Air Force Academy Builds Pagan Chapel

The New American

November 30, 2011

Even as atheists in the Army are lobbying for chaplains for unbelievers, pagans and Wiccans at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, have a place to cast their spells. And their new open-air “Stonehenge-like” ring of stones was provided at a cost of nearly $80,000 to the American taxpayers.

There was a time when exorbitant military expenditures were symbolized by the $640 toilet seat. But the Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle certainly surpasses such examples on account of its absurdity. While the Air Force is attempting to justify the creation of a hilltop worship sight for pagan recruits on the basis of religious pluralism, in fact, the pagans who are supposed to be served by the availability of such a "circle" are almost nonexistent — at least at this point. As Jenny Deam wrote in a Los Angeles Times article (“Air Force Academy adapts to pagans, druids, witches, and Wiccan”), even the academy admits pagans make up what must be the smallest religious minority at their institution:

Their ranks are slim. According to the academy's enrollment records, only three of 4,300 cadets identified themselves as pagans, followers of an ancient religion that generally does not worship a single god and considers all things in nature interconnected.

Still, the academy this year dedicated an $80,000 outdoor worship center — a small Stonehenge-like circle of boulders with propane fire pit — high on a hill for the handful of current or future cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of "Earth-based." Those include pagans, Wiccans, druids, witches and followers of Native American faiths....

For the record, there are no witches among the cadets this year. But the two spiritual leaders for all Earth-based religions — one a civilian, one an Air Force reservist — are witches and regularly cast spells, which they say is not so different from offering prayer. There also are no druids this year. But there could be next year.

Maj. Darren Duncan, the chaplain in charge of all the “faith communities” at the academy, adamantly insists that the presence of the Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle is not simply about religious “toleration.” Thus Jenny Deam explains:

This is not about religious tolerance — a phrase Duncan, a Christian, rejects as implying that the majority religion is simply putting up with the minority. He calls it a 1st Amendment issue. If the military is to defend the Constitution, it should also be upholding its guarantee of religious freedom. "We think we are setting the standard," Duncan says.

Dedication of Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle

Despite Duncan’s defense of the new "circle," even he would have to admit that witches and pagans make up a tiny fraction of one percent of students at the academy. According to the Los Angeles Times, there are 11 Muslim, 16 Buddhist, 10 Hindu, and 43 atheist cadets at the academy this year, and they are apparently served merely by converting chapel space to accommodate their various needs (or perceived lack thereof, as far as the atheists are concerned). It is hard to imagine Duncan arguing that each Christian denomination should be afforded chapels of their own — and surely Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Baptists (to cite just a few examples) could all boast far more than three cadets each? And what about divisions within each of these groups? Will adherents of the Polish National Catholic Church be given one chapel, and Roman Catholics another? What about Southern Baptists and American Baptists? Each of these divisions — and hundreds more — represent a “1st Amendment issue,” in Duncan’s phraseology.
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