Group Trains Air Force Cadets to Proselytize

Group Trains Air Force Cadets to Proselytize


By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 12, 2005; Page A06

"A private missionary group has assigned a pair of full-time
Christian ministers to the U.S. Air Force Academy, where they are
training cadets to evangelize among their peers, according to a
confidential letter to supporters.

The letter makes clear that the organized evangelization effort has
continued this year despite an outcry over alleged proselytizing at
the academy that has prompted a Pentagon investigation,
congressional hearings, a civil lawsuit and new Air Force guidelines
on religion.

"Praise God that we have been allowed access by the Academy into the
cadet areas to minister among the cadets. We have recently been
given an unused classroom to meet with cadets at any time during the
day," the husband-and-wife team of Darren and Gina Lindblom said in
the Oct. 11 letter to their donors.

Following allegations of religious intolerance at the academy, the
Air Force issued interim guidelines in late August that caution
senior officers against discussing their faith with subordinates.
But the guidelines do not limit "voluntary, peer to peer
discussions," and they do not say whether Air Force officials can
provide office space or other assistance to professional
missionaries who train cadets to evangelize among their peers.

The Lindbloms' letter was made public by Michael L. "Mikey"
Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy alumnus who was a White House
lawyer in the Reagan administration. He has filed a federal lawsuit
accusing the Air Force of violating the First Amendment's
establishment clause by fostering evangelical Christianity over all
faiths.

Weinstein, who has been joined in the suit by four recent graduates
of the academy, said that some other religious groups are allowed
onto the academy's campus, but only during certain hours and under
close supervision by Air Force chaplains.

"The only group that gets 24/7 unrestricted access to cadets is this
fundamentalist, born-again Christian group," Weinstein charged.

The Lindbloms are not chaplains hired by the military. They are
private, full-time ministers assigned to the Air Force Academy by
the Navigators, a Colorado-based group whose motto is: "To know
Christ and to make Him known." It began in 1933 as a ministry to
sailors and now has missionaries in 104 countries, according to its
Web site.

Reached by telephone at their home in Colorado Springs, the
Lindbloms declined to comment on their letter or their missionary
work.

Lauren Libby, senior vice president and chief operating officer of
the Navigators, said the Lindbloms were assigned to the academy
earlier this year, replacing a previous young couple. He said the
Navigators have placed full-time staff members at the academy for
more than a decade. "We're there as a spiritual resource to cadets,"
he said. "We've had a very good experience there."

Libby also said that the Navigators are following the Air Force
guidelines, which have been criticized as infringing religious
freedom by more than 70 members of Congress and several Christian
lobbying groups, including Focus on the Family and the Christian
Coalition. "Those are the guidelines, and we honor them," Libby said.

In their letter, the Lindbloms referred several times to the
guidelines and to Weinstein's lawsuit, saying that "we are vitally
aware we are in the front lines of a spiritual battle."


They included photos of the Navigator Cadet Ministry Team, a group
of cadets who "have shown an interest in receiving training and
development to have a personal ministry among their peers at the
Academy," the letter said.

"Please pray for unprecedented wisdom for Gina and me as we coach
these cadets to live among the lost, sharing the Gospel in the midst
of this current climate. We must be so careful. Yet we do not wish
to squelch the passion of men like Daniel," a cadet who has vowed
to "impact the lives of 200 men with the Gospel" before he
graduates, Darren Lindblom wrote.

In a postscript, they said, "We respectfully request that you not
share this letter publicly. Due to the lawsuit recently filed, the
contents of this letter are confidential."

A spokesman for the Air Force Academy said the Navigators are one of
19 outside religious groups -- including Buddhist, Jewish, Catholic
and Mormon organizations -- that hold voluntary meetings on Mondays
from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in a program known as SPIRE, for Special Program
in Religious Education.

The groups are invited on campus at the request of cadets, and each
is assigned a room, but only for that 90-minute period once a week,
said the spokesman, John Van Winkle. "They can't just use the room
whenever they want. That would be a violation of the memorandum of
agreement they have to sign," he said.

Asked about the Lindbloms' assertion that they recently were given a
classroom to "meet with cadets at any time during the day," Van
Winkle said he would check. He called back to amend his statement,
saying the academy's chaplains had set aside an extra room that any
SPIRE group could use for counseling cadets at other times.

Weinstein said the academy was "furiously spinning." He said he had
been told by people on campus, whom he declined to identify, that
the room was Fairchild Hall 2D11, in the academy's main classroom
building, and that only the Navigators have been using it. Van
Winkle said he did not know the room number or which other groups
had used it.

The Rev. MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran chaplain who resigned in June
over the religious climate at the academy, said the Navigators "used
to have an informal agreement that they could meet cadets in the
library." But because that location was "too visible," she said,
they were told this year not to use it anymore.

Morton said the SPIRE program, which is limited to a few hours a
week, should not be confused with the Lindbloms' efforts to be in
continual contact with cadets throughout the week. "This Navigator
thing is a whole different thing," she said."