Intolerance in Education
  by Groff Schroeder

Perhaps nothing embodies the founding ideals of the United States of America more than religious
freedom. The "Puritans" who came to America in 1620 fled religious intolerance and sought religious freedom. The first Thanksgiving demonstrates their tolerance, because America's earliest Christians celebrated a bountiful harvest with "heathen" Native Americans. Religious freedom was so important to the founding fathers that the first clause of the first Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits the Congress from passing laws that establish religion.


The evolving religious intolerance scandal at the Air Force Academy is symbolic of just how far off course our nation has traveled. The oath for commissioned officers in the United States armed forces states "I …solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God."

While acts of Congress have changed the oath since it was first employed in 1775, inexplicably neither the Congress (whose members take a similar oath) nor powerful members of the armed forces have removed the words "so help me God" from the oath. This phrase suggests an establishment of Christianity in violation of the First Amendment because a Congressional act (law) defines the oath, and the oath clearly identifies the Christian God (vs. Allah, Vishnu or no god). On September 23, 2004, the House of Representatives passed HR2028, a bill outlawing federal judicial oversight (including Supreme Court oversight) of cases regarding the word "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. While the bill itself is not unconstitutional, it rejects more than 200 years of profound respect for Constitutional checks and balances and preserves a reference to a single religion in a patriotic pledge supposedly meant for everyone.

Due to the duties of officers and the nature of military practice, military educational institutions have a responsibility to teach the Constitution, the freedoms it grants, soldiers' duties under it, factual history and international military law (such as the Geneva Conventions). There are historical examples, most notably Nazi Germany, where religion helped redirect the devotion of a nation's military away from its people and constitution and to an individual, allowing military operations that ultimately destroyed the nation and people that the military was formed to defend.

Brigadier General Weida's email to his Air Force Academy class stating "Remember, you are accountable first to your God…" appears to contradict the oath taken by officers. Similarly, Congress's evasion of judicial checks and balances to protect a McCarthy era propaganda ploy in the Pledge appears to reject those same ideals of religious freedom and tolerance and the Constitution that defines them. Both these events suggest that America is casting off her most important traditions in favor of a narrow religious agenda. Clearly, the Air Force Academy is not alone in its religious tolerance problems. The Academy deserves credit for attempting to resolve its problem, but the situation only affirms the growing impression that religious fundamentalists with little respect for the Constitution, personal freedom or America's founding tradition of religious tolerance now control every aspect of the US government.

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