COMMENTARY: Can the Air Force Academy Fix its Religious Scandal?

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) I was an Air Force chaplain in Japan and Korea in the 1960s, and remember the high hopes my Jewish and Christian colleagues had for the new Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. But today, even the school’s staunchest defenders admit, “something is rotten” at the academy. But it […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) I was an Air Force chaplain in Japan and Korea in the 1960s, and remember the high hopes my Jewish and Christian colleagues had for the new Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. But today, even the school’s staunchest defenders admit, “something is rotten” at the academy.

But it all started so differently.


Established in 1955, the academy’s Rocky Mountains campus is an architectural showplace, including its beautiful chapels, and I am particularly proud of the Jewish facility. in 1976, women were admitted to the academy for the first time, and it appeared America’s youngest service possessed a world-class institution.

But in recent years severe turbulence rocked the school and greatly weakened public confidence in the Academy. Can the administration, faculty and students of a school drenched in academic, sexual, and now religious scandals focus on their vital mission? How can American taxpayers, a religiously diverse people, be certain our nation’s best interests are being served at the Academy?

First there was a cheating scandal involving cadets, and we were assured the guilty students were punished. That crisis was followed by a sexual abuse scandal involving female cadets’ personal accounts of harassment by male classmates. Once again, the public was reassured the problem was being solved.

Currently, the academy is the scene of religious bullying and intimidation of nonevangelical cadets, and the trampling of the traditional historic principle of church-state separation; abuses especially egregious at publicly funded institutions.

There are at least 117 official complaints from people who report they have been coerced to convert to evangelical Christianity or have been victims of discrimination because of their religious beliefs. Eight of the complaints have come from Jews, including being called “Christ killers.”

Chaplain Melinda Morton, a Lutheran minister stationed at the academy, declared there is “systematic and pervasive” religion coercion and harassment at the school. She has recently been transferred to Asia, which may or may not be related to her public criticism of the academy’s toxic religious climate.

Lt. General John Rosa Jr., the academy superintendent, admitted the religious problem on his campus “keeps me up at night” and has infected “my whole organization,” including the football coach and Rosa’s deputy. It may take six years to rid the academy of its religious pathology.

Is the academy producing “members of Team Jesus” (the coach’s phrase) whose mission is to proselytize in behalf of evangelical Christianity? Or is the school producing “American air men and women” from diverse faith communities whose mission is the defense of the Constitution, religious liberty and freedom of conscience? Americans have a right to demand the latter, and not accept an official toleration of the former.


My Air Force chaplaincy experience built on mutual respect and understanding, was far different from what is happening at the academy. On my second day at Itazuke Air Base in Japan, the base chaplain escorted me to the Wing Commander’s office, normal procedure when chaplains arrive at a new post. I was warned the colonel was a “tough talking guy.”

The commander, a combat veteran of World War II and Korea, never looked up from his desk. I could barely see his face, but I vividly remember his message: “Chaplain, welcome to Itazuke. In the Air Force, we dispense religion like toothpaste. We think everyone should have some, and I don’t care what brand of toothpaste or kind of religion a person uses. That’s their private choice. I think it’s bad for people’s teeth and souls if they don’t use them, but the Air Force doesn’t pressure anyone. What counts is not toothpaste or religion. It’s doing our mission right. Thanks for coming by and good luck.”

The meeting was over.

For years, I thought the colonel’s blunt remarks were insulting, but I now realize he was on to something important and typically American. Religion is good for the soul, but it’s an individual choice. People have the right to express their beliefs, and no one has the right to coerce or harass another person because of religion.

MO/JL END RNS

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)

Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for file photos of Rudin and the Air Force Academy.

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