that be.

I was reminded of some stories I heard when the Soviet Union still existed, about how you had to “join the party” in order to get a good job. You might not have to become a passionate Communist, but you had to join.

I guess that’s kinda like what the Air Force Academy (and probably a whole lot of the US Military) is becoming. You join the evangelicals, or appear to join them, or else you might not get a good performance review or promotion, etc…..

The Seattle Times: Evangelical Christians dominate Air Force Academy, report says
DENVER %u2014 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.

[snip]

The report’s authors were told that cadets who refused to attend chapel after dinner were marched by upperclassmen back to their dorms in a ritual called “heathen flight.” They found that teachers introduced themselves as “born again” Christians and invited students to be saved as well. A history instructor ordered students to pray before a final exam, the report said. And a Christmas greeting in the base newspaper said Jesus was the only hope for the world; it was signed by 300 people, including 16 heads or deputy heads of academic departments, nine professors, the dean of faculty and the football coach.

The report said Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, commandant of cadets and self-professed born-again Christian, had developed a system of code words shared with evangelicals.

“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.”