| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
12 Jun 2005 12:38:14 PM |
| Object: |
The Separation of Church & Air Force |
Keynote Address
"March of the Theocrats" Rally and Teach-In Westwood United Methodist
Church Los Angeles June 5, 2005
Jack Miles
commentator and author of God: A Biography
http://www.progressivechristiansuniting.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=News&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0026
(Excerpt)
Friends, the fusion of church and state hasn’t gone so far that the offices
of pope and president have been combined, but in a more serious vein
consider a recent (May 14) New York Times editorial entitled "The
Separation of Church and Air Force":
* Pressure from "dozens of faculty" upon cadets to "adopt Christian
beliefs and practices."
* Cadets instructed by one chaplain to warn their non-born-again
comrades that "the fires of hell" were waiting for them.
* Those who decline to attend chapel forced to march in "heathen
flights." * A football coach's "Team Jesus Christ" banner.
* Official pressure to view Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the
Christ.
* Non-Christian religions including Buddhism and Judaism cut from an
educational videotape.
* A Lutheran chaplain who complained about the deletion dismissed
form her position. These are not all new abuses. Some of them were
identified as much as a year ago. What has become clear, according to the
Times, is that the Air Force Academy's own chain of command is not about to
correct the abuses. The editorial concludes: "It is time for the higher
chain of command to deproselytize this institution of national defense."
.
|
|
| User: "fred" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
12 Jun 2005 01:24:12 PM |
|
|
Who is the source of these allegations? Consider that whoever
complained that the former lead cadet was emailing Christian propaganda
to the entire cadet wing was not only wrong about the email but was
possibly using the email as an excuse to attack the lead cadet because
of his religious beliefs.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Dave Thompson" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
12 Jun 2005 09:07:47 PM |
|
|
"fred" <clarma1@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118600652.772359.204130@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
Who is the source of these allegations? Consider that whoever
complained that the former lead cadet was emailing Christian propaganda
to the entire cadet wing was not only wrong about the email but was
possibly using the email as an excuse to attack the lead cadet because
of his religious beliefs.
Interestingly enough, "Fred", it was a study done by a divinity school.
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2005/05/evangelicals-at-air-force-academy.html
.
|
|
|
| User: "fred" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
12 Jun 2005 10:30:57 PM |
|
|
Thank you for that reference. I was already familiar with much of the
material there. However, I regard the farewell email that the cadet
leader sent to the cadet wing as the most detailed example that us
outsiders have of any of the alleged incidents that are supposedly
going on inside the Academy. Although I'm not saying that none of the
incidents happened, the Academy's problems have been mostly "he said,
he said" allegations in my opinion. In other words, you essentially
had to be there in order to be able to decide for yourself what was
really going on.
But now that the email in question has been described to us, I'm
satisfied that there was no basis for somebody crying that the cadet
leader had violated church and state separation principles with the
email. And if this email was not merely a false alarm but actually an
attack on the cadet's faith, I must also question the integrity of the
other allegations. But also consider that I can accept the allegations
as factual. This is because Christians are not above the poor
judgement that would be involved in such incidents.
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
12 Jun 2005 03:41:52 PM |
|
|
"fred" <clarma1@gmail.com> wrote:
:|Who is the source of these allegations? Consider that whoever
:|complained that the former lead cadet was emailing Christian propaganda
:|to the entire cadet wing was not only wrong about the email but was
:|possibly using the email as an excuse to attack the lead cadet because
:|of his religious beliefs.
Whos is your source?
Don't ask others to provide that which you didn't provide
Try reading the original message again. You might even find your answer
***********************************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and the discussion group for the above site listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members]
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
.
|
|
|
| User: "fred" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
12 Jun 2005 04:16:31 PM |
|
|
You ignored my question as to the source of the complaints against the
cadet email at the USAF.
