At the 2008 Netroots Nation conference I interviewed Bob Barr and asked him about his position, while in Congress, that Wiccans should be kept out of the military. He repudiated his previous actions and said that he likened it to gays in the military, which he was once opposed to but now favors.
So I'm rather disgusted to see Barr write in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the recent dustup at the Air Force Academy regarding desecration of a Wiccan worship spot that had been set up with permission of the school.
A few years back, when I was in the US Congress, I took the Army to task for permitting the practice of Wicca on its bases, including at Ft. Hood in Texas. After speaking with a number of officers and military leaders, and meeting with several former military who adhere to the practice of Wicca, I was convinced that a belief in or practice of witchcraft, was not necessarily incompatible with the good order and discipline essential to a military lifestyle. However, one might legitimately wonder just how far such tolerance should extend.
The US Air Force, at no less a prestigious location than the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, has taken the notion of religious tolerance to a new level, in creating an outdoor worship area for pagans. The site, apparently sacred to pagans, consists of an inner and an outer circle of large stones. I'm sorry, but this truly is hilarious. Don't get me wrong, if someone "has little or no religion and delights in sensual pleasures and material goods," which is the definition of a "pagan," then I say live and let live.
But I have to tell you, if I were in the Air Force and was being commanded by an officer who practices hedonism as a religion (another part of the definition of "pagan"), and who dances around a circle of stones in the woods carrying a lighted candle, I would be more than a little worried about following him into battle.
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