Air Farce Academy: Worship Area For Wicca, Druidism, Earth-centered Religions

The lunatics have taken over the asylum. WTF is wrong with these idiots running things today? This is beyond stupid, it's just pathetic. It's a freaking disgrace.

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- The Air Force Academy in Colorado has set up an outdoor worship area for followers of Wicca, Druidism and other Earth-centered religions.

A double circle of stones atop a hill on the campus near Colorado Springs has been designated for cadets and other service personnel in the area to practice Earth-centered faiths.

The academy said Monday that chapel staff worked with Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, who follows the Pagan tradition, to establish the area. He's the noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the academy's astronautics labs.

The school also has worship facilities for Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists.

Comments

[southdakotaboy]

HMMM? Outside, on a Hill, in Colorado...in WINTER? Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't at least one of those group hold their worship services in the buff? Did I mention winter? That should do a good job of seperating the true believers from the wannabes!

[Evil Red Scandi]

So what? If people want to have religious beliefs that some consider nutty, well, this is America. Have at. Just remember - some people probably consider your beliefs to be nutty too. As long as they're not bothering other people, who cares?

[Dan Riehl]

Yeah, right, ERS. Because we all know what terrific contributions to civilization a bunch of freaking tree huggers and misguided Goth types have made over thousands of years. It's precisely that type of foolish thinking that results in nothing meaning anything any more.

[Ronald Dio]

don't worry, when Honor Guard rages up to the LZ during a standard training session and runs into a bunch of civilian cadets in matrix garb on an afternoon taking a blow worshiping satan they'll get set strait in a hurry. WTF is some freakshow NCO doing fraternizing with all that druid crap with cadets anyway?? I thought it was tough enough dealing with thermo and six other classes and living out of a laundry bag...throw pagans into the mix?? RE FOCUS ON THE FIGHT OR SHUT DOWN!!!!!!!!!

[A Conservative Teacher]

Do you think this would classify as the worshipping of false idols?

[richard mcenroe]

Who wants to watch a bunch of Air Force weenies, no pun intended, dance widdershins skyclad...

[wolfwalker]

WTF is wrong with these idiots running things today? This is beyond stupid, it's just pathetic. It's a freaking disgrace.

It's the First Amendment. Congress shall make NO LAW respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Incidentally, your characterization of Wiccans as "a bunch of freaking tree huggers and misguided Goth types" is quite false, as is Ronald Dio's association of Wicca with satanism. The Wiccans I've known tend to be quite decent folks -- more so than many People of the Book. Their Horned God has nothing to do with Satan, or any other Judeo-Christian figure.

[richard mcenroe]

The Devil you say...!

[Evil Red Scandi]

@Dan - Who cares if they haven't contributed anything (I don't know if that's the case or not - it probably isn't - but whatever). Let's take a look at a more mainstream religion - for example the Catholic church is practically the Religion of NAMBLA. So what if the tree-huggers and rock-worshipers are goofy? At least they're not raping young boys then making the guy in charge of the cover-up Pope, or conducting the occasional Spanish Inquisition, or whining about poverty while hoarding billions of dollars in wealth in the Vatican. I'm pretty sure the Wiccans never threatened to torture Galileo. Goofy is goofy, but there's plenty of "mainstream religion" that passes for downright hard-core evil - at least in my book. I guess I'm just bitterly clinging to my anti-pedophilia beliefs.

This is the one thing that turns me completely off from mainstream conservatism - an utter unwillingness to live and let live. People believe all kinds of strange stuff. As long as their beliefs don't bother me or my property, then who cares? If people want to crack down on religion (NOT something I support - I stick to the occasional snide remark when provoked by hypocrites, and even hold my tongue around my Catholic friends unless they start throwing stones), there are some much better places to start.

[Dan Riehl]

'your characterization of Wiccans as "a bunch of freaking tree huggers and misguided Goth types"'

I don't believe it is, WW. I've known plenty of Wiccans myself. I didn't say they weren't decent people. But, yes, given that it only began 40 or so years ago and remains marginal, as best, to put it on par with the world's great religions is silly.

And many adherents are, indeed, not much more than misguided Goths simply looking for a spiritual home that isn't something else.

[astonerii]

I do not see a problem with this, so long as the venue is no more costly than other religious venues.

Like the one guy said, outside, in the buff, mid January, in Colorado, should be interesting.

[BR]

Quote: "The lunatics have taken over the asylum. WTF is wrong with these idiots running things today? This is beyond stupid, it's just pathetic. It's a freaking disgrace."