And since you are the first person to ask, I got my information from
USAFA home page. As I have said elsewhere I have not seen this cadet's
particular email. But the USAFA note about the incident describes the
God/Bible references in the email as only a modest percentage (about
10%) of the total number of quotes in the email which included quotes
from several other people ("...Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius, poets,
authors, presidents, military leaders and a host of others.").
The bottom line is that the cadet was wrongly accused of sending an
email that pushed specific religious beliefs.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Stan de SD" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
12 Jun 2005 05:43:35 PM |
|
|
"fred" <clarma1@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118610991.950722.40560@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
You ignored my question as to the source of the complaints against the
cadet email at the USAF.
And since you are the first person to ask, I got my information from
USAFA home page. As I have said elsewhere I have not seen this cadet's
particular email. But the USAFA note about the incident describes the
God/Bible references in the email as only a modest percentage (about
10%) of the total number of quotes in the email which included quotes
from several other people ("...Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius, poets,
authors, presidents, military leaders and a host of others.").
So in essence this cadet was expressing his personal views in his free
time - something that happens all the time on college campuses all over the
USA. However, the same lefties who defend a student in a civilian college
using government-funded computer systems proselytizing their own beliefs
find it objectionable that a cadet in another government-funded college do
the same....
The bottom line is that the cadet was wrongly accused of sending an
email that pushed specific religious beliefs.
The other problem is that people with the least amount of knowledge and
concern for the cadets themselves (left-wing haters) seem to feel that they
have the right to represent them and impose their interpretation on others.
.
|
|
|
| User: "fred" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
12 Jun 2005 07:36:35 PM |
|
|
Stan de SD wrote:
"fred" <clarma1@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118610991.950722.40560@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
You ignored my question as to the source of the complaints against the
cadet email at the USAF.
And since you are the first person to ask, I got my information from
USAFA home page. As I have said elsewhere I have not seen this cadet's
particular email. But the USAFA note about the incident describes the
God/Bible references in the email as only a modest percentage (about
10%) of the total number of quotes in the email which included quotes
from several other people ("...Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius, poets,
authors, presidents, military leaders and a host of others.").
So in essence this cadet was expressing his personal views in his free
time - something that happens all the time on college campuses all over the
USA. However, the same lefties who defend a student in a civilian college
using government-funded computer systems proselytizing their own beliefs
find it objectionable that a cadet in another government-funded college do
the same....
The email was evidently an official farewell message from a cadet
leader. But the cadet covered himself by stating in the email that
cadets weren't even required to read the thing.
I'm angry with the incident because I now presume that some other
cadet(?) used the email as an excuse, a poor excuse, to attack the
cadet leader who sent it out. My guess is that the cadet leader was
attacked because he had possibly expressed his faith in Jesus on other
occasions. I also presume that the cadet who made the accusation is
not going to be disciplined for this attack if so. If this is the
case, so much religious sensitivity training at the USAFA.
The bottom line is that the cadet was wrongly accused of sending an
email that pushed specific religious beliefs.
The other problem is that people with the least amount of knowledge and
concern for the cadets themselves (left-wing haters) seem to feel that they
have the right to represent them and impose their interpretation on others.
Do you mean how left-haters try to suck people into their delusional
fantasies just like their their daddy Howard Dean does? Never! ;^)
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
13 Jun 2005 06:50:59 AM |
|
|
"fred" <clarma1@gmail.com> wrote:
:|You ignored my question as to the source of the complaints against the
:|cadet email at the USAF.
:|
Actualy I didn't. I pointed put that you were demanding of another thiat
which you were uaable or unwillig to provide yourself;
I also pointed out that the very think you were asking for had already been
provied by me in the original post
Kindly note from the original post:
but in a more serious vein
consider a recent (May 14) New York Times editorial entitled "The
Separation of Church and Air Force":
* Pressure from "dozens of faculty" upon cadets to "adopt Christian
beliefs and practices."
* Cadets instructed by one chaplain to warn their non-born-again
comrades that "the fires of hell" were waiting for them.
