Air Force Academy – The Air Force has developed a draft of new guidelines for religious expression at the Air Force Academy, with the final guidelines expected after Aug. 1.
Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force, said Friday during a visit to the academy that the guidelines would be “90 percent common sense and maybe 10 percent controversial.”
Resnicoff, the former national director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, was hired by the Air Force last month to advise acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez on how the academy will develop religious respect guidelines.
Resnicoff and a host of other Air Force brass, including Dominguez, were in Colorado Springs on Friday and Saturday for a meeting of the Board of Visitors, the academy’s oversight committee that is akin to a board of trustees at a civilian university.
The academy has been embroiled in controversy over religious tolerance issues for several months.
On June 22, an Air Force task force released a 93-page report that found a “perception of religious intolerance” at the academy, but no overt bias against cadets who are not evangelical Christians.
The task force recommended the academy develop guidelines regarding religious expression.
Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, who led the task force that prepared the report, is expected to talk Saturday to the Board of Visitors about the report’s contents. Brady was not expected to reveal the draft of guidelines that are still under review by Dominguez and Gen. John Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff.
In addition to guidelines, the task force recommended several steps to improve the religious climate at the academy, including providing a single entity where people can go with religious concerns, hammering home that commanders must accommodate religious holidays in scheduling and providing opportunities for cadets to explore their spirituality.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
