The Revealer: This Is Our Chapel, These Are Our Guns

A daily review of religion and the press

This Is Our Chapel, These Are Our Guns

21 April 2005
In the town vying for the title of America's holy warringest city, there's also an Air Force Academy, and lately, the differences -- and overlaps -- between Colorado Springs' young soldiers and its civilian brigades of evangelical spiritual warriors have come under scrutiny. Over the past four years there have been 55 complaints of religious harassment or discrimination from non-Christian cadets, and a group of divinity school observers say the bias -- such as an advertisement placed in the Academy paper each year declaring Jesus the only savior and signed by 200 members of the (federal government employed) school staff; the Air Force chaplain encouraging Protestant cadets to proselytize and pray for the salvation of their fellow cadets during basic training as those not "'born again will burn in the fires of hell'"; Protestant cadets being encouraged to chant the phrase, "'This is our chapel and the Lord is our God'" -- comes from the surrounding culture, which "values evangelical Christian beliefs above others." Students from the Yale Divinity School were invited to observe the school's chaplains and worship services during basic training, and to report their observations about the atmosphere of religious tolerance at the school, after a 2003 cadet survey showed that 50% of the students had heard religious jokes and slurs at the academy. Following the Yale report, the Academy has developed a new sensitivity training program, "Respecting the Spiritual Values of All People (RSVP)."