* Those who decline to attend chapel forced to march in "heathen
flights." * A football coach's "Team Jesus Christ" banner.
* Official pressure to view Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the
Christ.
* Non-Christian religions including Buddhism and Judaism cut from an
educational videotape.
* A Lutheran chaplain who complained about the deletion dismissed
form her position. These are not all new abuses. Some of them were
identified as much as a year ago. What has become clear, according to the
Times, is that the Air Force Academy's own chain of command is not about to
correct the abuses. The editorial concludes: "It is time for the higher
chain of command to deproselytize this institution of national defense."
AGAIN
a recent (May 14) New York Times editorial entitled "The
Separation of Church and Air Force":
AND
* A Lutheran chaplain who complained about the deletion dismissed
form her position. These are not all new abuses. Some of them were
identified as much as a year ago. What has become clear, according to the
Times, is that the Air Force Academy's own chain of command is not about to
correct the abuses. The editorial concludes: "It is time for the higher
chain of command to deproselytize this institution of national defense."
Funny you didn't see that.
*********************************************************************************
There is also the following as well
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050601/ap_on_re_us/academy_religion
[excerpt]
Air Force Cadet E-Mails Religious Quotes
By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 1, 2:43 PM ET
DENVER - On the eve of his graduation, the top cadet at the Air Force
Academy sent out a religious-themed e-mail to thousands of fellow
cadets, even as the school is grappling with complaints that some
evangelical Christians are harassing others at the school.
***********************************************************************************
and this
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/living/religion/11757060.htm
A recent incident attracting national attention arose from a Bowden speech
at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting in Colorado Springs. In
defending Air Force Academy football coach Fisher DeBerry's organizing of
his team around evangelical Christian norms, Bowden said DeBerry was
fighting against the U.S. government, "fighting a heck of a battle because
he happens to be a Christian, and he wants his boys to be saved. I want my
boys to be saved.... We know we're going to get challenged on it, but
that's what we believe in. I ain't gonna back down."
This is consistent with what he says to many groups in many places. This
time, though, the context is problematic.
The Air Force Academy is being officially investigated over complaints that
its faculty, officers and cadets penalize those on campus who do not hold
evangelical Christian beliefs. We're talking documented accusations and
protracted investigation here.
The latest inquiry is not complete, but Acting Air Force Secretary Michael
L. Dominguez is awaiting a task force's report. It might have been wise for
Bowden to refrain from airing his views on the separation of church and Air
Force right now.
****************************************************************************************
and this
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Religion+lutheran+chaplain+air+force+&spell=1
Results 1 - 10 of about 25,400 for Religion lutheran chaplain air force
and this
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2005/05/evangelicals-at-air-force-academy.html
:|And since you are the first person to ask, I got my information from
:|USAFA home page. As I have said elsewhere I have not seen this cadet's
:|particular email.
But newspapers have.
:| But the USAFA note about the incident describes the
:|God/Bible references in the email as only a modest percentage (about
:|10%) of the total number of quotes in the email which included quotes
:|from several other people ("...Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius, poets,
:|authors, presidents, military leaders and a host of others.").
:|
:|The bottom line is that the cadet was wrongly accused of sending an
:|email that pushed specific religious beliefs.
That is your conclusion.
The email was only the latest of a seriesd of events that are under
invesigation there. as the bove information shows.
***********************************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and the discussion group for the above site listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members]
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
13 Jun 2005 07:14:54 AM |
|
|
"fred" <clarma1@gmail.com> wrote:
:|You ignored my question as to the source of the complaints against the
:|cadet email at the USAF.
You can toss this one in the mix as well
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Religion+++air+force+Academy+&btnG=Search
Results 1 - 10 of about 705,000 for Religion air force Academy
(obviously not all of those apply but many especially in the first couple
of pages do apply)
and this one makes for some interesting reading as well
Do any of you have the May 2005 issue of Harper's Magazine? If not it
would be worth your while to get a copy and check out the following three
articles that will be found in it:
Soldiers of Christ: I. Inside America's most powerful megachurch
Soldiers of Christ: II. Feeling the hate with the National Religious
Broadcasters.
