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Is the Air Force Academy pushing Christianity while biasing other faiths?

“Christianity seems to be ingrained at the academy, where 90 percent of cadets are either Protestant or Catholic.”

The day after the Air Force Academy’s superintendent said publicly that the academy was coping with a religious intolerance problem, football coach Fisher DeBerry hung a banner in the locker room that said, “I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.”

The banner came down Friday after officials deemed it inappropriate, academy spokesman Lt. Col. Laurent Fox said. The banner bore the “Competitor’s Creed,” which begins, “I am a Christian first and last. . . . I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.”

DeBerry, the Falcons’ longtime football coach, put up the banner Wednesday “as a motivation for his football players,” Fox said.

DeBerry told a reporter in 2000 that he keeps a Bible in his office and leads players in prayer, although he prays to the “Master Coach” in an attempt not to exclude anyone.

On Nov. 2, the Air Force Academy kicked off religious sensitivity training in response to complaints of religious bias and persecution.

When the head chaplain advised against holding Bible studies in dormitories, Commandant Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, a born-again Christian, overruled him in front of 300 commanders, senior supervisors and cadet leaders, saying it is OK to have Bible studies in dorms.

His boss, Superintendent Lt. Gen. John Rosa Jr., sat silent, which some see as approval of Weida’s announcement.

p. [ Full Story @ The Gazette ]

p(small). Source: The Gazette © 2004 The Gazette, a division of Freedom Colorado Information

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