<p>Although I am not a candidate for AF, I was interested to watch a report this morning on a trend towards religious intolerance at the academy. This was on Good Morning America. According to the report, non-Christians are subjected to various forms of harassment. Evangelical christianity apparently is prevalent on campus with many bible study classes, etc., which are fine with me as long as religious differences are recognized. People who are interested in attending the academy should be aware of this and I would like to hear from current cadets as to their feelings on this issue. Thanks.</p>
<p>First of all, I can't say any of this first hand because I don't go there.</p>
<p>I do think though that the media's claims that USAFA is so religiously intolerent probably make the situation out to be worse than it is. I first read of this charge in the New York Times, which almost openly has a liberal bias. I think the media is quick to jump on any problem they "find" in any of the academies because of their own biases, but also because the military academies are held to higher standards than civilian schools. Any problems that go on at academies are usually blown up to an extreme degree because of those high standards.</p>
<p>Also, the fact that USAFA tries to promote faith might come across to some as religious intolerence. Up until afew years ago (10+ at least, though), chapel attendence was mandatory. The development of spiritual and personal growth is a very prevalent and important aspect to academy life and experience, for good reasons too. For one thing, I think the academy wants students to have some place to turn for comfort in their times of need. For another thing, I think the academy, with the honor code and obvious system of military discipline, is trying to promote a lot of the same values that religion does; for example to condemn lying, cheating, stealing, abuse of power, arrogance, and needless killing and embrace fairness, order, restraint, honor, self-respect, sacrifice, and duty. What better way to help cadets learn such core and vital values than through the promotion of faith?</p>
<p>There is definately a very heavy population of Evangelicals/other Christians there, but what do you expect, really? Many of the cadets come from regions in the country where faith and religion are very prominent. And as I stated before, religious values are common with a lot of academy values, so people who are inclined to believe in certain religious and/or Christian values are probably going to be more inclined to go to a school that advocates the same values. </p>
<p>There is going to be intolerence no matter where you go. There are always going to be people who are so closed minded that they are truly conviced their way of thinking is the only correct way. If there are more of these people at USAFA than at a typical school, I can give two reasons for it. First, USAFA is not a typical school. It's a very specialized institution that caters to a very specific crowd. Second, the cadets at USAFA are very duty-bound and loyal to their convictions. They are devoted to the school, to the Air Force, to the country- why would that same devotion not logically carry over to cadets' religious faith?</p>
<p>However, I would have to guess that there really aren't all that many people who make it hard for the few athiests, Jews, Buddhists, and other-faith cadets who attend, and as far as I know, USAFA makes every effort to be inclusive. In the chapel there are separate Catholic and Jewish rooms for worship, as well as an all-faith room. I think they also employ Muslim and Buddhist chaplains, although I could be wrong about that. </p>
<p>USAFA does a lot to foster a sense of comeraderie amongst the cadets. Any intolerence that does go on there is the fault of narrow minded cadets who make bad choices about how they conduct themselves toward others and is not, in my opinion, the fault of the academy.</p>
<p>Mandatory chapel attendance ended at USAFA in the mid-70s. The claims made in the various articles in the NYTimes, etc have some significant basis. Trust me on this one--I won't go into details. The leadership, though, is dealing with the problem pro-actively, and I have confidence that the situation will improve. Religion should be no more part of the normal military workplace than partisan (party) politics. They are private matters. USAFA will strive to make sure that no cadet is discriminated against because of his/her religious stance--unless, of course, those religious (or atheist) views run counter to the mission of the Academy, the Air Force, and the Constitution (i.e., the cadet oath).</p>
<p>As comes from my older brother (a former cadet) he said evangelicals and protestants are pretty much the norm, cathoilcs fit in pretty well. They say other than that you are prone to harassement especially if you are muslim, you are barely tolerated. Same thing goes with hindus as well. Pertaining to the other two posters you guys have to notice the military can promote all it wants, however if the laedership does nothing about the religious intolerance among most of the cadet population what the hell can you do?</p>
<p>PS I've heard horror stories</p>