Under mounting pressure from Congress and blistering criticism from Jewish leaders, the superintendent of the Air Force Academy last week tried to put the lid on the mounting controversy over religious coercion, proselytizing and outright anti-Semitism at the school.
Speaking to Anti-Defamation League leaders, Lt. Gen. John Rosa, Jr., admitted the academy has a serious problem and warned that it could take an astonishing “six years to fix it.”
Jewish leaders questioned the time frame but welcomed his honesty and his determination to slap down those teachers and student leaders who can’t tell the difference between the Bible and the Constitution.
But this isn’t just a function of bad leadership or the school’s proximity to the mega-churches and national ministries in nearby Colorado Springs. The problem reflects a national political climate that has been dramatically altered by the volatile mix of religion and politics in Washington.
Congress and the Bush administration are determined to correct what they say is a hostile government approach to religion; and they are changing the rules when it comes to church-state separation.
One result may be a perceived green light to those who want to turn the military, the workplace and the nation’s educational system into Christianity’s new “mission fields.” The Air Force Academy could be just the most visible example of a widening problem.
From the beginning, Bush administration officials, backed by congressional Republicans, have pressed hard to help sectarian groups. They argue that religious social service providers are often the most innovative and efficient; and that some traditional regulations may have put such groups at a disadvantage in the all-important quest for government funds.
But the White House has gone much further. It has deliberately sought religious groups for government funding.
Endless rhetoric
When the last Congress balked at sweeping “charitable choice” legislation — cutting back the rules sectarian groups have to follow to get government grants — Bush bypassed it and invoked his executive authority to open the money spigots.
Religious groups playing by old rules requiring a strict separation between their religious and social service functions, including many Jewish agencies, suddenly found themselves at a disadvantage as Christian groups playing by different rules were given first crack at funding.
Conservative Christian groups have been the biggest beneficiaries of this government largesse, sending out a clear signal of religious preference.
The administration counts among its best friends and most important supporters religious activists who openly scorn church-state separation — many call it a “myth” — and simply ignore the Establishment Cause of the Constitution.
Bush and congressional conservatives are not proposing their brand of Christianity become the nation’s official religion, (although the Texas Republican party included a “Christian nation” plank in its 2004 platform); but they have boosted the legitimacy of those who do through their policies and their endless rhetoric about attacks on “people of faith.”
Other incidents have amplified the message. The administration refused to fire a top general who said terrorists are attacking the United States “because we’re a Christian nation.” Some Congressional leaders participated in a “Freedom Sunday” broadcast by political preachers who use harsh religious invective to describe a judicial “war” against Christians.
The message in all this is plain. The traditional church-state balance is no longer in force.
Protections worked out in legislation and court decisions over two centuries may not have been reversed by Congress or the courts, but the nation’s top leaders are working for that goal and signaling their sympathy for those who want government support for sectarian functions.
The Air Force Academy scandal reflects problems that predate the Bush administration. They include the unique culture of the Air Force and the peculiarities of central Colorado, where some of the most powerful and politically national ministries are headquartered.
But it’s hard to imagine the commanders and cadet officers who have made life miserable for many non-evangelical students weren’t emboldened by the new mood in Washington. That’s the flip side of the faith-based juggernaut, the slippery slope Jewish church-state groups are always warning about.
Mixing government and religion, they say, produces inevitable pressure to favor one faith group over all others; and scaling back legal protections for religious minorities at the behest of the dominant group creates an environment that breeds intolerance and discrimination and a dangerous sense of religious entitlement.
The Air Force Academy controversy may be just the tip of the iceberg as every federal agency and department, including the military, begins to reap the faith-based whirlwind.
Former Madisonian James Besser has been Washington correspondent for the New York Jewish Week, the Baltimore Jewish Times and other leading Anglo-Jewish newspapers for more than 15 years.
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