Posted on 05/05/2005 6:39:53 PM PDT by Jonah Johansen
Group urges AFA to ground 'proselytizing' By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News April 29, 2005
A watchdog group is pressuring the Air Force Academy to stop to what it calls a "pervasive atmosphere" of Christianity, or face a lawsuit or congressional scrutiny.
"It sends a wrong message to people who want to go there and to the international community," said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "That one of its missions is to convert people to Christianity doesn't sell well around the world."
................ Weinstein said. "This is not about religion, or Christian against Jew, but about a particularly virulent form of Christianity which has inextricably entwined itself at the academy."
This article by the Rocky Mountain News's "Religion" reporter is nothing more than a reprint of a typical Barry Lynn bigoted anti-Christian rant. The complaining witness Mr. Weinstein is clearly an anti-Christian bigot himself. I strongly suspect any alleged prejudice he or his sons experienced was a responce to his own outspoken bigotry.
Barry Lynn a "watchdog" group? WTF? There isn't a more liberal group around!
"A particularly virulent form of Christianity"??
Details, please...Denomination?
virulent form of Christianity
eeeeeeeeks that sounds worse than the Spanish Lady :o(
(from www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/573iewnz.asp
Barry Lynn is the top guy at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. . . It should come as no surprise to anyone, then, that the organization Lynn leads last week leveled a series of very serious charges against almost everyone at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
(snip)
(from their official report)
"Challenges to pluralism. YPT (Yale team) observed consistent specific articulations of Evangelical Christian themes during general protestant services. Protestant Cadets were encouraged to chant the phrase, “This is our Chapel and the Lord is our God.” Protestant Basic Cadets were encouraged to pray for the salvation of fellow BCT members who chose not to attend worship. During general protestant worship in Jack’s Valley, attending Basic Cadets were encouraged to return to tents, proselytize fellow BCT members, and remind them of the consequences of apostasy. (Protestant Basic Cadets were reminded that those not “born again will burn in the fires of hell.”) Protestant Basic Cadets were regularly encouraged to “witness” to fellow Basic Cadets. Protestant Basic Cadets were commonly told that Jesus had “called” them to the Academy and military life. Protestant Basic Cadets were informed that God’s plan for their life included attending USAFA.
YPT clearly articulated a concern that such stridently Evangelical themes challenged the necessarily pluralistic environment of BCT. YPT expressed a concern that the overwhelmingly Evangelical tone of general protestant worship encouraged religious divisions rather than fostering spiritual understanding among Basic Cadets. YPT suggested that the USAFA Chaplain Service reconsider the worship dynamics and Chaplain/Basic Cadet interaction during BCT. YPT suggested focusing on aspects of ecumenical teamwork and developing an appreciation of spiritual diversity.
(emphasis mine)
I'm SHOCKED, I tell you; SHOCKED! . . .
HORRORS!!!
Sorry, but we don't need to run our military academies to please other countries. In fact, they should be secret from them.
Sheesh I thought Lynn was a Christian.
Lynn pretends to be a reverand so he can wear the collar and look credible. I suppose that tax exemption doesn't hurt, either. A few years ago, he got put up against one of the folks on our side, and Lynn was basically asked if he presided over a formal parish. The answer was pretty muddled, if I recall correctly.
Like I said, this is the TV game of looking the part without actually being the part. Kind of like Jim Hightower dressing up a a cowboy (I didn't know fifteen-gallon hats existed!) or like John Kerry wearing camouflage.
Somebody wearing a cross must have given Barry Lynn a mighty wedgie sometime in the past.
Hey Barry, if you want to view someone I see as virulent, look in the mirror.
Jesus said to remove the log in your own eye before you worry about the splinter in your brother's eye.
Barry Lynn isn't that that rabid dog of the underworld?
A more anti-Christian son of Belial I do not think exists
today.
[[pretends to be a reverand so he can wear the collar and look credible]]
Seems that is quite the fad these days.
I know around here..there are more unemployed pastors than bartenders... :o)
Ummm.... and I just saw a story on the news yesterday that claimed that the AFA's atmosphere was extremely anti-christian.
Ranks right up there with "Ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremism"
We got a Watchtower today; first one in ten years on this block.
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