That didn’t take long. Capt. MeLinda Morton, who saw first hand the system of harassment and discrimination against religious minorities at the Air Force Academy, has been fired.
An Air Force chaplain who complained that evangelical Christians were trying to “subvert the system” by winning converts among cadets at the Air Force Academy was removed from administrative duties last week, just as the Pentagon began an in-depth study of alleged religious intolerance among cadets and commanders at the school.
“They fired me,” said Capt. MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran minister who was removed as executive officer of the chaplain unit on May 4. “They said I should be angry about these outside groups who reported on the strident evangelicalism at the academy. The problem is, I agreed with those reports.” […]
“The evangelicals want to subvert the system,” Morton said. “They have a very clear social and political agenda. The evangelical tone is pervasive at the academy, and it’s aimed at converting these young people who are under intense pressure anyway.”
The demise of Morton’s position at the Academy was not altogether unexpected. In confirming our worst fears about the academy to the New York Times this week, she acknowledged that by coming forward and standing on principle, she was inviting “the end of my Air Force career.”
Still, one can only hope that Morton’s sacrifice will promote Air Force changes so that cadets are no treated as second-class citizens, simply because of their religious beliefs. It sounds like Morton deserves a medal, not a demotion.