**************************************************************************************
From Soldiers of Christ: I. Inside America's most powerful megachurch
The city's mightiest megachurch crests silver and blue atop a gentle slope
of pale yellow prairie grass on the outskirts of town. Silver and blue, as
it happens, are Air Force colors. New Life Church was built far north of
town in part so it would be visible from the Air Force Academy. New Life
wanted that kind of character in its congregation.
"Church" is insufficient to describe the complex. There is a permanent
structure called the Tent, which regularly fills with hundreds or thousands
of teens and twentysomethings for New Life's various youth gatherings. Next
to the Tent stands the old sanctuary, a gray box capable of seating 1,500;
this juts out into the new sanctuary, capacity 7,500, already too small. At
the complex's western edge is the World Prayer Center, which looks like a
great iron wedge driven into the plains. The true architectural wonder of
New Life, however, is the pyramid of authority into which it orders its
11,000 members. At the base are 1,300 cell groups, whose leaders answer to
section leaders, who answer to zone, who answer to district, who answer to
Pastor Ted Haggard, New Life's founder.
Pastor Ted, who talks to President George W. Bush or his advisers every
Monday, is a handsome forty-eight-year-old Indianan, most comfortable in
denim. He likes to say that his only disagreement with the President is
automotive; Bush drives a Ford pickup, whereas Pastor Ted loves his Chevy.
In addition to New Life, Pastor Ted presides over the National Association
of Evangelicals (NAE), whose 45,000 churches and 30 million believers make
up the nation's most powerful religious lobbying group, and also over a
smaller network of his own creation, the Association of Life-Giving
Churches, 300 or so congregations modeled on New Life's "free market"
approach to the divine.
Pastor Ted will serve as NAE president for as long as the movement is
pleased with him, and as long as Pastor Ted is its president the NAE will
make its headquarters in Colorado Springs. Some believers call the city the
Wheaton of the West, in honor of Wheaton, Illinois, once the headquarters
of a more genteel Christian conservatism; others call Colorado Springs the
"evangelical Vatican," a phrase that says much both about the city and
about the easeful orthodoxy with which the movement now views itself.
Certainly the gathering there has no parallel in history, not in Lynchburg,
Virginia, nor Tulsa, nor Pasadena, nor Orlando, nor any other city that has
aspired to be the capital of evangelical America. Evangelical activist
groups ("parachurch" ministries, in the parlance) in Colorado Springs
number in the hundreds, though a precise count is hard to specify. Groups
migrate there and multiply. They produce missionary guides, "family
resources," school curricula, financial advice, athletic training programs,
Bibles for every occasion. The city is home to Young Life, to the
Navigators, to Compassion International; to Every Home for Christ and
Global Ethnic Missions (Youth Ablaze). Most prominent among the
ministries is Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family, whose radio programs
(the most extensive in the world, religious or secular), magazines, videos,
and books reach more than 200 million people worldwide.
The press tends to regard Dobson as the most powerful evangelical Christian
in America, but Pastor Ted is at least his equal. Whereas Dobson plays the
part of national scold, promising to destroy politicians who defy the
Bible, Pastor Ted quietly guides those politicians through the ritual of
acquiescence required to save face. He doesn't strut, like Dobson; he
gushes. When Bush invited him to the Oval Office to discuss policy with
seven other chieftains of the Christian right in late 2003, Pastor Ted
regaled his whole congregation with the story via email. "Well, on Monday I
was in the World Prayer Center"--New Life's high-tech,
twenty-four-hour-a-day prayer chapel--"and my cell phone rang." It was a
presidential aide; "the President," says Pastor Ted, wanted him on hand for
the signing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Pastor Ted was on a
plane the next morning and in the President's office the following
afternoon. "It was incredible," wrote Pastor Ted. He left it to the
press to note that Dobson wasn't there.
