Posted on 11/26/2011 5:28:51 PM PST by mandaladon
Reporting from Colorado Springs, Colo.— In the still of a cold November evening, a small gathering of pagans, led by two witches, begins preparations for the coming winter solstice. But these are not just any pagans, and this is not just any setting. They are future officers of the United States Air Force practicing their faith in the basement of the Air Force Academy's cadet chapel.
Their ranks are slim. According to the academy's enrollment records, only three of 4,300 cadets identified themselves as pagans, followers of an ancient religion that generally does not worship a single god and considers all things in nature interconnected.
Still, the academy this year dedicated an $80,000 outdoor worship center — a small Stonehenge-like circle of boulders with propane fire pit — high on a hill for the handful of current or future cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of "Earth-based." Those include pagans, Wiccans, druids, witches and followers of Native American faiths.
Witches in the Air Force? Chaplain Maj. Darren Duncan, branch chief of cadet faith communities at the academy, sighs. A punch line waiting to happen, and he's heard all the broom jokes.
For the record, there are no witches among the cadets this year. But the two spiritual leaders for all Earth-based religions — one a civilian, one an Air Force reservist — are witches and regularly cast spells, which they say is not so different from offering prayer. There also are no druids this year. But there could be next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I think the communists in Washington refer to it as “fundamental transformation”.
They’d better stick to
“God Is My Co-Pilot”.
The 1st Harry Potter Fighter Wing. Oh boy.
Disgusting. God and Freedom, that’s the two things it takes for a nation to prosper. Both are under constant attack.
USAFA is the most progressive of the service academies, IMHO. I say that because I flew/worked with a lot of its grads; and, they were, more than not, flaming liberals. There are almost always exceptions.
Absolutely disgusting.
BS
Modern Paganism was invented in the sixties.
The Pagans had no written language and the last of the Pagans died in the first millennium. No one really knows what the Pagans believed in other than human sacrifice; given all of the peat bog mummies that are found to have been ritually strangled.
Ah, just what we need, military members that believe we should do no harm to anyone. OK sure. We are in deep doo doo.
“pagans, followers of an ancient religion that generally does not worship a single god and considers all things in nature interconnected.”
Bleh and horse hockey. The folks calling themselves pagans today have little to no connection to any of the pagan faiths of ancient times. Wicca in fact, dates back only to the 1950s or so. It’s essentially the religious equivalent of a fantasy role playing game - meaning a bunch of folklore and legend (and apocrypha) blended into a palatable, New Age-y product with no serious intellectual or philosophical underpinnings.
Now, if that’s how someone wants to spend their weekend, that’s their business. Knock yourself out. But let’s be real about it is and is not.
“Peterson Tower, this is Broomrider flight of two, holding short, ready for takeoff.”
“The 1st Harry Potter Fighter Wing. Oh boy.”
I would really laugh at that as it was funny, unfortunately the AF has gone sooo looney PC that I am afraid it will get someone killed.
73. No military functions are to be performed “Skyclad”.
“Wicca in fact, dates back only to the 1950s or so. “
Yep. Wicca and Scientology were cut from the same cloth in the same year, 1950.
“I say that because I flew/worked with a lot of its grads; and, they were, more than not, flaming liberals.”
Toally agree. Many I knew/know are “preppy” types, which is liberal in itself. They were always into who was popular and thin skinned as can be. Very liberal.
“preppy” types
Exactly! Very appropriate.
“pagans, druids, witches and Wiccans”
Know these phoney types.
Hate Christians with a passion.
Subservient to Islam.
Rick Perry says he will repeal don’t ask don’t tell.
We need to stop the erosion.
Pretty pathetic. Since I live in Colorado Springs, I read about their outside worship area and the AFA even goes as far as setting up cameras so the area can be watched to prevent any vandalism.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
“Many bog bodies show signs of being stabbed, bludgeoned, hanged or strangled, or a combination of these methods. In some cases the individual had been beheaded, and in the case of the Osterby Head found at Kohlmoor, near to Osterby, Germany in 1948, the head had been deposited in the bog without its body.[13]
Usually the corpses were naked, sometimes with some items of clothing with them, particularly headgear.[14] In a number of cases, twigs, sticks or stones were placed on top of the body, sometimes in a cross formation, and at other times forked sticks had been driven into the peat to hold the corpse down. According to the archaeologist P.V. Glob, “this probably indicates the wish to pin the dead man firmly into the bog.”[15] Some bodies show signs of torture, such as Old Croghan Man, who had deep cuts beneath his nipples.
Some bog bodies, such as Tollund Man from Denmark, have been found with the rope used to strangle them still around their necks. Some, such as the Yde Girl in the Netherlands and bog bodies in Ireland, had the hair on one side of their heads closely cropped, although this could be due to one side of their head being exposed to oxygen for a longer period of time than the other. Some of the bog bodies seem consistently to have been members of the upper class: their fingernails are manicured, and tests on hair protein routinely record good nutrition. Strabo records that the Celts practiced auguries on the entrails of human victims: on some bog bodies, such as one of the Weerdinge Men found in southern Netherlands, the entrails have been partly drawn out through incisions.[16]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_body
They should be adapting to graduating war officers...
This is religion that we can be quite happy died out many centuries ago.
Diversity be dammed.
I had a co worker that was into all that shizzle.
