Critics of the Air Force Academy’s response to allegations of religious intolerance are accusing military officials of trivializing the issue by focusing on the alleged firing of a chaplain who complained of proselytizing by evangelical Christians.
The Air Force has asked the Department of Defense inspector general’s office to investigate Capt. MeLinda Morton’s statement that she was fired as one of the top chaplains at the academy near Colorado Springs for speaking up.
Academy officials deny that and say Morton’s transfer to Okinawa was moved up to coincide with the retirement of her boss, Col. Michael Whittington.
“The Air Force referred this to the Department of Defense inspector general to get an outside, independent review,” Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Ann Stefanek said Tuesday.
Morton and two leading critics of what they say is the academy’s promotion of conservative Christianity denounced the referral as an attempt to reduce a question of constitutional rights to a narrow, personnel matter.
“If they can turn this into a personnel matter, they can deal with things at the personal level and say they’ve done their job,” Morton said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
“The importance of this story are the constitutional issues, that people recognize that constitutional boundaries are being violated at a premier educational institution and take some action on that.”
Other critics questioned the value of an Air Force task force looking into allegations of anti-Semitism and religious intolerance.
The task force met with staff, faculty and cadets at the academy May 3 and briefed acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez on its preliminary findings Monday.
Stefanek said a formal report likely will be released in a couple weeks.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who spearheaded investigations into the academy’s 2003 sexual assault scandal, is concerned about the accusations of religious bias and looks forward to the inspector general’s report, a spokeswoman said.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who has requested briefings on the investigation, expects a thorough inquiry and will then will consider what steps are needed, a spokesman said.
“They were very narrow in their scope,” said Morton, referring to the panel’s phone interview with her.
Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, N.M., a 1977 academy graduate who has sent two sons to the school, and Kristen Leslie, a Yale University professor of pastoral counseling who wrote a report about the school’s chaplains, said the task force hasn’t asked them any questions.
Weinstein, an attorney, said he got a call May 13 from a task force member who said the group was offended by some of his remarks to the media. Weinstein said the person didn’t ask him about his reports of proselytizing by conservative Christians at the academy or his son, who is a sophomore, being the target of slurs because he is Jewish.
“He might as well have called me up and read to me out of a cook book,” Weinstein said.
Instead of investigating “the systematic desecration” of the First Amendment’s prohibition against government favoring any religion, the Air Force wants to narrow the scope to a personnel matter, Weinstein said.
He, Leslie and Morton said congressional hearings should be held on whether institutional religious intolerance exists at the academy. Leslie wrote in a report about a visit by her and a team of graduate students last year that some chaplains were creating a divisive atmosphere by urging Christian cadets to evangelize to their peers.
Leslie said she wrote about a chaplain who told 600 cadets during basic training “to go back to their tents and tell their fellow cadets that those who are not born again will burn in the fires of hell.” Air Force spokeswoman Stefanek said the panel is reviewing her report and didn’t think it was necessary to speak to her personally.
This is the second time the academy near Colorado Springs has been under a high-profile investigation in the past two years.
Nearly 150 women came forward in 2003 to say they had been assaulted by fellow cadets in the previous decade, with many alleging they were punished, ignored or ostracized by commanders when they spoke out.
The academy responded by overhauling the chain of command and policies involving reports of assault.
