Last week, I noted that the system religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy had grown so serious that every non-Christian cadet was effectively treated as a second-class citizen. My friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which produced a devastating report on the academy’s tolerance for harassment, had threatened to sue the Air Force unless immediate changes were made.
To its credit, the Air Force has responded and indicated it will no longer tolerate a system that promotes religious intolerance.
The Air Force said yesterday it is creating a task force to address the religious climate at the U.S. Air Force Academy, following allegations that its faculty and staff have pressured cadets to convert to evangelical Christianity.
The acting secretary of the Air Force, Michael L. Dominguez, ordered the task force to make a preliminary assessment by May 23 of the religious atmosphere on the Colorado Springs campus and its “relevance . . . to the entire Air Force.” He named Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel, to head the effort.
The investigation is the second major probe of the academy in two years. In 2003, dozens of former female cadets came forward to say they had been sexually assaulted at the academy, prompting an overhaul of its policies toward women.
Alumni also have played a key role in raising the complaints of religious intolerance. Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, a White House attorney in the Reagan administration who graduated from the academy in 1977 and has sent two sons there, said yesterday that “a colossal failure of leadership is resulting in a constitutional train wreck” at the school.
I half-expected the Air Force to drag its feet a bit on this, responding to the complaint with some generic “we’ll look into it” response. Fortunately, the Air Force is owning up to the problem and taking a serious step towards fixing it. While there’s still time to screw this up — the Air Force has not yet said who they’ll appoint to his task force — these initial steps, coming just a few of days after AU’s complain, are encouraging.
Americans United agreed, welcoming yesterday’s announcement. Sounds like the Air Force, at least for now, has dodged a damaging lawsuit.