Air Force Academy creates worship area for Pagans, Druids, and Wiccans

Nice to see progress is being made in this country, at least in the armed forces (it was about three years ago - will be exactly three years on the 23rd that the Veterans Admin. made the decision to allow us (Wiccans like me who served our country in the armed forces) to put symbols of our faith on our tombstones.Hopefully other branches will follow the Air force.Here's the link to the story: Air Force Academy creates worship area for pagans, Druids, WiccansHere's the article:

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The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is establishing a worship area for followers of Earth-centered religions -- Wiccans, Druids, witches, pagans -- on a hill overlooking the campus, the USAFA says.

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The chief of the academy has made religious tolerance a priority after 2004 a survey of cadets found instances of harassment, the Air Force Times reports.

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On the school's Website, public affairs Staff Sgt. Don Branum says the new area, featuring a circle of stone formed by inner and outer rings, will join other worship areas on campus for Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists.

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Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, who became a Pagan after joining the academy, worked with the chapel to create the new site and asked the public to "treat it as you would any other religious structure."

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"There really haven't been any obstacles for the new circle," he said. "The chaplain's office has been 100-percent supportive."

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One of the chaplains, Lt. Col. William Ziegler, said the dedication of the site should be "another example of celebrating the freedom we enjoy as well as the freedom we, as Airmen, have pledged to defend."

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"If you take [a copy of] the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone. Our bible IS the wind and the rain." --Carol McGrathAn' it harm none,
Do what ye will."Mind the Threefold Law you should,
Three times bad and three times good."

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Hi ZeppherWiccan. I'm glad that Wiccan paganism wasn't acknowledged at West Point when my son was there and back in the 1950s when I was in the USAF. If Jehovah, the Biblical god be true, Wiccan and other forms of paganism become a curse to a culture. Things did not go well when Israel allowed the pagan high places and King Saul was rejected as king when he consulted the Witch Of Endor.

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If Jehovah be true, things will not go as well with the Air Force Academy and the USAF for accommodating Wicca and other pagan activities on campus.

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Allright - things didn't go well back then according to your book. So, should we also go back to "suffer ye not a witch to live" as well? Get back to the days when things "went well"?Edited by ZephyrWiccan, : No reason given.

So then, Faith, Christianity should not be officially recognized then, correct?I could care less about "the true God" of yours.

What else could the First Amendment have meant?The Supreme Court disagrees with you.

And yet, say, atheistic/paganistic countries like Japan and Sweden have much higher birthrates and better health than "christian" societies like america, etc.

Wow, looking around more, it appears Christians have chosen to show the "love" and desecrate the site:Cross found at Air Force Academy's Wicca centerFrom there:

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The Air Force Academy, stung several years ago by accusations of Christian bias, has built a new outdoor worship area for pagans and other practitioners of Earth-based religions.

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But its opening, heralded as a sign of a more tolerant religious climate at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., was marred by the discovery two weeks ago of a large wooden cross placed there.

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"We've been making great progress at the Air Force Academy. This is clearly a setback," said Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the academy. He is founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and has often tangled with the academy over such issues.

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Although he credits the academy's superintendent, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, with an improved climate of religious tolerance, Weinstein criticized other academy officials as trivializing the incident, which he said was not revealed to cadets.

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Rhetorically addressing academy officials, Weinstein said Tuesday, "It's been two weeks -- were you going to get around to telling them about this horrible thing that happened, and why haven't you?"

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Academy spokesman John Van Winkle said officials reported the situation to those on base and issued a message reiterating the school's policy of religious tolerance and respect.

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In a statement, Gould said, "We absolutely will not stand for this type of destructive behavior. I consider this no different than someone writing graffiti on the Cadet Chapel."

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In 2004, an academy survey found that many cadets felt that evangelical Christians were imposing their views and harassing non-Christians at the school.

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The following year, an Air Force task force determined that there was no overt discrimination but the academy had failed to accommodate the religious needs of some cadets. Since then, the academy has worked to change that, Van Winkle said.

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"It boils down to the key issue of respect -- respect for everyone's right to practice their faith as they choose," he said.

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Specific steps include the creation of a Cadet Interfaith Council that identifies upcoming religious holidays and helps adjust cadets' schedules to observe them.

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The academy -- which also has worship areas for Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish faiths -- already had a designated area for Wiccans, pagans and followers of similar traditions, but it was located on the north end of the 19,000-acre campus and was not easy for cadets to visit, Van Winkle said.

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What is wrong with these people?

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Where in the documents of the founding of the USA is this endorsement?

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Hmmm...... could it be, ....... The Treaty of Tripoli?The one that says:

Now be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof. And to the End that the said Treaty may be observed, and performed with good Faith on the part of the United States, I have ordered the premises to be made public; And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office civil or military within the United States, and all other citizens or inhabitants thereof, faithfully to observe and fulfill the said Treaty and every clause and article thereof.As a preface, and later says:Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.Couldn't be that one, could it?

Exactly - not sure if the sarcasm came across in my post or not, but it was meant to be.

And note that this treaty was fully ratified by the members of Congress. So obviously they agreed with it as well - not just Adams. Faith has a bigger problem than he/she realises.