Monday, February 1, 2010
As this article states, the United States Air Force Academy in El Paso County, Colorado, has recently dedicated space for a sacred pagan circle. The Academy already has dedicated sacred spaces for Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists. Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier (pictured at right, consecrating an Earth-centered worship site with white sage--photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force, Staff Sgt. Don Branum) was the driving force behind this circle’s creation, but he thanks the chaplain’s office for its support and says that there was no intervention or interference against the dedication of a sacred space for his religion. A similar sacred circle was destroyed several times at the Army’s
The article hails it as a triumph of religious freedom, and I agree. It quotes the Cadet Wing Chaplain, Lt. Col William Ziegler, who says, “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.” This is a fine example of the epitome of state-sponsored schools offering religious spaces for all of its students. However, the question then becomes, where is the line drawn?
Some people will attack the sacred circle on the grounds that there is no one God that the Earth-centric religions pray to, even if that argument is potentially irrelevant, especially as there is a Buddhist sacred space at the Academy already. They will make the argument, however, that a “true” religion has a specific deity at its head, instead of a number of deities or a focus on the natural world.
Others might argue that having separate spaces for all of these religions is implicit government support of these specific religions to the exclusion of the others not represented. Others may say that religious spaces have no place on the campus of a government-run and –funded institution, and that if the cadets at the Air Force Academy wish to attend religious services of any type they must seek it in the community. The idea of government-owned, consecrated land could be seen as an establishment of religion.
I agree that the precedent may be mildly worrying, but I also believe that it was the right thing to do. The chaplain’s office will just have to evaluate other cadets’ religious needs as they arise, and find the medium between respecting each religion and the very small populations of certain religious groups. There are religions common in the
However, Sgt. Longcrier and his peers who follow Earth-centered religions now have a place to call their own, and this is only fair considering that his fellow cadets who happen to be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist are offered the same courtesy.
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