[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 64 (Monday, May 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3266-H3268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AIR FORCE ACADEMY INAPPROPRIATELY AND IMPROPERLY PUTTING PRESSURE ON
CADETS TO FOLLOW CERTAIN RELIGIOUS PRACTICES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) is
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, a couple of weeks ago I
was disturbed to read of reports that people at the Air Force Academy
were inappropriately and improperly putting pressure on cadets to
follow certain religious practices. In this particular case, cadets who
did not follow a certain brand of Christianity were being ridiculed and
being criticized, and the allegations were that they were even being
pressured by officials of the Academy to follow this specific set of
religious practices.
Obviously, we should create a situation in which people of any
religious persuasion are free at the Academy to follow that. But for
young men and women who were sent to the Academy to learn to lead our
Air Force and defend our country in that important institution to be
subjected to religious
[[Page H3267]]
pressures, religious ridicule and criticism because they do not
particularly follow one or another religion is terrible public policy,
and, of course, unconstitutional.
When I heard that, my reaction was to give the Air Force the benefit
of the doubt. I wrote a letter to the Air Force Academy and the
Secretary of the Air Force asking that the Air Force be looking into
this, and I had read that in fact they were. So I thought, well, I hope
we are talking with reasonable people. These allegations sounded to me
like things that no reasonable person would allow to go forward. Let us
see what happens. I decided I would wait to see what the Air Force did.
Well, I am not waiting anymore, because the Air Force has acted. They
have made things worse. They have done some things that confirm the
view that I and others have that there is something seriously wrong.
Captain Melinda Morton, an Air Force chaplain, number two in the
chaplaincy there, was just transferred, well ahead of when she was
supposed to be transferred, to Okinawa.
Now, I mean no disrespect to Okinawa. For the people that live there,
it is home, and it is a wonderful home. It has a lot of advantages. But
when you are the number two in the chaplaincy in Colorado and you are
sent to Okinawa very suddenly, it is clearly meant to be a rebuke, and
the reason that the number two in the chaplain's office was sent to
Okinawa was because she was supporting the criticisms.
According to a New York Times article, which I will include for the
record, she was told by the Chief Chaplain, Colonel Whittington, after
a critical report on this subject from a team from the Yale Divinity
School, she was asked to denounce the report and defend the Academy.
But she said she could not do that because she agreed with the report.
It was about 2 weeks later that she was transferred to Okinawa.
So we have here not just a refusal to deal with inappropriate abuse
of people on religious grounds, but a punishment of a very brave
officer, a woman of integrity, a chaplain, a member of the clergy, who
in pursuance of her faith and her obligations and her understanding of
the Constitution refused to say something that she thought untrue about
a report.
When intelligent people say silly things, it generally means that
they do not want to tell you the truth. The explanation the Air Force
gives for sending her to Okinawa makes no sense at all. I do not
believe we have put in charge of the Academy people incapable of making
sense, so when they tell us things that are just silly, I think they
are covering up.
They gave a convoluted argument about, well, the other guy is going
to leave, so she is going to have to leave afterwards, and, therefore,
they both have to leave together. It makes zero sense. If anything, you
would probably say if a new person was coming in, it would be better to
have her there to help train him.
Then we were also told by both the New York Times and the Associated
Press that Colonel Whittington, the chaplain who apparently asked her
to denounce the report, and when she disagreed with him and said she
could not denounce the report she agreed with, and the report said
there had been inappropriate religious pressure, he apparently was part
of an effort to penalize her. We are told that he could not give an
interview to the New York Times and the AP because he was being
interviewed by the Air Force Special Study Panel.
Now, I doubt very much that the Air Force Special Study Panel is
grilling him 18 hours a day, or even 10 hours a day. In other words,
there is obviously no conflict between being interviewed by this panel
and also talking to the press.
Why do they not let the chaplain talk to the press? Because they are
afraid if he told the truth it would be embarrassing, is my inference.
If there is a different argument, let them give it to us.
Madam Speaker, we should note that among those who brought these
allegations to light originally is a proud Air Force Academy alumni,
Michael Weinstein, who worked for the Reagan Administration, whose son
is now there, who said he has spoken to 117 people at the Academy who
validate the accusation that there is inappropriate pressure put on
people and that people are subject to disadvantages if they do not
follow a particular religious view.
The Air Force has got to reverse this pattern of religious oppression
at the Academy, of religious abuse, ``oppression'' may be too strong;
it has got to stop the transfer of a brave woman for speaking out; and
they have got to take seriously a problem, rather than make it worse.
Madam Speaker, I include for the record the May 15, 2005, New York
Times article entitled ``Air Force Chaplain Says She Was Removed for
Being Critical.''
