WASHINGTON (ABP) — After debate unusually acrimonious even by the standards of the House of Representatives, that body voted narrowly June 20 to scuttle a provision designed to hold the United States Air Force Academy accountable for reports of religious intolerance.
The amendment to a Defense Department funding bill, sponsored by Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), lost on a 210-198 vote that fell mostly along party lines. It would have required the Colorado Springs, Colo., academy to create a plan to ensure that the school “maintains a climate free from coercive religious intimidation and inappropriate proselytizing by Air Force officials and others in the chain of command.”
The academy has been at the center of a national controversy over allegations that evangelical Christian cadets, faculty and administrators at the school had created an environment inhospitable to other kinds of Christians and religious minorities.
In May, Americans United for Separation of Church and State detailed many of the allegations in a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and a Lutheran chaplain at the school corroborated some of the allegations. Shortly thereafter, Pentagon officials created a special task force to investigate the religious climate at the school. That task force will make its findings public June 22.
The academy's superintendent acknowledged some problems with the religious environment at the school in recent remarks to Jewish leaders. However, some Democrats in Congress have called for an external investigation as well as other ways of holding the academy accountable. Obey's amendment was an attempt to do so.
Debate on the amendment sparked a dramatic confrontation on the House floor late in the afternoon, when Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.) rose to oppose the measure. Hostettler, a vocal religious conservative, began his remarks by saying, “The long war on Christianity in America continues today on the floor of the House of Representatives” and that it “continues unabated — with aid and comfort to those who would eradicate any vestige of our Christian heritage being supplied by the usual suspects, the Democrats.”
Then, referring to Obey and his amendment, Hostettler said, “Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can't help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians.”
Seconds later, Obey, a Catholic, leapt to a microphone and cut Hostettler off, pointing angrily at him. “I move that the gentleman's words be taken down,” he told the presiding officer. The move required Hostettler's words to be transcribed and read back by a clerk, allowing the chair to determine if they violated the rules of the House concerning appropriate language and attacks on a fellow Congressman's character or morality.
Later, Hostettler offered to withdraw his comments. Obey agreed, but only after lecturing his colleague.
Had he been given the opportunity to discuss the accusations with Hostettler before they came to the House floor, Obey said, “I would have asked him whether he really thought that the language that I was trying to offer — to protect people of all religions at the Air Force Academy — whether he really thought I was being 'anti-Christian.' I would have asked him if he thought that the chaplain at the Air Force Academy who laid her career on the line in order to protect the religious freedom of those cadets who she felt were being intimidated, whether her actions were 'anti-Christian.'”
Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said Hostettler's words had themselves served as “testimony for the passage of our amendment.” He noted that, “of the 117 [Air Force] Academy cadets, staff members and faculty members who [have recently] complained about religious intimidation and proselytizing, eight happened to be Jewish, one happens to be atheist, 10 happen to be Catholic, and all of the rest happen to be Protestants.”
The House later passed, on a voice vote, an alternative amendment offered by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). It simply requires the Air Force to report on its progress in encouraging religious tolerance at the academy.