No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of
evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted, and no church more than New Life.
**************************************************************************************
From: "Mark S." <mshapiro2@ [delete]
Newsgroups:
alt.politics.democrats,alt.politics.usa.constitution,alt.politics.usa.republican,talk.politics.libertarian,alt.education
Subject: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 13:22:45 -0700
The complaints about the harrassment of non-Christian cadets at the Air
Force Academy have been well documented.
See http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-04-22-05.htm for a link to
detailed news reports.
Dr. S.
************************************************************************************
Actually I didn't. I pointed put that you were demanding of another that
which you were unable or unwilling to provide yourself;
I also pointed out that the very thing you were asking for had already been
provided by me in the original post
Kindly note from the original post:
but in a more serious vein
consider a recent (May 14) New York Times editorial entitled "The
Separation of Church and Air Force":
* Pressure from "dozens of faculty" upon cadets to "adopt Christian
beliefs and practices."
* Cadets instructed by one chaplain to warn their non-born-again
comrades that "the fires of hell" were waiting for them.
* Those who decline to attend chapel forced to march in "heathen
flights." * A football coach's "Team Jesus Christ" banner.
* Official pressure to view Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the
Christ.
* Non-Christian religions including Buddhism and Judaism cut from an
educational videotape.
* A Lutheran chaplain who complained about the deletion dismissed
form her position. These are not all new abuses. Some of them were
identified as much as a year ago. What has become clear, according to the
Times, is that the Air Force Academy's own chain of command is not about to
correct the abuses. The editorial concludes: "It is time for the higher
chain of command to deproselytize this institution of national defense."
AGAIN
a recent (May 14) New York Times editorial entitled "The
Separation of Church and Air Force":
AND
* A Lutheran chaplain who complained about the deletion dismissed
form her position. These are not all new abuses. Some of them were
identified as much as a year ago. What has become clear, according to the
Times, is that the Air Force Academy's own chain of command is not about to
correct the abuses. The editorial concludes: "It is time for the higher
chain of command to deproselytize this institution of national defense."
Funny you didn't see that.
*********************************************************************************
There is also the following as well
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050601/ap_on_re_us/academy_religion
[excerpt]
Air Force Cadet E-Mails Religious Quotes
By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 1, 2:43 PM ET
DENVER - On the eve of his graduation, the top cadet at the Air Force
Academy sent out a religious-themed e-mail to thousands of fellow
cadets, even as the school is grappling with complaints that some
evangelical Christians are harassing others at the school.
***********************************************************************************
and this
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/living/religion/11757060.htm
A recent incident attracting national attention arose from a Bowden speech
at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting in Colorado Springs. In
defending Air Force Academy football coach Fisher DeBerry's organizing of
his team around evangelical Christian norms, Bowden said DeBerry was
fighting against the U.S. government, "fighting a heck of a battle because
he happens to be a Christian, and he wants his boys to be saved. I want my
boys to be saved.... We know we're going to get challenged on it, but
that's what we believe in. I ain't gonna back down."
This is consistent with what he says to many groups in many places. This
time, though, the context is problematic.
The Air Force Academy is being officially investigated over complaints that
its faculty, officers and cadets penalize those on campus who do not hold
evangelical Christian beliefs. We're talking documented accusations and
protracted investigation here.
The latest inquiry is not complete, but Acting Air Force Secretary Michael
L. Dominguez is awaiting a task force's report. It might have been wise for
Bowden to refrain from airing his views on the separation of church and Air
Force right now.
****************************************************************************************
and this
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Religion+lutheran+chaplain+air+force+&spell=1
Results 1 - 10 of about 25,400 for Religion lutheran chaplain air force
and this
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2005/05/evangelicals-at-air-force-academy.html
:|And since you are the first person to ask, I got my information from
:|USAFA home page. As I have said elsewhere I have not seen this cadet's
:|particular email.