In what way is it any more ridiculous than this:

"The school also has worship facilities for Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists."

Is one particular irrational superstition superior to some other one?

[xerocky]

"And many adherents are, indeed, not much more than misguided Goths simply looking for a spiritual home that isn't something else."

And what's wrong with that? Let them have their time, they'll figure it out and grow up. It's part of growing up.

[Dan Riehl]

Nothing wrong with it, xr - but making it into something it isn't is a joke that only demeans another institution, which is precisely what the Left wants.

[Anon]

Wouldn't it have made more sense from the get-go for a non denominational worship space to be provided for everyone and if you want to bring in the specific totems of your religion, whatever they may be, that's on you, the worshipper, rather than having to provide now a laundry list of spaces for every religion under the sun?

[templar knight]

Exactly, Anon. The problem here again is political correctness. The Academy had a chapel, built many years ago, and this whole problem has arisen from the powers that be trying to accommodate anyone who makes a claim about being treated unfairly. The chapel was part of the tradition of the place, and that was it.

[Charlie Martin]

You are absolutely right. It is a disgrace that the AFA has had to be dragged screaming into the First Amendment.

[wolfwalker]

Dan, Wicca as an organized faith is closer to 80 years old than 40, and it was built on beliefs that go back centuries. And it has nothing whatever to do with the Goth subculture. Also, I don't recall seeing anything about a religion's age or number of adherents in the First Amendment.

In any case, the Air Force Academy is behind the times here. The US Army made room for Wicca among its accepted faiths more than ten years ago. That's the same US Army that kicked the stuffing out of the Taliban, Saddam's army, and the various waves of Iraqi insurgents. It doesn't seem to have harmed unit cohesion or battle readiness, does it?

[Anon]

What does the First Amendment have to do with forcing the Air Force to provide facilities for every religion practiced by its members?

Freedom of Religion means just that, freedom to practice your religion w/out fear of discrimination, I don't see where that extends to erecting a mini Stonehenge.

The problem with the separation of church and state argument that lies at the heart of all of these provisions is that, now wait for it, this country was founded as a Christian nation, it is what it is. God is on the money, god is mentioned in the founding documents of the nation and god is invoked when the various bodies of government meet. All of this went on during the lifetimes of the founders and so, it would seem obvious that expressions of Christianity did not, in the minds of the signers and author of the Constitution and Bill of Rights equate with state sponsored religion.

What the PC police and their lawyers are trying to do is go back and remove the trappings of Christianity that were always here, when the standard should simply be "Is X free to practice his/her religion without interference or discrimination" rather than demanding that either all evidence of Christianity be removed or, alternatively that all other religions be given equal time/space and money.

I have no problem w/Wicca as a religion but we don't need to put "Gaia" on the dollar in order to be true to the First Amendment.

[Chris Funderburg]

All of you intolerant bigots can do the world a favor and take a running jump off the nearest cliff. Freedom of religion means *all* religions - not just your imaginary one god with his equally imaginary son who "rose from the dead".

Why don't you take a shot at the Islamic people in the military too? Cause you're a bunch of cowards - that's why.

[BR]

THOMAS JEFFERSON: Letter to Thomas Whittemore, June 5, 1822: "Christian creeds and doctrines, the clergy's own fatal inventions, through all the ages has made of Christendom a slaughterhouse, and divided it into sects of inextinguishable hatred for one another."

Heh.

[templar knight]

Uh, Chris, just so you know...there have been shots too numerous to mention at the Islamic people in the military, the latest of which is that criminal who shot all the soldiers at Ft. Hood. You need to educate yourself next time, and you won't look like a fool when you make incorrect comments.

BR, what is your point? I could quote many founding fathers who said this country was founded on the belief in God. The God of Abraham and Isaac.

Heh.

[BR]

"A fool"? Namecalling, Mr. Knight? Perhaps you're under the influence of inextinguishable hatred. Can't imagine how that came about.

Heh heh.

[templar knight]

Uh, BR, my calling someone a fool doesn't mean I hate them. That was a foolish thing for you to say.

And you didn't seem to be too concerned about Chris Funderburg calling people cowards without one bit of evidence to back it up. Hypocrite much, BR.

Heh heh heh.

[BR]

"Incurably religious, that is the best way to describe the mental condition of so many people."

- Thomas Edison

[templar knight]

"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire."

-Aristotle