Air Academy Christian Fundamentalism

Re “Off We Go, Into the Christian Yonder,” Commentary, May 20: I’m mystified by Jonathan Chait’s writing that “liberals can get carried away exaggerating the threat of the religious right,” that “the religious right does not have a great deal of influence at the national level” and that “President Bush hasn’t even made the slightest effort to push a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, for instance -- even though he says he supports it.”

I don’t know what he means by “a great deal” of influence at the national level. All he would have to do is investigate the anti-science moles working away throughout the federal health, scientific and environmental agencies.

And Bush doesn’t have to “push” the amendment. The mere fact that the president of the United States has come out “supporting” such theocratic grandstanding is threat enough.

John F. Luke

Sierra Madre

Chait describes a truly horrific situation at the United States Air Force Academy, where evangelical Christians appear to have overrun the institution.

I, for one, can think of only two solutions to this nightmare.

One, the federal government should encourage the best and the brightest atheist, agnostic and theologically liberal students who are studying at universities like Harvard, Yale or Michigan to transfer to the Air Force Academy to serve as a counter to the troubling situation of a military service academy taken over by evangelicals.

Alternatively, the federal government should simply place a quota on the number of evangelicals who can join the military. It is plain that conservative Christians are overrepresented in the American armed forces, and this inequality is patently unfair.

I hope Chait will champion these solutions in future Op-Ed pieces.

Jason Ross

Arlington, Va.

Though Chait claims that the religious right does not have the capacity to impose its views on the rest of the country, he does assert that theocracy is not an inaccurate description of life at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Inasmuch as the academy produces the leadership of our military, where is the safeguard preventing our forces from assuming a holy warrior mentality as the natural progression of the academy environment?

How does such a military force work to promote peace in a non-Christian country without either having a sense of moral and spiritual superiority or worse yet, proselytizing?

Howard Prince

Garden Grove

As a former Air Force officer, I’m shocked and ashamed that the Air Force Academy has turned into the Bob Jones University of the Rockies.

What is really disturbing is that the academy can no longer expect to recruit the best and the brightest; just the best and brightest Christian fundamentalists. I can’t imagine a Jew, Muslim or atheist applying.

Or worse, what will be the culture of the Air Force when these grads are in command positions? A branch of the armed forces run on fundamentalist Christian principles? Holding sensitivity training classes is a Band-Aid at best.

I hope the Air Force has the common sense to clean house at the academy (including the athletic department) and bring in a non-Christian commandant.

Bill Lakin

Cambria