14 February 2006
"A Muslim, a Catholic, and a Jew walk into the US Air Force Academy..."
Balloon Juice is reporting (here) that, thanks to lobbying by Christianist yahoos, cadets at the US Air Force Academy can be subjected to proselytizing from superior officiers, chaplains, etc.
Look, I've got nothing against individuals of whatever stripe attempting to share their faith, whatever it may be. But doing so when there is a power relationship involved is no more an exchange between free individuals than is a priest asking an altar boy for sex: It just shouldn't be done. When there's a power relationship involved, and even if it could be non-coercive in the small, it's next to statistically impossible for it to be non-coercive in the large.
This is bad policy, and we need to say so. You can write the Secretary of the Air Force at
Balloon Juice link via Andrew Sullivan.
Look, I've got nothing against individuals of whatever stripe attempting to share their faith, whatever it may be. But doing so when there is a power relationship involved is no more an exchange between free individuals than is a priest asking an altar boy for sex: It just shouldn't be done. When there's a power relationship involved, and even if it could be non-coercive in the small, it's next to statistically impossible for it to be non-coercive in the large.
This is bad policy, and we need to say so. You can write the Secretary of the Air Force at
Michael W. WynneNo e-mail available that I can find.
Secretary of the Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670
Balloon Juice link via Andrew Sullivan.