[From the New York Times, May 25, 2005]
Air Force Chaplain Says She Was Removed for Being Critical
(By Laurie Goodstein)
A chaplain at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs who
has accused her superiors of using their positions to promote
evangelical Christianity among the cadets says she was fired
from an administrative job because of her outspokenness and
was given orders to ship out to Japan.
An Air Force task force, meanwhile, has finished an
investigation at the academy into charges by the chaplain and
others that officers there were inappropriately proselytizing
the cadets.
The academy chaplain, Capt. MeLinda Morton, said she had
disagreed with her boss, the academy's chief chaplain, Col.
Michael Whittington, after a critical report by a team from
the Yale Divinity School was released to the news media in
April. The report, dated July 2004 and which she helped
write, found that some academy chaplains were insensitive to
the religious diversity of the cadets.
Captain Morton said her boss asked her to denounce the
report and defend the academy, but she told him she agreed
with it. She said that about two weeks later, on May 4, she
received an e-mail message from Colonel Whittington
dismissing her from her position as his administrative
assistant, or ``executive officer.'' However, she remains a
chaplain, retains her rank and earns the same salary.
``That is pretty plainly, in my mind, retribution,''
Captain Morton said. ``That makes a big point on a staff. The
point is, `We don't regard Mel as trustworthy and we
humiliate her by firing her.' However, in the whole scope of
things, that's pretty minor to what's going on in the
academy.''
She also said that in March she received orders to transfer
to Okinawa, and from there could be deployed to Iraq or
Afghanistan. Captain Morton said she was surprised because in
December she was told by Colonel Whittington that she would
be staying at the academy through summer 2006 to see several
projects through. At the time, Captain Morton was developing
a sensitivity training program for the academy and was
involved in pastoral care for cadets who were victims in a
sexual abuse scandal that swept the academy in 2003.
An academy spokesman, Lt. Col. Laurent Fox, said in an
interview that Captain Morton's dismissal as executive
officer and her reassignment to Okinawa were entirely
routine, and not retribution. He said that Captain Morton was
removed from her position in order to make way for a new
executive officer because Colonel Whittington was leaving the
academy in June and Captain Morton is leaving in July.
``We don't see this as a dismissal,'' Colonel Fox said.
``This kind of a transition is a normal process that happens
in squadrons across the Air Force.''
Colonel Fox said he knew nothing about a meeting that led
to a quarrel over the Yale Divinity School report. A request
to interview Colonel Whittington was denied because he was
being interviewed by the task force investigating the
religious climate at the academy. The task force is expected
to release a preliminary report on May 23.
Complaints about the religious climate at the academy first
surfaced after fliers were passed out in the dining hall
advertising a showing of the movie ``The Passion of the
Christ.'' An alumnus of the academy, Mikey Weinstein, grew
concerned after he visited his son at the school last year
and learned that he had been subject to repeated religious
slurs because he is Jewish.
Mr. Weinstein, who served in the Reagan administration,
said yesterday that he became enraged and set out to see if
others had similar experiences. He said he has now spoken
with 117 academy cadets, staff members and faculty members
who complained about religious intimidation and proselytizing
at the academy. Of the 117 people, 8 are Jewish, one is an
atheist, about 10 are Catholic and the rest are
nonevangelical Protestants.
His son was interviewed by the task force this week, Mr.
Weinstein said. He said he was not interviewed by the task
force, even though ``I have a boatload of information,'' he
said.
``I can't reveal people's names, but I thought it might be
useful,'' he said.
____
[From Associated Press, May 13, 2005]
Chaplain Says She Was Ousted
(By Robert Weller and Jon Sarche)
Denver.--A top Air Force Academy chaplain said Thursday she
was fired for speaking
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up about anti-Semitism and other reports of religious
intolerance among cadets and staff, including allegations
that evangelical Christians wield too much influence.
Capt. Melinda Morton said she was fired last week by her
boss, Col. Michael Whittington. Morton said she was pressured
to deny a report by Yale Divinity School Professor Kristen
Leslie that a chaplain told 600 cadets during basic training
last year ``to go back to their tents and tell their fellow
cadets that those who are not born again will burn in the
fires of hell.''
``I was told by Chaplain Whittington that if someone was
going to be loyal to the chaplaincy and the Air Force, then
someone would take a certain view of the Yale report and view
Dr. Leslie as disloyal,'' Morton said.
Both chaplains had been scheduled to leave the school this
year, with Whittington, the academy's chief chaplain,
retiring and Morton, his executive officer, scheduled for an
overseas assignment. She called that an excuse to get rid of
her.
The Air Force's chief chaplain, Maj. Gen. Charles Baldwin,
said Morton was not fired.
Her duties have changed, however, because Whittington will
retire in June rather than in July as originally planned.
Morton has been scheduled for reassignment to an Air Force
base in Japan for some time, Baldwin said.
The academy said Whittington was unavailable because he was
being interviewed for a Pentagon investigation into more than
50 complaints of religious intolerance in the past several
years.
____________________