A history of tolerance

by David L. Englin
The Denver Post, Dec. 19, 2004

As a Jewish graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, I was upset to learn recently that some Christian cadets have called their Jewish classmates "Christ killers" and that the new commandant has encouraged Christian cadets to proselytize to their non-Christian classmates.

Academy graduates from the 1960s prepared me to expect some abuse for being a Jew. But when I reported to "Beast" - basic cadet training - as a 17-year-old fresh out of high school, I found an institution that could teach the rest of America a thing or two about religious tolerance.

Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa Jr., AFA superintendent, told the academy's Board of Visitors recently that an August survey showed many non-Christian cadets feel they are "having Christianity shoved down their throats." According to academy officials, cadets have reported 55 incidents of religious bias since 2000.

The academy graduates who mentored me during high school told me to expect upperclassmen in my face with any number of anti-Jewish expletives as part of hardening me for war. These Vietnam combat veterans had graduated during the academy's early years, before anyone distinguished between training and hazing. Undeterred, I wanted to test my mettle and earn my Air Force commission the hard way.

By the time I arrived, the military apparently had evolved. Despite the hard-core training environment, religious attacks were strictly out of bounds. I counted among my squadron mates Christians of every stripe, a Buddhist, and even an atheist devotee of Ayn Rand who displayed a tinseled "Capitalist Tree" topped with a dollar sign.

We practiced the kind of tolerance that comes from really getting to know and respect people with different beliefs. From allowing Jews to skip training for Shabbat or the High Holy Days, to setting aside a special dining room during Passover, the academy and my fellow cadets did their level best to respect my faith.

The academy wasn't perfect. Cadets who went to the chapel during Beast were "God flight" and cadets who instead returned to their rooms for down time were "heathen flight." But that was more about twisted cadet senses of humor than genuine bias. One year, classmates erected a Christmas tree in our squadron common area without asking if that might bother me. It did, we talked about it, and we all understood one another better for the experience. As an upperclassman, I looked out for Jewish underclassmen, but there were few problems beyond occasional misunderstandings resolved among peers.

After graduation, the wider Air Force was just as accepting. One commander - an evangelical fundamentalist Christian from Arkansas - went out of his way to make sure I could observe Shabbat and Hanukkah.

One year, a Southern Baptist chaplain arranged Hanukkah services. Another time, a Methodist chaplain let me use her official pickup truck to get to the nearest city with a synagogue - Venice, Italy.

Now, many cadets complain about religious bias against non-Christians, and Jewish cadets report the use of anti-Semitic epithets by fellow cadets.

In response, academy superintendent Rosa has ordered all cadets to go through a religious tolerance program before they leave in a couple of weeks for winter break. That's a good sign, although the very person accused of trying to promote Christianity - the commandant of cadets - also is the general responsible for implementing Rosa's directives.

Some will dismiss all of this as political correctness gone awry. But it was George Washington himself who wrote to American Jews of a government "which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." It's an American value as old as our nation, and this Jewish airman prays that our military leaders will jealously guard the progress that I experienced firsthand.