Posted on 11/28/2011 4:12:34 PM PST by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis
The US military has built a stone circle in its Air Force academy to give pagans, druids and witches somewhere to practice their religion.
The Colorado base has spent around £50,000 building the Stonehenge-like structure to allow witches to cast spells, and pagans to form "circles of power" by night.
It is situated on top of a wooded hill and includes a fire pit.
The academy says it is for cadets who practice 'Earth based' religions including druids, witches and North American faiths.
Despite the expenses it is believed only three out of the 4,300 cadets have openly admitted that they are pagan.
Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman, campaigned to ban witches from the military, saying: "What's next? Will armoured divisions be forced to travel with sacrificial animals for Satanic rituals? Will Rastafarians demand the inclusion of ritualistic marijuana cigarettes in their rations?"
The Wiccan religion was added to the US Army's chaplain's handbook in the 1970s and includes details on how covens are organised and how Druids worship 'Mother Earth and Father Sky.'
"Most Wiccan groups also practise magic, by which they mean the direction and use of 'psychic energy' — those natural but invisible forces which surround all living things," it explains.
The air force says the site is to help to protect the constitutional right to religious freedom.
But some think it is an attempt to attract more Wiccans to the army.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
$75,000 for that?
Didn’t you notice the high class rocks they used?
It is well known that the “culture” of the Academy is Christian. Obamalini’s people don’t approve.
Dungeons and dragons in the military. Great, so much for warriors.
The Von Trapp Family children singing THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS.
Well the culture can be what it is; the constitution will be followed, including the parts that we might not lilke.
RE: But some think it is an attempt to attract more Wiccans to the army.
Stupid dinosaur media. The Air Force accedes to paganism to attract more Wiccans into the Army. They spend five minutes regurgitating what someone else tells them to write without any critical thinking.
And WTF is the Air Force thinking?
Eventually I would expect the Timothy Leary song.
So when does Annapolis buid a Viking Longboat for the Odinists?
What I wrote was quite clear. But since you want to inject a red-herring, I very much doubt that standards need to be lowered to train Jewish officers. On average, however, standards are lowered to admit blacks, whether it is the Academy, Harvard, or the Univeristy of Michigan. Please note the “on average”.
The issue is whether they are admitting the best qualified applicants available. “Diversity” quotas, which they have, but won’t admit, are an admission that they are not. Better people are being excluded from the Academy so that the Administration’s agenda of “race, class, gender, etc., equity” is advanced.
Anyone who thinks she is a witch or thinks he is a warlock is mentally ill and has no business at any of the Academies. None of that is remotely equivalent to being Jewish or black. If you think simply calling something a “religion” qualifies it for protection, perhaps the Academy could recognize Rastarianism so that Affirmative Action admits could worship a statue of Haile Selassie and smoke ganja. Perhaps a fertility cult could be next.
The Constitution doesn’t require that taxpayers erect a stone circle.
I define a “cult” as a religion that doesn’t have enough voters yet.
Heh, I was just thinking if we piled some hickory in the center there, it’d be a heck of a place for a pig roast!
Love to see a 155MM or an 8 incher try to drop one right into that circle.
That will be coming soon, no doubt. Sad.
“Diversity” became part of the Girl Scouts a few years back (~15 or so years ago), and when that happened, it all went downhill. Same thing is happening within our academies. It’s a crying shame. This is where political correctness has taken us. Since we don’t stop it in its tracks, this is what we get.
That is a very funny line ;-)
Unfortunately, this leaves hanging the question of where a young cadet can go in order to sacrifice chickens and goats.
Let’s hope the Air Force Academy will quickly resolve this pressing issue.
It does require freeedom of religion. Other religions have places of worship on post. Under our constitution we cannot discriminate just because we don’t like what someone else is worshipping. In fact it is FOR that reason that freedom of religion is so important.
Under our Constitution we can discriminate just because we don’t like what someone is worshipping. The federal government, under the Constitution, is restricted in certain ways, but even it doesn’t have to be neutral, and even after several decades of unconstitutional “interpretation” of the Constitution it still isn’t.
If you doubt me, try presenting a 1st Amendment defense to a polygamy charge, a human or animal sacrifice charge, or a cannibalism charge. With leftists in control of the law schools and culture generally, this may change, but for now the courts will still enforce these restrictions like these on religion.
What you are advocating is a metastasizing form of the leftist jurisprudence first injected into the case law in 1947 by a former Klansman, Hugo Black, and developed into its full pathology by the Warren Court and subsequent courts. There is no “freedom of exercise” reason at all that the government has to build a “stone circle”. Even under the most liberal current caselaw, the legal standard is met if cadets are not prohibited from practicing witchcraft.
In any sane society, people’s critical faculties would not go into instant paralysis the moment a catch phrase like “freedom of religion” is invoked. As Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed, “A good catch phrase can set critical thinking back fifty years.” In this case, An applicant who thinks he or she is a warlock or a witch should no more be considered for admission to the Academy than an applicant that thinks he is a cantelope or a carrot.
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