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Title: Academy chapel to add outdoor circle to worship areas (New worship area for pagans and Wicca at Air Force Academy)
Source:
www.usafa.af.mil
URL Source: http://www.usafa.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123187157
Published: Jan 31, 2010
Author: Staff Sgt. Don Branum
Post Date: 2010-01-31 15:19:17 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 1096
Comments: 60
1/26/2010 - U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- The Air Force Academy chapel will add a worship area for followers of Earth-centered religions during a dedication ceremony, which is tentatively scheduled to be held at the circle March 10. The circle, located atop the hill overlooking the Cadet Chapel and Visitor Center, will be the latest addition to a collection of worship areas that includes Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist sacred spaces. Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, NCO in charge of the Academy's Astronautics laboratories, worked with the chapel to create the official worship area for both cadets and other servicemembers in the Colorado Springs area who practice Earth-centered spirituality. "Feel free to check the site out, but treat it as you would any other religious structure," he said. The stones that now form the inner and outer rings of the circle once sat near the Visitor Center, where the chance of erosion made the rocks a safety hazard. The 10th Civil Engineer Squadron moved the rocks to the top of the hill in spring and early summer. Once finished, the circle will also include materials from a smaller circle that Sergeant Longcrier briefly set up in Jacks Valley. "We used the (Jacks Valley) circle during Basic Cadet Training, and it was great," he said. However, the new circle offers significant advantages. "The circle that we secured in December is much bigger, better and closer to the cadet area," he explained. "This will allow cadets to use the circle anytime they feel the need." The Academy's chaplains have supported Sergeant Longcrier's efforts every step of the way, the NCO said. "There really haven't been any obstacles for the new circle," he said. "The chaplain's office has been 100-percent supportive." "Every servicemember is charged with defending freedom for all Americans, and that includes freedom to practice our religion of choice or, for that matter, not to practice any faith at all," said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) William Ziegler, Cadet Wing chaplain. "Being in the military isn't just a job -- it's a calling. We all take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and that means we've all sworn to protect one another's religious liberties. We all put on our uniforms the same way; we're all Airmen first." The presence of diverse worship areas reflects a sea change from five years ago, when reports surfaced alleging religious intolerance at the Academy. Sergeant Longcrier became Pagan shortly after arriving at the Academy in 2006 and said he believes the climate has improved dramatically. "When I first arrived here, Earth-centered cadets didn't have anywhere to call home," he said. "Now, they meet every Monday night, they get to go on retreats, and they have a stone circle. ... We have representation on the Cadet Interfaith Council, and I even meet with the Chaplains at Peterson Air Force Base once a year to discuss religious climate." Earth-centered spirituality includes traditions such as Wicca, Druidism and several other religious paths that, while relatively new, trace their roots to pre-Christian Europe, Sergeant Longcrier said. Gerald Gardner founded the first Wiccan tradition in England in 1952, with neo-Druidism following in the early 1960s. Some Earth-centered traditions involve the worship of gods and goddesses, whereas others may involve only one deity or none at all. Reincarnation is a popular concept, as is rebirth and celebrating the cycle of the seasons. Famous outdoor worship circles include Stonehenge and Avebury in England and Native American sites such as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming and Cahokia Henge in Missouri. A worship circle at Fort Hood, Texas, became a flashpoint for discussions about Paganism in the U.S. military after it was established by the Sacred Well Congregation in 1999. The Fort Hood Open Circle was vandalized on four separate occasions from 1999 to 2000, including an incident Oct. 27, 2000, in which the half-ton limestone altar was destroyed outright. In response, a member of the Sacred Well Congregation wrote, "If we speak together, we are a chorus to be heard. If we whisper alone, we are but a sigh in the dead of night." "We want to create that chorus," Chaplain Ziegler said. "We want to invite the Academy leadership, the Cadet Interfaith Council, the news media and people from every religious background for the dedication ceremony. We want this dedication service to be another example of celebrating the freedom we enjoy as well as the freedom we, as Airmen, have pledged to defend."
Tech. Sgt. Robert Longcrier uses white sage to consecrate an Earth-centered worship area on the hill overlooking the Cadet Chapel and the Visitor Center at the Air Force Academy just after sunrise on the winter solstice, Dec. 21, 2009. The chapel is scheduled to officially designate the circle as a Pagan chapel during a dedication ceremony in March 2010. Sergeant Longcrier is the Earth-centered ley leader at the Academy. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Don Branum)
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 36.
#7. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
If the government is going to recognize one fairytale invisible sky creature, then they have no choice but to recognize all fairytale invisible sky creatures.
I'm going to enjoy seeing Christians who claim to be constitutionalists scream in outrage over this. I've seen it time and again. Many of them appear only to believe in the first amendment when it favors their Christian cults. Either that or they believe that since this nation was "founded by Christians" no other group of fairytale believers deserve the same considerations they demand for themselves.
Careful what you wish for. This will definitely be grist for the right wing Christian mill. Watch for it. I can see Pat Robertson and others using this to campaign for a Republican.
You can count on that.
