By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A controversy is erupting over the placement of a large cross on a newly created pagan worship circle at the United States Air Force Academy, causing some to call the episode a “hate crime.”
LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that a cross made out of railroad ties was found at the pagan site recently erected on campus that was scheduled to be “dedicated” on March 10. Air Force Academy officials do not yet know who placed the cross at the site, but are condemning the act which they are investigating as a “hate crime.”
“I consider this no different than someone writing graffiti on the Cadet Chapel,” said Academy superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould in a prepared statement.
The creation of the circle caused controversy because only about 10 to 12 cadets at the Academy are committed pagans. Others criticized the construction of the site saying it represents a further rejection of the United State’s Judeo-Christian heritage.
But calling the cross incident a hate crime prompted a strong reaction from Catholic League president Bill Donohue.
“If I visited a Grotto on a college campus and saw a symbol of some other religion there, I would complain. But if that was all there was to it, I would not treat the incident as an example of hate speech,” he said in a Feb. 3 statement. “By comparison, Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Gould did just that when the cross was found at the pagan site. ‘We absolutely will not stand for this type of destructive behavior,’ he said.
“Destructive”? None of the stones were kicked about, and there was nothing else left to destroy. . . .This is more than overkill—it is grossly insulting to Catholics and Protestants.”
He also criticized, Mike Weinstein, the head of the Academy’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation, who has long insisted that Evangelicals are guilty of intolerance at the Academy, even though a 2005 report on this issue found “no overt discrimination.”
“But the report did detail examples of religious intolerance against Catholics and Protestants,” Donohue said.
“These remarks have added to the chilling atmosphere that Catholics and Protestants must endure. I wrote to the Congress in 2005 about this matter, and I am doing so again. We need to know why hypersensitivity to non-Christians has evolved into insensitivity to Christians.”
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