Evangelical group plans to intervene in Air Force lawsuit

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Evangelical group plans to intervene in Air Force lawsuit

By Tom Roeder, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO), February 7, 2006

A Colorado Springs-based evangelical organization is expected to file court papers Wednesday asking to intervene in a lawsuit that charges the Air Force with religious intolerance.

The Air Force won't comment, but the National Association of Evangelicals says it has talked with government attorneys and is entering the case to defend the rights of evangelical chaplains.

"We have been in collaboration with the Air Force attorneys working on this case," said Kyle Fisk, executive administrator for the evangelical group. "It is the policy of the Air Force to remain neutral when it comes to intervention, but we believe we are doing the Air Force a service."

Ted Haggard, pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, is president of the association. He was out of town and unavailable for comment.

Last fall, New Mexico resident Mikey Weinstein sued the Air Force, claiming non-Christian cadets at the Air Force Academy face discrimination from evangelical Christians. His suit, which was joined by four Air Force officers, asks for an outright ban on uninvited proselytizing and evangelism throughout the service.

On Tuesday, he said the intervention of the evangelical group, the second to ask to join on the Air Force's side, proves his point.

"I am thunder-struck that a branch of government would collaborate with fundamentalist Christians to convert members of the armed forces to evangelical Christianity," said Weinstein.

Fisk said there was nothing inappropriate about his group's routine talks with government attorneys and said the Air Force hasn't endorsed its actions. He said there has been no collaboration between his group and the Air Force to push Christian views.

"We simply are defending all people's faith and their right to free expression with their faith," Fisk said.

Federal District Judge James Parker has yet to rule on a similar request for intervention by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that wants to intervene on behalf of an academy chaplain.

Arguments on Alliance's motion to intervene have not been scheduled.

The Air Force, in court papers, didn't take a position on that intervention, and its Justice Department attorney, Andrew Tannenbaum, declined comment Tuesday on the move by Haggard's group.

Legal experts say the Air Force would probably be better off without Haggard's intervention.

Having evangelicals intervene in the suit could turn it into a broader debate about the public behavior of evangelical Christians, said Alan Wolfe, director of the The Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.

Wolfe said the Air Force would likely prefer for the whole thing to be disposed of quietly.

"I would think that the Air Force would prefer that this would be handled through outside legal channels," he said.

John Witte Jr., director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., said while religious organizations often make their views known in church-state dust-ups through "friend of the court" briefs, it's extremely rare for them to try to jump into the lawsuit itself.

"I would think their intervention would be resisted (by the Air Force)," Witte said.

Court papers show the Air Force is focusing on getting Weinstein's lawsuit dismissed. The service claims that Weinstein can't prove he's been hurt by religious tolerance policies at the school.

Fisk said while his group is also pulling for a dismissal, it wants to be heard if the case ever goes to trial.

"This goes beyond one chaplain and one military service," he said. "What's going on is a systemic attack on religious expression in the United States military."

He said because the National Association of Evangelicals is the sponsoring religion of many military chaplains, it has a right to be heard in the case.

"We believe that chaplains need to be represented," he said.

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