| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fredric L. Rice" |
| Date: |
29 May 2005 01:55:02 PM |
| Object: |
Christian Rape Rooms |
From The Associated Press, 5/29/05:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=533&e=6&u=/ap/20050529/ap_on_re_us/academy_rape_allegation
Arrest Warrant Issued for Rape Counselor
By JUDITH KOHLER, Associated Press Writer
DENVER -
An arrest warrant has been issued for a rape counselor who refused to
turn over records of her sessions with a former Air Force Academy
cadet, one of the women whose allegations touched off a scandal that
toppled the academy's top leaders.
Jennifer Bier is fighting a subpoena in the court-martial of airman
Joseph Harding, who is accused of sexually assaulting two women at the
academy in 1999 and 2000.
His attorneys say their client's right to a fair trial overrides the
alleged victim's right to privacy.
Bier said Saturday she was shocked and angry that she was being forced
to chose between betraying her client's trust and being arrested.
"It's my position as a therapist that you can't betray your client,"
she said.
"For me to betray a client renders my whole field null and void and I
refuse to do that."
Bier's attorney, Wendy Murphy, said she planned to seek an emergency
order Tuesday in federal court to prevent Bier's arrest, but she was
not sure if the court would accept the case.
Bier "did the right thing that is ethically and legally demanded of
her," said Murphy, who teaches at the New England School of Law in
Boston.
Officials at Randolph Air Force Base did not return phone calls
seeking comment left by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Bier, who is a civilian, has indicated she is prepared to go to jail
to protect the privacy of a former cadet who said she was raped by a
cadet commander in 2000 and sought counseling.
The woman was among dozens who said they were ignored or punished when
they reported sexual assaults to academy officials.
The scandal that erupted in 2003 prompted several investigations, the
ouster of the school's four top commanders and new policies.
The troubles, however, have not disappeared.
A separate court-martial was under way Saturday at the academy for a
senior cadet accused of raping another cadet after a night of heavy
drinking while on a scuba diving trip to New Mexico.
Witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing in November that senior
cadet Benjamin Kuster said he was drunk and may have mistaken the
woman for his girlfriend.
Kuster, his girlfriend and other cadets were sleeping in the same
motel room.
An Air Force second lieutenant testified Saturday that she slept by
side on the floor with Kuster and Kuster's girlfriend.
The alleged victim said she awoke to find Kuster on top of her.
She was scheduled to continue testimony Monday.
Defense attorney Richard Stevens argued that the woman reported the
rape to avoid punishment for her own misconduct during the trip.
If convicted, Kuster could face up to life in prison and dismissal
from the Air Force.
The woman has graduated and is a commissioned Air Force officer.
.................................................................................................................................................................................
From The St. Petersburg Times, 5/29/05:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/29/Columns/The_Air_Force_Academy.shtml
The Air Force Academy's force-fed evangelism
By ROBYN E. BLUMNER, Times Perspective Columnist
In my book, true heroism is defined by those who talk truth to power
even to their own detriment.
It includes people like Sherron Watkins, the former Enron vice
president who blew the whistle on the financial manipulations that hid
the company's crushing debt.
Watkins has become famous for her rectitude, but rarely do such acts
lead to public accolades.
Bad endings for the truth sayer are far more likely.
Capt. MeLinda Morton is a prime example.
A chaplain at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Morton has
been trying her mightiest to end the force-fed evangelism that is
rampant on campus.
Rather than thanks, her outspoken defense of the Constitution has
gotten her booted from her job and a one-way ticket to exile in Japan
- known as "reassignment" in military speak.
Her fight against proselytizing is taking place in Colorado Springs -
control central for the most radical elements of the Christian Right.
James "tolerance is a homosexual plot" Dobson's Focus on the Family is
based there - a concern so large that there is no need to use a street
address on a letter.
Also nearby is the Officers' Christian Fellowship, an organization
whose express purpose is to create "ambassadors for Christ in
uniform."
Its slogan is: "Christian Officers Exercising Biblical Leadership to
Raise up a Godly Military." (That's funny, the Taliban say something
very similar.)
There is significant cross-pollination between the local evangelical
groups and the Academy, to a point where cadets are reportedly
cajoled, harangued and even bullied into being "saved."
Mikey Weinstein, an attorney in Albuquerque, N.M., has been collecting
complaints of this nature for more than a year and says he has about
150 of them.
Weinstein is a graduate of the Academy, as is his elder son.
But when his youngest son, who is a member of the class of 2007, was
called a "f--- Jew" and taunted as a Christ killer, Weinstein got
involved.
"The Air Force Academy is suffering from a constitutional disease,"
Weinstein said.
"They are trying to tell people whose God is best."
He said his complaints have received little more than lip-service.
"I love and cherish the Academy," he said, "but it's been overtaken by
the evangelical right."
Morton, a 48-year-old Lutheran minister, has seen this up close over
the past 2 1/2 years.
She says the academy is sending cadets the message that adopting
Christian conservative evangelical values is key to their success at
the school.
"There's nothing wrong with people reaching out to cadets," Morton
said.
"But when the purpose is to proselytize and make the military into a
godly force, then that's inappropriate."
Fisher DeBerry, the Academy's head football coach, exemplifies the
explicit sectarianism on campus.
Two weeks after the academy had ostensibly begun religious sensitivity
training, DeBerry posted a banner in the football locker room that
read:
"I am a Christian first and last *** I am a member of Team Jesus
Christ."
Challenging authority is difficult in any institution, but it's career
suicide within a military structure that maintains a strict hierarchy
in which the way to advance is to parrot what those above you say.
Morton, who was executive officer of the 16 chaplains, knew what she
was risking when she started criticizing the religiously freighted
climate and repudiating the Academy's official stance that remedial
steps were being taken.
Since coming forward, Morton has been removed from her administrative
position and has orders to transfer to Okinawa by the end of July.
The Academy has said in news reports that the posting is a routine
reassignment. (It will no longer discuss her case with the media.)
Morton says the move is to get rid of her.
"I spent 2 1/2 years putting in 16-hour days," Morton said.
"Now I have no specific duties."
The recent publicity over the religious atmosphere has put pressure on
the Pentagon.
Forty-five members of Congress joined a letter this month telling the
Air Force, in effect, "we're watching."
A Pentagon task force was dispatched to investigate the allegations.
But the group didn't even bother to contact Weinstein (who calls it a
"mask force.")
As to Morton, she said the group spoke with her just hours before
briefing the Air Force's acting secretary - giving it no time to
investigate her claims.
It looks like a classic whitewash in the making.
The Academy has just recently emerged from a scandal over the
insensitive way the rapes of female cadets were handled.
Now it's accused of conversion by intimidation.
The leadership either has the sense of a flea or is seeking to
dissuade women and non-evangelicals from attending the Academy.
I wonder which?
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://PerkinsTragedy.org http://www.rightard.org/
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