She had dragons on the walls of her cubicle and would tell us how she worshiped nekkid in the backyard.
She is gone now, Not because of her BS beliefs but because she was a lousy worker, who spent all her time telling us this BS, rather than getting the job done.
Back in the 70s, I knew a guy that was kicked out of the Air Force ROTC at our university because of being a member of one of these “earth-based religions.” He was totally into the military as far as having good attitude and bearing but they still bounced him.
The worm has turned...
I’ve seen sorry bastages play the military for all they could get on training, then claim they refuse to serve on religious grounds.
They pulled their weight back on shore, doing logistics, that is the only reason they weren’t gone.
Anyone that wants “special treatment” needs to go.
They are going to fly nuclear armed aircraft for the USAF until such time that they turn against their own country?
If they want to fly, give them a broom.
OK: So which idiot Congress critter gave his/her endorsement to get these nuts into the Academy.
No, they're liberals.
Some time ago there was a Wiccan website that had an image of the moon on its home page. Presumably unbeknowst to themselves, the image they had chosen was taken from the Apollo 11 command module as it departed the moon, about ten thousand miles out, and at an angle never seen from the earth. This is how in touch they were with nature. I recognized it instantly.
I retire August 2014. I hate what my Air Force is becoming. On April 1st, 2015, my brother and I take our first steps on the Appalacian Trail. We are doing the whole trail. Can’t wait. I will miss the military.
The whole Wiccan/Pagan religion fad is about rejecting their own culture.
The modern public education system has used revisionist history to teach the younger generations that Western culture is sexist/racist/ecologically unsound and evil in general.
So they choose a religion that they believe is Earth centered instead of man centered.
Modern education is destroying our culture and our future.
From what I have read, I would have to say that the Naval Academy gives USAFA a good run for the money when it comes to Liberalism — especially of the Dhimmitude toward Islam is concerned, and West Point is not far behind! As I recall, it was the Navy that first pre-emptively said its chaplains can legally join (don’t call it marry, please) sodomite sailors in its chapels ... before the DADT reversal was even legally in place. But, I agree, USAFA is pretty sad. I fear our Republican candidates have no clue how much clean-up is needed at our academies and in our military leadership’s ranks.
[Scott - "The basic idea was Joe Allen's. It was another thing from sitting in the crew quarters at night, trying to figure out interesting things to do - that were useful, too. And I guess we had a lot of ideas. But Joe came up with the hammer and feather idea, and we decided where to get a feather. I had a friend who was a professor at the Air Force Academy. Their mascot's the Falcon. And we had the (LM) Falcon. So that was indeed, a falcon feather from an Air Force Academy bird. In fact, I had two of them. I was going to try it, first, to see if it worked - because of static charge and all that stuff it might have stuck to my glove. Didn't have time (for the trial run), so we just winged it. And it worked!"]
O tempora! O mores!
Thank you for your service.
“She is gone now, Not because of her BS beliefs but because she was a lousy worker, who spent all her time telling us this BS, rather than getting the job done.”
I had a wacko coworker like that as well. She was always wandering around the building trying to engage people in conversation about her church life, or leaving pamphlets on their desks if they had told her to go away in the past. Never getting her work done. I think she was “Cavalry Chapel”, which is some generic nondenominational Christian outfit.
That is odd, sure enough.
There must be some exception for self-defense allowed within the dogma or they’d be useless in the military. Why would the recruiter even accept someone who applied but espoused strict non-violence ? Will they only serve in Logistics, or what ?
Now that there is a place to worship, maybe they’ll get more than just the 3 Pagans. I’m sure the Christian chapel cost much more than $80K, so they just need more Pagans enrolled to justify the cost the way the many Christians justify the cost of their chapel. Otherwise, the $80K cost is pretty ridiculous to accommodate just 3 students.
This new guy told me when he gave me the film that “he had selected me wisely, with the consultation of his church, and they had agreed to share this with me because they would not throw pearls before swine”
I was like, hoo boy! I got a live one!
But I won’t say squat unless the fellow can’t perform his job.
Of course this fellow misses something astute.
He misses that men who would build Utopia do not have the answer.
Zeitgeist reads like pure liberal propaganda.
Watch the propaganda officer in “enemys at the gate”
He come to the conclusion that Utopia/equality on earth can not be done.
He becomes jealous, and envious, even of a poor boy.
Well, I am a Jew (a real one, not a “messianic jew”) and when I was an Army cadet we went to chapel (Christian) every day. Far from demanding my own “worship center” I never would have thought of not praying with my Christian buddies. Jesus had it right: “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am.”
Soon there will be mosques at Annapolis.
Point taken, when you get down to the nitty-gritty, they all have their problems resulting from the democrat party policies/culture. Rick Perry has said that he would reinstate DADT, that’s a point in Rick’s favor as far as I’m concerned because I know of no other GOP candidate who has even commented on it—correct me if I’m wrong.
Excellent point.
There is another thread on this over here with some other good background and comments:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2812774/posts?page=7
Hey, now, only 99.99% of Pagans give the rest of us a bad name.
This is why I’m a solitary practitioner. Most so-called Pagans I know use the faith as little more than a fashion accessory. If they actually cared enough about Paganism to educate themselves, they’d realize our ancient ancestors would have hacked the sh*t out of their pacifist, tree-hugging pansy arses.
and bush allowed and recognized wicca in the military
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