(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Religious Bigot Flight School erects giant cross in the middle of Religious Bigot Flight School's designated non-Religious-Bigot worship area.

Comments

[cuddlycthulhu.livejournal.com]

Here is my surprised face.

I read an article a year or two ago written by a dad whose son decided not to go to the Academy after they saw the amount of evangelical influence going on there.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

USAFA is a pit. Gorgeous setting, awful environment. I was only there for two weeks during the summer and I couldn't get home fast enough.

[cuddlycthulhu.livejournal.com]

Awful environment how?

[kadath.livejournal.com]

USAFA is overwhelming male, overwhelmingly white and middle class (you need a highly-placed government sponsor to get accepted--like governor or Senator highly-placed), and overwhelmingly Protestant evangelical Christian. Add to this the fact that the Air Force is a young service--USAFA didn't open until the 50s--so in place of tradition, it has hazing.

Because it's a military base, it has controlled entrance and exit, and cadets are under especially strict discipline regarding that. Thus, except for special occasions (upperclassmen have a bit more freedom) the cadets are trapped in a small, closed society whose damage reinforces itself.

I was a ROTC cadet there on a summer program. One of the USAFA cadets I was hanging out with looked at me and said "This place breeds social retards."

Gorgeous location, though.

[nomadmwe.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, would you know how the other service academies compare to the USAFA in this regard? Better? Worse?

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

In what fucking world is that a "hate crime"? Fucking religious people.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it's not. I mean, if it were on fire it would be one of the most classic of hate crimes. It was clearly an intent to tell the "devil worshupin pagans" that we don't want their religious tolerance in these here jesus lovin' parts. I don't know if I'd say it was a threat, but it's not too far off.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

What crime, precisely, has been committed?

[kadath.livejournal.com]

USAFA is governed by the UCMJ, not civilian law. It's damaging to "good order and discipline" under Article 134.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

If you spraypainted a swastika on a synagogue for the purpose to discouraging Jews from doing Jewish things on "your place", how would that *not* be a hate crime?

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Nobody committed vandalism. They left a wooden cross at the site.

[doom-diva.livejournal.com]

We see it as no different than leaving a Nazi flag on a temple's steps!! Whoever did that knew exactly what message he/she was sending, especially at that location. :(

As other posters have already pointed out, the Air Force has a bad rep for being inundated with intolerant, evangelical Christians. And, Colorado Springs as a whole is also known as being a hub for Christian fundamentalists. It's really a pity some folks can't practice what they preach.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

The baggage of "hate crime" aside, imagine the wholesale pantswetting that would occur if pagan symbolism had been left on a Christian temple altar.

Also, the oppressive Christian culture at the USAFA makes this as bad as a burning cross on a Southern black family's lawn.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Haha, neopagans love comparing their travails to the experience of blacks who lived in the Jim Crow South. It'd be hilarious if it weren't so fucking offensive.

[whisperkit.livejournal.com]

Fox News, "opinionated" from the very "intro".

..though some caution that it's hardly destructive behavior.

FFS, if this was an analogous example against christians, they'd have an entire article on terrorists infiltrating the USAF.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Except that the USAF are, themselves, decades of examples: If you're not an evangelical psychotic babtist ratfuck nutjob, you not only have no place in the Chair Force, but they will work hard to ensure that you *die*.

[senorcameltoe.livejournal.com]

Your headline is a bit unfair. Yeah, USAFA is a pretty screwed up place and this is completely unacceptable behavior.

The link text implies however that the cross was placed by the school itself, not by some secret evangelical freakshow as a thinly-veiled threat. Let it play out to see how the Academy leadership handle the issue. They'll probably fuck it up somehow, but so far they did the right thing by creating this place to begin with and they are "officially investigating" the incident.

I turned down an appointment there many years ago because it was a scary place. I think it is still pretty bad, but it has gotten better.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

My problem is that USAFA isn't a flight school. It has a flight school, but it's a four-year university.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Bullshit. The USAF is an unambiguously unrepentently "kristun" organisation and has been for decades. Bigoted actions take by their "academy" without punishment are the bigoted actions of the institution itself.

[senorcameltoe.livejournal.com]

On their history I'll completely agree with you...

All I'm suggesting is that it is a little early to jump to the "without punishment" stage. I admit it is HIGHLY unlikely that anyone will be caught or even if they do catch someone that it will be dealt with in a manner severe enough to be appropriate for this kind of bullshit.

When they attempt to brush the whole thing under the rug, THEN I'll shake my head in disappointment that they missed a chance to be above all of the religious fanaticism that has dogged them for decades.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

What. The. Hell.

I delete my first instinct comment which is to scream for lions - because that is unworthy of me and just wrong. *smacks head*

Damn - this is a level of gross disrespect that goes beyond arrogance


And that "we reject the idea of paganism..." WHAT THE HELL?! I reject the idea of Christianity - in fact, I am rather hostile to a religion whose leaders spend the majority of their time trying to destroy everything I have and everything I am - but even with that I have enough respect not to run into a church and desecrating their altar!

[cysfics.livejournal.com]

Ugh. If the religions were switched around, how much news coverage would there be, I wonder? And a whole thing about "devil worshiping" or something of that type. Another reason to stay in New York.

[skington.livejournal.com]

I like how the Fox News commenters say, effectively, "OK, this would be grotesquely offensive against religions normally, but hey, this is Christianity, and we all know that Christianity rocks, yes? So no harm done; just give them a slap on the wrist and tell them not to do it so much again."

[jaundicedaye.livejournal.com]

Just thank them for supplying you with wood for the Beltane bonfire and fertility ritual and move on with a smile.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

I'd imagine that cutting up a cross at the USAFA would lead to the next crucifix having little nooses hanging down from the two outer arms. Unironically even.