Jesus and the Air Force Academy

It seems that Jesus is alive and well at the Air Force Academy. For some people’s tastes He’s too alive. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen writes that there is “a culture of militant Christianity, of intimidation and outright bigotry” at the Academy. One former chaplain called it a “‘systematic and pervasive effort’ at religious proselytizing in which both students and faculty participated.” Cohen writes that there are “semi-official efforts to promote Mel Gibson’s film, ‘The Passion of the Christ.’” Students are getting emails “with religious messages,” and some classes “are opened with a prayer.” Why does Cohen believe these are troubling developments?: “[T]he Air Force Academy is not just another school. It is an entirely government-supported institution whose graduates go off and work for the government—which is to say you and me.”

I wonder why Mr. Cohen isn’t as critical when there is anti-Christianity going on in other “government-supported” institutions. Why hasn’t Mr. Cohen addressed the nearly universal anti-Christian worldview that permeates tax-funded colleges and universities? Here are some examples taken from Ben Shapiro’s Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth (2004):

• Professor James Wright of Hunter College called Jesus a “half-crazed logician.”
• Professor Corey Washington of the University of Maryland uses his classroom to express his religious views: “I am simply saying that it is more probable that God does not exist.”
• Self-professed homosexual Camille Paglia, who lectures at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, argues “for the Greco-Roman or pagan line, which is very tolerant of homosexuality and even of man-boy love.”
• Professor Kevin Haley of Central Oregon Community College was fired for allegedly teaching creationism as well as evolution. Would a professor have been fired for teaching atheism?
• When Ron Brown, who had taught at Nebraska for seventeen years, was interviewed for the position of head coach at Stanford, he was rejected because of his religious beliefs. Here’s how Brown described the rejection: “If I’d been discriminated against for being black, they never would have told me that. They had no problem telling me it was because of my religious beliefs.”

Of course, these examples pale in comparison to the almost daily accounting by students who have to endure lectures by anti-Christian professors who use their classrooms to intimidate the religious beliefs of their captive audience who, if they protest too loudly, will have their grades affected. On these issues, Mr. Cohen is silent.