Already trying to deal with accusations of sexual discrimination and harassment, the Air Force is now trying to deal with accusations of religious discrimination and harassment - at their own academy, no less. It seems like Christian cadets take their religion so seriously that they stop taking others' religious beliefs seriously as well.

According to The Denver Post:

Non-Christian cadets at the school north of Colorado Springs have reported feeling pressured by their Christian peers, Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa Jr. told the school's Board of Visitors at a meeting here. "Some students had a feeling that 'If I'm not a Christian, I feel like I'm having Christianity crammed down my throat,"' Rosa said.

In surveys done in August, more than 30 percent of non- Christian students said Christian cadets are given preferential treatment, while less than 10 percent of Christian students felt that way. Only a little more than half of non- Christian students reported they "have not felt pressure to be involved in religion" at the academy.

Many cadets bring their family's religious values to the academy with them, Rosa said, and don't realize they might be crossing a line when they talk about religion with others. He said the academy intends to address the problem by educating cadets about tolerance. "It's not mean-spirited. It's all they know," Rosa said. "We must ensure a climate free of discrimination and marginalization."

I wonder if this is just a symptom of a more widespread social phenomenon: Christians losing the ability to tolerate the existence of religious differences. The more people believe that America is a Christian Nation, the American law is founded upon Christianity, that Christian values need to be injected into the government, and that America has a special role in the plans of the Christian God, the less likely they may be to have much time or respect for people who dissent from their brand of Christianity — even if they happen to be (liberal) Christians. I doubt that it's a coincidence that all of the aforementioned ideas (and far more) have been important themes in the agenda and ideology of the Christian Right over the past couple of decades.

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