But newspapers have.
:| But the USAFA note about the incident describes the
:|God/Bible references in the email as only a modest percentage (about
:|10%) of the total number of quotes in the email which included quotes
:|from several other people ("...Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius, poets,
:|authors, presidents, military leaders and a host of others.").
:|
:|The bottom line is that the cadet was wrongly accused of sending an
:|email that pushed specific religious beliefs.
That is your conclusion.
The email was only the latest of a series of events that are under
investigation there. as the above information shows.
***********************************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and the discussion group for the above site listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members]
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
13 Jun 2005 07:09:18 AM |
|
|
"fred" <clarma1@gmail.com> wrote:
:|You ignored my question as to the source of the complaints against the
:|cadet email at the USAF.
You can toss this one in the mix as well
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Religion+++air+force+Academy+&btnG=Search
Results 1 - 10 of about 705,000 for Religion air force Academy
(obviously not all of those apply but many especially in the first couple
of pages do apply)
and this one makes for some interesting reading as well
Do any of you have the May 2005 issue of Harper's Magazine? If not it
would be worth your while to get a copy and check out the following three
articles that will be found in it:
Soldiers of Christ: I. Inside America's most powerful megachurch
Soldiers of Christ: II. Feeling the hate with the National Religious
Broadcasters.
Let there be markets: the evangelical roots of economics
Here are a couple excerpts from them
From Soldiers of Christ: II. Feeling the hate with the National Religious
Broadcasters.
Wright promises the audience that as the new president of NRB he will fight
to block the passage of hate-crime legislation, something many Christian
broadcasters fear might be used to halt their attacks on gays and lesbians.
and
What the disparate sects of this movement, known as Dominionism, share is
an obsession with political power. A decades-long refusal to engage in
politics at all following the Scopes trial has been replaced by a call for
Christian "dominion" over the nation and, eventually, over the earth
itself. Dominionists preach that Jesus has called them to build the kingdom
of God in the here and now, whereas previously it was thought that we would
have to wait for it. America becomes, in this militant biblicism, an agent
of God, and all political and intellectual opponents of America's Christian
leaders are viewed, quite simply, as agents of Satan. Under Christian
dominion, America will no longer be a sinful and fallen nation but one in
which the Ten Commandments form the basis of our legal system, Creationism
and "Christian values" form the basis of our educational system, and the
media and the government proclaim the Good News to one and all. Aside from
its proselytizing mandate, the federal government will be reduced to the
protection of property rights and "homeland" security. * Some Dominionists
(not all of whom accept the label, at least not publicly) would further
require all citizens to pay "tithes" to church organizations empowered by
the government to run our social-welfare agencies, and a number of
influential figures advocate the death penalty for a host of "moral
crimes," including apostasy, blasphemy, sodomy, and witchcraft. The only
legitimate voices in this state will be Christian. All others will be
silenced.
The traditional evangelicals, those who come out of Billy Graham's mold,
are not necessarily comfortable with the direction taken by the
Dominionists, who now control most of America's major evangelical
organizations, from the NRB to the Southern Baptist Convention, and may
already claim dominion over the Christian media outlets. But Christians who
challenge Dominionists, even if they are fundamentalist or conservative or
born-again, tend to be ruthlessly thrust aside.
**************************************************************************************
From Soldiers of Christ: I. Inside America's most powerful megachurch
The city's mightiest megachurch crests silver and blue atop a gentle slope
of pale yellow prairie grass on the outskirts of town. Silver and blue, as
it happens, are Air Force colors. New Life Church was built far north of
town in part so it would be visible from the Air Force Academy. New Life
wanted that kind of character in its congregation.
