An Air Force Academy chaplain who accused superiors of improperly promoting evangelical Christianity among cadets submitted her resignation from the military on Tuesday, one day before an official task force was to report on the religious climate at the campus, in Colorado Springs.
The Lutheran chaplain, Capt. MeLinda S. Morton, has said she was fired from an administrative job because of her public criticism and was ordered to deploy to Japan.
"Chaplain Morton has been an outspoken critic of the academy's willingness to tolerate a pervasive evangelical climate that is threatening to members of other faith groups and disregards the constitutional separation of church and state," her lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, said in a statement.
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The rhetorical warfare came as the House considered a proposal by Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin, to put Congress on record against "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing" at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Rep. John Hostettler, R-Indiana, criticized Obey and Steve Israel, D-New York, who offered a similar condemnation of academy officials earlier this year on another bill.
"Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can't help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians," Hostettler said.
Democrats leapt to their feet and demanded Hostettler be censured for his remarks. After a half-hour's worth of wrangling, Hostettler retracted his comments.
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The imbroglio broke out as the House conducted an otherwise routine debate on a $409 billion spending bill to fund the Pentagon budget and provide an additional $45 billion for the war in Iraq.
The $45 billion would bring to $322 billion the amount provided for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other U.S. anti-terror efforts around the globe since 2001.
The bill passed by a 398-19 vote after Republicans rejected Obey's amendment by a mostly party-line vote of 210-198.
The House instead approved by voice vote a Republican plan requiring an Air Force report to Congress on the steps it was taking to promote religious tolerance.
At issue is how Congress should respond to allegations of proselytizing and favoritism for Christians at the Air Force Academy.
The Air Force is investigating numerous allegations of inappropriate actions by academy officials, including a professor who required cadets to pray before taking his test and a Protestant chaplain who warned anyone "not born again would burn in the fires of hell."
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Obey said a senior chaplain at the academy was transferred to Japan after criticizing what she saw as proselytizing.
Republicans said they did not want to jump to conclusions before the investigation was complete.
"We don't prejudge that there is abusive proselytizing," said Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.
"If you tell Christians they can't tell others about their faith, then they can't exercise their Christian religion," Hostettler said later. He said proselytizing involves a forced conversion to Christianity, something that did not occur at the academy.
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"The imbroglio broke out as the House conducted an otherwise routine debate on a $409 billion spending bill to fund the Pentagon budget and provide an additional $45 billion for the war in Iraq."
409 billion is such a big number that when I thought about how much it was costing Americans per capita it seemed like it must be around a million apiece. But no, it's only around 1400 dollars per man woman and child in the US per year, or around $4 a day,
That isn't much really.
$4 a day, and look how it adds up.
Iraq's only costing us 50 cents a day.
What Hostettler says about preventing Christian evangelizing - that it's a prevention of Christian religious practice - is inarguably valid, and it points to the absurdity of a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
A doctor who's legally prevented from warning the public about the health risks of behavior he's convinced is harmful is a more sympathetic figure to rationalist minds, but it's exactly the same moral question. A preacher who really believes the unsaved are hellbound would be sinfully remiss if he didn't use every opportunity to tell them that.
It's just that you, the observer, don't believe there's any truth in the evangelist's belief. So his warnings shouldn't be taken seriously, and his moral imperatives needn't be taken into consideration when it's time to set the ground rules for educating cadets.
Tolerance is ineffectual in that dilemma. And the political power of fundamentalism is now too great to be thwarted by marginalizing it. And the dogma of fundamentalism provides a streamlined dynamic for absorbing persecution and utilizing it to directly strengthen the convictions of its membership; being attacked by the forces of evil is essential to their world-view.
