Even though an internal Air Force Academy investigation found “no overt religious discrimination,” enlightened new rules regarding religious tolerance show that the school’s commanders are serious about improving the campus culture.
Fresh guidelines for “religious expression” emphasize respect for others’ beliefs while still supporting spirituality. Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, who was appointed as a special adviser to the Air Force Academy on religious tolerance, characterized the rules as 90 percent common sense and 10 percent spiritual.
That sounds like an appropriate formula since many of the instances of intolerance discovered at the school – from football coach Fisher DeBerry’s hanging of a banner reading “I Am A Member of Team Jesus Christ” to the more than 250 people who signed an annual Christmas message in the base newspaper that said that “Jesus Christ is the only real hope for the world” – could have been avoided with a little common sense.
The rules, along with Resnicoff’s hiring, are another positive sign emanating from Colorado Springs that academy leaders are tackling intolerance with the needed tenacity.
The guidelines, to be finalized Aug. 1, instruct authority figures to be sensitive about using their positions of power in expressing their personal religious beliefs to subordinates. We hope the wording of the actual rules will be much stronger than just being “sensitive.” The guidelines appropriately say cadet-to-cadet abuse won’t be tolerated, and neither should proselytizing by the brass.
Under Lt. Gen. John Rosa’s guidance, the academy has mounted a quick and thorough response to allegations and incidents of religious intolerance. Rosa is leaving for the top job at the Citadel, but we trust his effort to ensure the academy’s integrity will continue as the Air Force wrestles to ensure that religious expression, for all cadets, is acceptable for a government institution.
