Crusading Air Force
James Dobson, the fundamentalist Christian crusader rants against our judges because, according to him, they do not follow God's law. He is the guy pushing Frist toward the "nuclear" option to outlaw the filibuster for judicial nominations. As if this is not enough, he is also behind the movement to convert our air force cadets into crusading warriors to make America a "Christian nation." If he has his way, we will not call it the U.S. Air Force, but the Crusading Air Force.
The U.S. Air Force Academy, which trains cadets, is in Denver, and near the academy is James Dobson's Focus on the Family. And Dobson and his boys have been busy. They have been so busy proselytizing Air Force personnel, that now the Air Force may be considered to be a "Christian" air force.
Captain Melinda Morton, a chaplain at the Academy, was fired by her boss Col. Michael Whittington, because she wanted to teach religious tolerance and she believed in treating people of all religions with respect. She refused to deny a report by a Yale Divinity School professor, which said that a chaplain told 600 cadets during basic training:
"to go back to their tents and tell their fellow cadets that those who are not born again will burn in the fires of hell."
I never thought I would hear such intolerant talk in the air force or in any public venue in the "land of the free."
Morton tried religious tolerance training, but the program she developed was watered down.
The Academy has a history of religious intolerance. More than 50 complaints have been submitted in the last several years. One Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus.
Why should a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist or even an atheist be denied the opportunity to serve our Air Force? Why should the Air Force be open only to Christians - of a specific stripe?
Dobson and his fellow fundamentalists are crusaders trying to make our country a theocracy and to convert our fighting forces into crusaders for a "Christian nation."
We must stop these crusaders before they destroy America.