Yes, the US was founded for religios freedom. For christianity. We dont persecute people because of thier religion. But we allow muslims and athiests and whatnot to sue Jesus out of public life. Try going to a muslim country and sueing to have Allah taken out of the classroom.Muslims and others start crying and beating drums if a politician says something they think is suspect. Go to a muslim contry, and you better not even let them know you are christian.We need to do that here.Do your false religon thing and shut up! Be glad we dont do to you what you would do to us in your country. Now wiccans want to pray and dance to satan on govt property. It just never stops blog.beliefnet.com/deacon...wiccan-worship-space.html Pathetic.
This moron makes my point better than I ever could.
Once chaplains are accepted into the military, they are paid, trained and deployed by the government. But they remain subservient to their endorsers, who can cancel their endorsements at any time. That is what happened to Larsen, according to unclassified military e-mail messages. When the Sacred Well Congregation applied July 31 to become Larsen's new endorser, the Army initially cited a minor bureaucratic obstacle: It could not find a copy of his previous endorsement from the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, a Dallas-based association of Pentecostal churches. The following day, a senior Army chaplain telephoned the Chaplaincy to ask for the form. Within hours, the Pentecostal group sent Larsen an urgent e-mail saying it had received a "strange call" from the Army Chief of Chaplains office. The caller "mentioned that a Donald M. Larsen ... was requesting a change-over ... to Wiccans," the e-mail said. "Please communicate with this office, as we do not believe it is you." In his reply, Larsen pleaded that the Chaplaincy not cancel his endorsement until he could complete the switch, but the Chaplaincy immediately severed its ties to Larsen. The Sacred Well Congregation could not renew his papers because it was not yet an official endorser. Larsen was ordered to cease functioning immediately as a chaplain and pulled from Iraq. Lt. Col. Randall Dolinger, the Army Chief of Chaplains spokesman, denied any discrimination: "What you're really dealing with is more of a personal drama, what one person has been through and the choices he's made. Plus, the fact that the military does have Catch-22s." Brig. Gen. Cecil Richardson, the Air Force's deputy chief of chaplains, says there are simply too few Wiccans in the military to justify a full-time chaplain. According to Pentagon figures, however, some faiths with similarly small numbers in the ranks do have chaplains. Among the nearly 2,900 clergy on active duty are 41 Mormon chaplains for 17,513 Mormons in uniform, 22 rabbis for 4,038 Jews, 11 imams for 3,386 Muslims, six teachers for 636 Christian Scientists, and one Buddhist chaplain for 4,546 Buddhists. Larsen has since gone home to Melba, Idaho. Divorced since 2004, he is living with his children and serving as an artillery officer in the Idaho Army National Guard http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003586870_wiccan24.html This is from an article about a Christian Chaplain who converted to my faith and was denied the right to switch to continue his job in his religion of choice. Chaplains have an important role in the miltary, and I know from how Christian chaplains worm talk of Jesus into every oppertunity to talk to a military member it would be nice to see the myopia about this aspect of how religion is treated in the military to change too.
I spent 15 years in the army and was in Panama, Saudi/Kuwait/Iraq (Desert Storm), Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia. I never once had need of a sky-god propagandist and think the money spent paying their salaries could be better spent improving the living conditions of lower enlisted troops, both in the barracks and on post housing. As far as I'm concerned, if the various religious groups and their believers serving in uniform want to speak with sky god propagandists, then they can get together and pay for them themselves. Of course that will never happen. The military needs the sky god propagandists to ensure that the soldiers will believe that the wars they are fighting are righteous and that they are on the side of "god" and will fly to heaven once they are killed.
Of course that will never happen. The military needs the sky god propagandists to ensure that the soldiers will believe that the wars they are fighting are righteous and that they are on the side of "god" and will fly to heaven once they are killed. bump that!!
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#15. To: All (#7)
If the government is going to recognize one fairytale invisible sky creature, then they have no choice but to recognize all fairytale invisible sky creatures.
#17. To: F.A. Hayek Fan (#15)
#18. To: Deasy (#17)
"Careful what you wish for. This will definitely be grist for the right wing Christian mill. Watch for it. I can see Pat Robertson and others using this to campaign for a Republican."
#21. To: Ferret Mike, F.A. Hayek Fan, Flintlock, RickyJ (#18)
#27. To: Deasy (#21)
Yes, the US was founded for religios freedom. For christianity.
#33. To: F.A. Hayek Fan (#27)
(snip) More than 130 religious groups have endorsed, or certified, chaplains to serve in uniform, but the Pentagon has denied efforts by Wiccan organizations to join the list.
#35. To: Ferret Mike (#33)
Chaplains have an important role in the miltary, and I know from how Christian chaplains worm talk of Jesus into every oppertunity to talk to a military member it would be nice to see the myopia about this aspect of how religion is treated in the military to change too.
#36. To: F.A. Hayek Fan, all (#35)
As far as I'm concerned, if the various religious groups and their believers serving in uniform want to speak with sky god propagandists, then they can get together and pay for them themselves.
Replies to Comment # 36.