God and Country

I sure am glad I don't live in a Godless communist state...whoa...wait an minute...

Greyhawk posted something that caught my eye...and upset me quite frankly...

You have to read Hugh Hewitt's column in the Daily Standard as well as his blog HughHewitt.com.  Here is an excerpt from the column:

Barry Lynn is the top guy at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and a cartoonish presence on talking head television, ever-ready to declare the imminent threat of theocracy in the land. It should come as no surprise to anyone, then, that the organization Lynn leads last week leveled a series of very serious charges against almost everyone at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The report, available here in PDF, is among the worst examples of McCarthyism since Joe McCarthy stood up on February 9, 1950, and declared that "I have here in my hand a list of 205 that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department."...

...Unfortunately, the acting secretary of the Air Force quickly established a task force to investigate the report's allegations before considering whether the group issuing it was worthy of trust on such a matter, whether the specific charges can be considered to have risen to a level worthy of further investigation, and whether the appropriate response might not have been a demand of Americans United for their sources before launching such a high-profile, well, we can't quite call it a "witch hunt," can we?

Even a cursory review of AU's "report" reveals it is built on multiple levels of undocumented hearsay. Over and over again the phrase "we have been informed" introduces an allegation of misconduct, or "we have received a host of reports" leads to a serious charge. There are zero footnotes and zero affidavits attached to the report...

Hugh Hewitt makes the following recommendation:

...Put the task force on hold, and ask for the back-up. If there are credible assertions, determined as such by credible third parties skilled in Establishment and Free Exercise Clause doctrine, then quietly empanel an investigation. Asking "how high" when Barry Lynn says jump is a terrible decision.

The Air Force leadership at the Academy deserve the benefit of the doubt...not baseless accusations and a witch hunt on who is more politically correct under the guise of diversity.

Previously, Greyhawk posted a chilling quote taken from the archives of the Belmont Club.  Here is the quote:

For one, Hitler would have taken a very dim view of Jesusland, a country which George Bush is said to be in the process of founding, whose geographic location is to the immediate south of the United States of Canada. Martin Bormann said, "National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable." Hitler, according to Klaus Fischer's Nazi Germany stated that "one day we want to be in a position where only complete idiots stand in the pulpit and preach to old women." In a concession to popular feeling, however, the Nazis offered the public certain acceptable 'faith traditions' including something called "Gottglaubig", a dished-up creed heavily overladen with ancient Germanic pagan beliefs with versions of rituals for birth, marriage and death. "By 1938, carols and nativity plays were were forbidden in the schools, and the words 'Christmas' itself was replaced by the word 'Yuletide'." 

I shudder to think of all the great men and women who died to secure the blessings of liberty for our country...they had a strong belief in God and would no doubt be equally as upset to see what is happening today.

Finally, I agree with Greyhawk...how long before we are forced to bulldoze this building?

Notice the ominous clouds above the spires...what a great metaphor for the storm brewing at the Academy.

Or, could this represent the beginnings of of a mini-blogswarm in response to the witch hunts taking place at this great institution?  Hmmm...

UPDATE: CDR Salamander has a great post on this subject.  Here is an excerpt and an equally stunning photograph:

The military does not push religion on anyone, it gets out of the way. There is a lot of religion is the military though. Being shot at will do that to a man. This has always been true in our military, and we have a great history of being tolerant of each other's proclivities - religious wise. If you want to destroy this history of allowing a person to demonstrate their faith while in service, then I recommend you start by getting a chisel and hammer.

Well said...from a "pretty boy in blue."

Comments

[Matthew Goggins]

Air Force Voices,

I just read the actual report from Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS), and I am rather surprised.

Based on Hugh Hewitt's description of the report, I had assumed that the report would be a sloppy compilation of rumors and overheated complaints. But what I read was actually quite disturbing in a different way.

It seems that AUSCS has documented longstanding and pervasive religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy, as well as violations of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

I am reluctant to conclude that Mr. Hewitt has been disingenuous or dishonest about this, if only because I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. But I certainly feel misled by Mr. Hewitt's characterizations of the report and his analysis of the allegations.

