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Air Force Academy makeup poses challenges to change

Pam Zubeck, The Gazette, June 26, 2005

As the Air Force Academy puts in place new training and guidelines for religious sensitivity ordered by the service last week, it may encounter unique hurdles.

First, the cadet wing is nearly 60 percent Protestant, a portion far higher than at other service academies - which hover around 35 percent. But it's in sync with the regular Air Force, which also attracts a higher proportion of Protestants than other military branches, which average about 49 percent.

Second, the academy is situated amid a plethora of evangelical groups - some nationally known.

Taken together, those two facts may help explain why an Air Force task force concluded last week that there are perceptions the academy is intolerant of some beliefs and favors evangelical Christianity.

Much has been said of the proximity of evangelical groups and how that affects the academy's religious climate. Even Air Force officials have noted it: "The influence of a predominately evangelical Christian community in Colorado Springs creates additional challenges," the task force concluded without elaborating.

It's hard to identify how or if geography influences theology. Still, the task force quoted an unnamed faculty member who "was immediately struck by how religion permeated this place like nothing I had ever seen before in the Air Force."

At the Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Catholics outnumber Protestants; the ratios are comparable at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.

Since 1999, one West Point cadet has formally complained of religious bias. The Naval Academy has had no formal complaints in five years.

Additionally, West Point's surveys show 2.3 percent of cadets said they experienced religious discrimination in 2004, and 2.5 percent in 2005. One percent in 2004 and 0.7 percent in 2005 said they experienced religious harassment.

The Naval Academy doesn't survey cadets on religious bias, but responses to a question that lumps racial, ethnic and religious discrimination together showed "a strong climate for dignity and respect of others," a spokesman said.

"We don't have any indications that we have a problem," Naval Academy spokesman Cmdr. Rod Gibbons said.

Neither has imposed instruction targeting religious issues; they focus on character development to instill respect for diverse views.

"Differences are OK and are celebrated," said West Point's values education officer Lt. Col. Dave Jones.

The Air Force Academy received 55 complaints of religious bias from 13 people that dated to 2000 and began its Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People training in March.

Nearly two of three Air Force cadets are Protestant, a mirror image of the regular Air Force, where 58 percent are Protestant. That exceeds other branches and the nation, which is about 52 percent Protestant.

Protestants encompass an array of faiths centered on New Testament teachings. Traditional Protestants such as Methodists and Lutherans do not stress evangelism, while other denominations call themselves "born again" in Jesus Christ and make converting others a top priority.

The academies and military don't distinguish born-again Protestants from traditional Protestants.

It's unclear why the Air Force draws more Protestants, but one theory is economics.

Protestants attain higher socioeconomic status than some faiths, which may translate into better educations in preparation for a service branch that needs high-tech expertise for its space and weapons systems, said William Martin, professor emeritus and senior fellow at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

Martin, author of a book on the religious right, suggested an evangelical seeking a military career might pursue an Air Force Academy appointment because it's near evangelical groups.

Exactly what role the local evangelical community plays, though, is hard to define.

Task force leader Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel, at a news briefing Friday said there may be influence from "a large number of Christian groups" that provide religious and social opportunities for cadets.

"That makes the environment outside the gate a little different than at Annapolis and West Point," he said.

One evangelical neighbor is Focus on the Family. The academy's parachute team delivered keys to James Dobson to open his new headquarters years ago, and Falcon football coach Fisher DeBerry has appeared on Dobson's radio program. The ministry, however, provides no formal exchange or outreach programs for the academy, and Focus says it has no impact on the academy.

"We can see them from our property; that's about it," said Christopher Norfleet, a Focus media representative.

Ted Haggard, pastor of New Life Church, the state's largest with 11,000 members, said the proximity of his parish has no bearing.

He has no idea how many academy cadets, officers and staff attend or whether New Life members head academy spiritual groups, although he led one several years ago.

"If they were bleeding the lines on our side, they would be wearing the uniform" in church, he said, "so we would be very aware." But he sees few blue uniforms in the pews.

Haggard thinks the issue of religious bias has been blown out of proportion by a few vocal critics and the media.

"Academy students are some of the most intelligent men and women in our nation," he said. "To think they can't process through religious thought . . . and to think they're not intelligent enough to manage free speech on their own, is absurd."

Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, blames individuals, not a movement.

"It takes one or two people in authority . . . to move it in a certain direction," he said.

Four cadets interviewed by The Gazette - a Lutheran, a born-again Christian, a Catholic and a Mormon - said they haven't seen links between the academy and evangelical community but said cadets are impressionable.

"People are of an age they're searching a lot," said the Christian, Charles Chambers, a junior from Fayetteville, Ga. "This is an age we figure out what we believe. The military experience stretches you, and it makes you figure out what you really believe in."

Jeffrey Aiello, a senior from Brooklyn who is Catholic, seconded that thought, with a touch of levity. "I was a lot more religious during basic training than at any other point in my life," he said.

Although they didn't think the academy suffers from religious intolerance, they said the outcome - religious respect training - is a good thing and should be

supplemented with classes on world religions.

Superintendent Lt. Gen. John Rosa Jr. mentioned outside influence in a June 3 speech, saying 1,500 cadets worship off-campus, as do a majority of staff and faculty. He doesn't know where.

"What's tough for young people is when they experience something in the civilian community, and then when they come back on, into the government community . . . that's when it's tough and that's what they struggle with," he said.

Academy Chaplain Capt. Melinda Morton, a critic of the academy's religious atmosphere who recently submitted her resignation from the Air Force, noted of the academy's 19 cadet spiritual groups, 15 are Protestant. Nearly all of those are evangelical-based.

In addition, Morton said most of the academy's 16 chaplains profess "born-again" beliefs and that the chaplaincy almost always hires evangelicals for Protestant events. For example, they often hire "praise bands," which promote evangelical Christianity through music. "The evangelical community in town has a big profound interest in this," she said in a recent interview.

Although officers shouldn't use their uniform to proselytize, "It goes on all the time and with intention," she said. "This is what the evangelical groups are striving to do here and not at the other academies."

The Rev. Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which threatened to sue the academy over religious issues, said geography matters.

"You leave the academy going to Colorado Springs and you are in the middle of a kind of vortex of Christian evangelism," he said. "The culture of evangelistic Christianity subsumes all others, whether on the radio, in Christian bookstores. It's just a higher concentration than anywhere else in the country.

"I think they get indoctrinated at the academy and reinforced by the community, and that's why we see more of this by far than we do at West Point or Annapolis," he added.

The Naval Academy, Lynn noted, sits in an eclectic city, and the Military Academy on acreage near a small town north of New York City.

Still, while there are hundreds of faith-based charities and churches in El Paso County, a study showed people here are less inclined to go to church than the nation as a whole.

The Air Force and academy will better regulate religious groups that operate on bases to ensure they follow rules on evangelizing.

"Because there are significant opportunities provided by those folks," Brady said, referring to evangelicals, "we have to be sure that we have the right governance through chaplaincy over those groups and that people who provide those opportunities understand what our values are in terms of diversity."

The academy, meantime, wants to ensure religious freedom doesn't get lost in reform.

"We're working hard to preserve your right to believe whatever you want, and that you share those beliefs in the right setting and the right times," said academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker, "and that you have respect for others who don't share those beliefs."

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