by Scott Ott
(2005-05-13) -- The Pentagon today ordered a contingent of Marines to occupy the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, CO, to protect Air Force cadets from aggressive proselytizing by evangelical Christians on a campus where more than 90 percent of cadets identify themselves as Christian.
The move comes after a Yale Divinity School study of the Academy showed "challenges to pluralism," including evidence that about half of cadets had heard derogatory religious comments and jokes, and that some Christians were treating evangelism as if it were "some sort of Divine command."
The Marine unit will patrol the Air Force campus to protect "the most vulnerable among us from the assaults of religious zealots," an unnamed Pentagon spokesman said.
"These cadets may some day risk their lives to defend our liberty," said the source. "Therefore we must protect them now from the consequences of the Constitutional loophole that allows freedom of religious expression."
Civil rights leaders today hailed the Academy's chaplain for "blowing the lid off this scandal," comparing the rash of proselytizing with the Academy's 2003 investigation that documented 150 victims of sexual assault among female cadets and led to the replacement of the school's top commanders.
"What good is it to protect cadets from sexual assault," said the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, "if you're still going to leave them vulnerable to hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a brutal rape of religious tolerance."
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