Chaplain Wants Christ Out of Air Force Academy

By Carl Limbacher
NewsMax
Thursday, May 12, 2005

Here's a story that will throw you for a loop: a
"chaplain" at the U.S. Air Force Academy is complaining
that the school's administration has a "systemic and
pervasive" problem of promoting religious religious
values with a Christian bent.

The chaplain, Capt. Melinda Morton, a "Lutheran minister"
spoke out publicly on Tuesday as an Air Force task force
arrived at the academy to investigate charges that
officers and staff members pushed their religious beliefs
on cadets.

And she claimed that a tolerance program developed at the
academy, called Respecting the Spiritual Values of all
People (R.S.V.P.), was watered down after it was shown to
officers.

Maj. Gen. Charles C. Baldwin, chief of chaplains for the
Air Force, screened the 90-minute R.S.V.P. film in
October, according to Capt. Morton, and asked her: "Why
is it that the Christians never win?" in reaction to some
of the program's depictions of cadet interactions.

"Chaplain" Morton's complaints about too much religion at
the military academy is creating waves, and earned her
hero status in a report in the New York Times Thursday.

Gen. Baldwin acknowledged in an interview that he felt
too many scenes in the film portrayed Christians at fault
for excessive evangelical proselytizing.

He also said he asked that the Air Force cut segments on
non-Christian religions such as Buddhism, Judaism and
Native American spirituality.

The problem in dealing with proselytizing and church-
state issues at the academy, he explained, "always is,
when is a person crossing the line, or when are they
being a positive person of faith, like our president."

Last year, the Colorado Springs academy invited Yale
Divinity School professor Kristen Leslie and six Yale
graduate students to visit the school and observe how the
chaplains minister to the cadets.

A memo from the Yale team cited the "stridently
evangelical themes" at a worship service attended by 600
new cadets.

Leslie said a chaplain urged cadets to pray for those who
didn't attend and "remind them of the consequences ...
those not ‘born again will burn in the fires of hell.'"

But academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker disputed that
account, saying several other chaplains told him that no
one mentioned burning "in the fires of hell."

Morton, a 48-year-old "Lutheran minister," said she was
removed from her post as executive officer to the chief
chaplain, Col. Michael Whittington, last week. She
claimed the dismissal came after he pressured her to deny
details of what happened at the religious service.

But Whitaker said Whittington sent Morton an e-mail on
May 4 saying he was removing her "to ensure a smooth and
complete transition" for new leaders.

Morgan said she had stepped forward because "it's the
Constitution, not just a nice rule we can follow or not
follow. That includes not using your power to advance
your religious agenda."

She acknowledged that after speaking out, "I don't think
I have much future in the Air Force."

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/5/12/150704.shtml

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Posted on 5/12/2005 12:41:33 PM PDT by wagglebee
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End of forwarded message

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The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came
not so send
peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against
her mother in
law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.

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