Saturday, May 28, 2005

Positive Measures

Earlier, I discussed reports of discrimination and religious intolerance by Evangelicals at the Air Force Academy. Now, John Cole, who has been following this story closely, brings us some excellent news:
The Air Force has told its top commands worldwide to make sure officers don't use their positions to advance religious beliefs, following criticism of religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy.

An Air Force task force spent several days at the academy two weeks ago looking into allegations that Jews and others were harassed by evangelical Christians. A new values statement was sent to all major commands on Tuesday.

I, too, am pleased to see the Academy taking these allegations seriously. However, Mr. Cole points out that we must remain vigilant against the inevitable cries of Christian victimization:
At any rate, this is a promising sign, and the military recognizes what the problem was, even if some refuse to deal with reality and instead choose to play the ever popular persecuted Christian card. Unfortunately, to some, politics and political advantage are the only thing that matters, so I expect the usual suspects will continue to try to spin this as somehow anti-Christian. That is one of their main fundraising techniques, and they have almost achieved permanent victim status in the minds of their base.

It is insulting that the Christian Right believes that religious intolerance is so central to their beliefs that they claim it is discrimination to try and prohibit. This should outrage any moral Christian who recognizes that he or she can stay strong with his/her faith without harassing those who believe differently.

That notwithstanding, props to the USAFA for doing the right thing, and with relatively little pressure on them to boot.

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