Church-State Separation Group Joins Air Force Academy's Religious Program | Christianpost.com- Christian News Online , Christian World News
Church-State Separation Group Joins Air Force Academy's Religious Program | Christianpost.com- Christian News Online , Christian World News:
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) – A Colorado Springs group dedicated to separation of church and state has been added to the Air Force Academy's religious education program that has been criticized for promoting evangelical Christianity.
Free Thinkers of Colorado Springs has joined the school's Special Programs in Religious Education, an umbrella group for extracurricular religious programs, the Gazette reported Monday.
The academy is to be congratulated for recognizing "the need to expand mentoring services to cadets by including the secular as well as the religious," Jeff Lucas of Free Thinkers said in a statement.
Free Thinkers formed in 1993 in response to "the special threat we find from religious groups in Colorado Springs," according to the group's Web site.
The group bills itself as "a haven for people moving away from religious dogma."
Free Thinkers hopes to start work at the academy with weekly discussions and bring in prominent scientists, leading authors and academics.
Academy leaders have been accused of using the religious education program to impose Christianity on cadets. Air Force graduate Mikey Weinstein, a lawyer in Albuquerque, N.M., is suing the Air Force over claims that academy officials have illegally forced evangelical Christian views on cadets.
An Air Force task force said last year that it found no overt religious discrimination at the school but that some cadets and staff were insensitive.
Religious guidelines issued by the Air Force last year haven't stopped the complaints. Weinstein and other critics have said the guidelines are unconstitutional because they still allow evangelical Christians to promote their religion and senior officers to influence the religious choices of their subordinates.