"Church" is insufficient to describe the complex. There is a permanent
structure called the Tent, which regularly fills with hundreds or thousands
of teens and twentysomethings for New Life's various youth gatherings. Next
to the Tent stands the old sanctuary, a gray box capable of seating 1,500;
this juts out into the new sanctuary, capacity 7,500, already too small. At
the complex's western edge is the World Prayer Center, which looks like a
great iron wedge driven into the plains. The true architectural wonder of
New Life, however, is the pyramid of authority into which it orders its
11,000 members. At the base are 1,300 cell groups, whose leaders answer to
section leaders, who answer to zone, who answer to district, who answer to
Pastor Ted Haggard, New Life's founder.
Pastor Ted, who talks to President George W. Bush or his advisers every
Monday, is a handsome forty-eight-year-old Indianan, most comfortable in
denim. He likes to say that his only disagreement with the President is
automotive; Bush drives a Ford pickup, whereas Pastor Ted loves his Chevy.
In addition to New Life, Pastor Ted presides over the National Association
of Evangelicals (NAE), whose 45,000 churches and 30 million believers make
up the nation's most powerful religious lobbying group, and also over a
smaller network of his own creation, the Association of Life-Giving
Churches, 300 or so congregations modeled on New Life's "free market"
approach to the divine.
Pastor Ted will serve as NAE president for as long as the movement is
pleased with him, and as long as Pastor Ted is its president the NAE will
make its headquarters in Colorado Springs. Some believers call the city the
Wheaton of the West, in honor of Wheaton, Illinois, once the headquarters
of a more genteel Christian conservatism; others call Colorado Springs the
"evangelical Vatican," a phrase that says much both about the city and
about the easeful orthodoxy with which the movement now views itself.
Certainly the gathering there has no parallel in history, not in Lynchburg,
Virginia, nor Tulsa, nor Pasadena, nor Orlando, nor any other city that has
aspired to be the capital of evangelical America. Evangelical activist
groups ("parachurch" ministries, in the parlance) in Colorado Springs
number in the hundreds, though a precise count is hard to specify. Groups
migrate there and multiply. They produce missionary guides, "family
resources," school curricula, financial advice, athletic training programs,
Bibles for every occasion. The city is home to Young Life, to the
Navigators, to Compassion International; to Every Home for Christ and
Global Ethnic Missions (Youth Ablaze). Most prominent among the
ministries is Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family, whose radio programs
(the most extensive in the world, religious or secular), magazines, videos,
and books reach more than 200 million people worldwide.
The press tends to regard Dobson as the most powerful evangelical Christian
in America, but Pastor Ted is at least his equal. Whereas Dobson plays the
part of national scold, promising to destroy politicians who defy the
Bible, Pastor Ted quietly guides those politicians through the ritual of
acquiescence required to save face. He doesn't strut, like Dobson; he
gushes. When Bush invited him to the Oval Office to discuss policy with
seven other chieftains of the Christian right in late 2003, Pastor Ted
regaled his whole congregation with the story via email. "Well, on Monday I
was in the World Prayer Center"--New Life's high-tech,
twenty-four-hour-a-day prayer chapel--"and my cell phone rang." It was a
presidential aide; "the President," says Pastor Ted, wanted him on hand for
the signing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Pastor Ted was on a
plane the next morning and in the President's office the following
afternoon. "It was incredible," wrote Pastor Ted. He left it to the
press to note that Dobson wasn't there.
No pastor in America holds more sway over the political direction of
evangelicalism than does Pastor Ted, and no church more than New Life.
************************************************************************************
Actually I didn't. I pointed put that you were demanding of another that
which you were unable or unwilling to provide yourself;
I also pointed out that the very thing you were asking for had already been
provided by me in the original post
Kindly note from the original post:
but in a more serious vein
consider a recent (May 14) New York Times editorial entitled "The
Separation of Church and Air Force":
* Pressure from "dozens of faculty" upon cadets to "adopt Christian
beliefs and practices."
* Cadets instructed by one chaplain to warn their non-born-again
comrades that "the fires of hell" were waiting for them.
* Those who decline to attend chapel forced to march in "heathen
flights." * A football coach's "Team Jesus Christ" banner.