I urge anyone who is concerned about this report to read it, and see for himself what I am talking about. A lot of the substance of the report is not hearsay, but a well-documented overview of some serious problems at the academy

[CDR Salamander]

Blogswarm will help, but you boys in Blue need to fight this hard inside your hangar. I can't believe they let Yale Divinity look around and comment on policy. Insane. That is like inviting a vampire into your house. Navy standing by for the ATO.

[Air Force Voices]

Matthew,

Hmmm...I tried to access the AUSCS site to open the report and reread in light of what you say. I would like to know myself.

Curiously, the report's file location is down...perhaps there are lots of hits on the site due to its explosive allegations. Hopefully, they aren't limiting access to prevent a blogswarm. In any case, I'll have to try again in the morning.

Though anything is possible, I don't believe Mr. Hewitt is misleading...time will soon tell.

Please note I am all for religious tolerance...however, after visiting the AUSCS website it looks like they are intolerant of religion period (dot).

BTW: Is the AUSCS another front for the DNC? The language on their home page sure leads me to believe this.

[Air Force Voices]

CDR Salamander,

Agreed.

BTW: The TNLs are still being debated...sadly, the Air Force is focusing on the wrong COGs. Thanks for standing by!

[Matthew Goggins]

Air Force Voices,

I checked out that website myself just now, and I see what you mean.

Lots of confrontational rhetoric about the "religious right" and such.

So I can see why some healthy skepticism is warranted here, but the report does seem to uncover some unwarranted practices at the Air Force Academy. The cadets deserve the best, and if some Democrat-leaning group helps uncover some problems, then they deserve credit for it.

[CDR Salamander]

AFV,
Matthew dumped the same comment on my site. I threw it back in his face if you want to read it.

Executive Summary: If you read the AUSCS report based on YDS opinions without understanding THEIR bias and history, you are fooling yourself and others.

[Matthew Goggins]

CDR Salamander,

I didn't dump my comment, sir, I cut and pasted it.

Maybe AUSCS is fooling me, but right now I'm feeling fooled by Hugh Hewitt and not them.

Presumably we will all be able to evaluate the complaints of AUSCS without being suckered by any bias they have, once we hear from all sides.

[Fr. Wes]

I read the report but the allegations lacked credible specifics (time, place, etc.) Please keep in mind that Yale is in bed theologically and politically with AUSCS and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there was coordination between both teams of "investigators". Keep in mind that the head of the Yale team is well known for her secularist and feminist theological bias against Evangelical or Catholic faith, and has no understanding of the DOD appreciation for the Free Exercise of the First Amendment. Thus she seems to regard as dangerous the discretion a chaplain has in preaching from the pulpit and seems unaware that chaplains are held accountable by their denomination to preach in accordance with their denomination's doctrine. The Academy already addressed the climate issues, but not to the satisfaction of these "investigators". They will not likely be satisfied until chaplains are relegated to the role of "Counselor Troi" from Star Trek, forced to preach postmodern, humanist fluff. There may have been some pig-headed cadets who said some stupid things, but that does not commend anti-Christian bigotry, denying religious rights of sincere Christians in the name of "tolerance".

[Mike]

Planning on blogging about this over the weekend, no time now because of soccer districts. But I did read the AUSCS report tonight. I'm going to have to go with Matthew on this one. There are a lot of distrubing revelations. However, they must be taken with a grain of salt, since I also checked around their website, and they do appear to be, as you say, quite anti-religion, and anti-Christian. That said, there's some stuff in the report that just can't be made up. While some of the stuff they report seems to be overblown, some other parts of it just seem like they couldn't be made up. Sorry for being so cryptic, but I'm kinda short on time and just wanted to get my $.02 in. Like I said, there should be more this weekend.

Bottom line?

The truth is probably going to lie somewhere in the middle, like it so often does.

Here's commentary on this issue:

http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-04-22-05.htm

[PW]

The story doesn't want to die. There is another commentary at http://politwatch.blogspot.com/2005/06/learn-to-flywith-jesus.html.