* Official pressure to view Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the
Christ.
* Non-Christian religions including Buddhism and Judaism cut from an
educational videotape.
* A Lutheran chaplain who complained about the deletion dismissed
form her position. These are not all new abuses. Some of them were
identified as much as a year ago. What has become clear, according to the
Times, is that the Air Force Academy's own chain of command is not about to
correct the abuses. The editorial concludes: "It is time for the higher
chain of command to deproselytize this institution of national defense."
AGAIN
a recent (May 14) New York Times editorial entitled "The
Separation of Church and Air Force":
AND
* A Lutheran chaplain who complained about the deletion dismissed
form her position. These are not all new abuses. Some of them were
identified as much as a year ago. What has become clear, according to the
Times, is that the Air Force Academy's own chain of command is not about to
correct the abuses. The editorial concludes: "It is time for the higher
chain of command to deproselytize this institution of national defense."
Funny you didn't see that.
*********************************************************************************
There is also the following as well
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050601/ap_on_re_us/academy_religion
[excerpt]
Air Force Cadet E-Mails Religious Quotes
By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 1, 2:43 PM ET
DENVER - On the eve of his graduation, the top cadet at the Air Force
Academy sent out a religious-themed e-mail to thousands of fellow
cadets, even as the school is grappling with complaints that some
evangelical Christians are harassing others at the school.
***********************************************************************************
and this
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/living/religion/11757060.htm
A recent incident attracting national attention arose from a Bowden speech
at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting in Colorado Springs. In
defending Air Force Academy football coach Fisher DeBerry's organizing of
his team around evangelical Christian norms, Bowden said DeBerry was
fighting against the U.S. government, "fighting a heck of a battle because
he happens to be a Christian, and he wants his boys to be saved. I want my
boys to be saved.... We know we're going to get challenged on it, but
that's what we believe in. I ain't gonna back down."
This is consistent with what he says to many groups in many places. This
time, though, the context is problematic.
The Air Force Academy is being officially investigated over complaints that
its faculty, officers and cadets penalize those on campus who do not hold
evangelical Christian beliefs. We're talking documented accusations and
protracted investigation here.
The latest inquiry is not complete, but Acting Air Force Secretary Michael
L. Dominguez is awaiting a task force's report. It might have been wise for
Bowden to refrain from airing his views on the separation of church and Air
Force right now.
****************************************************************************************
and this
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Religion+lutheran+chaplain+air+force+&spell=1
Results 1 - 10 of about 25,400 for Religion lutheran chaplain air force
and this
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2005/05/evangelicals-at-air-force-academy.html
:|And since you are the first person to ask, I got my information from
:|USAFA home page. As I have said elsewhere I have not seen this cadet's
:|particular email.
But newspapers have.
:| But the USAFA note about the incident describes the
:|God/Bible references in the email as only a modest percentage (about
:|10%) of the total number of quotes in the email which included quotes
:|from several other people ("...Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius, poets,
:|authors, presidents, military leaders and a host of others.").
:|
:|The bottom line is that the cadet was wrongly accused of sending an
:|email that pushed specific religious beliefs.
That is your conclusion.
The email was only the latest of a series of events that are under
investigation there. as the above information shows.
***********************************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and the discussion group for the above site listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members]
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
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| User: "Mark S." |
|
| Title: Re: The Separation of Church & Air Force |
12 Jun 2005 03:22:45 PM |
|
|
The complaints about the harrassment of non-Christian cadets at the Air
Force Academy have been well documented.
See http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-04-22-05.htm for a link to
detailed news reports.
Dr. S.
"fred" <clarma1@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118600652.772359.204130@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
Who is the source of these allegations? Consider that whoever
complained that the former lead cadet was emailing Christian propaganda
to the entire cadet wing was not only wrong about the email but was
possibly using the email as an excuse to attack the lead cadet because
of his religious beliefs.
.
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