Wrestling with religion.

Byline: The Register-Guard

They'd have to earn their wings before God could be their co-pilot, but in the meantime, football players at the Air Force Academy could take comfort in the fact that they played for "Team Jesus Christ."

"I am a Christian first and last," a banner in the locker room proclaimed. "I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."

The astonishingly clueless installation of the banner last November by longtime football coach Fisher DeBerry came just two weeks after the academy instituted "religious sensitivity training" to combat complaints of intolerance. It speaks volumes about a culture in which 84 percent of the academy's Christian cadets and 93 percent of its Christian faculty and staff do not believe religious intolerance is an issue on the Colorado Springs campus.

"When I say we have a problem," Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. John Rosa Jr. told the Jewish Anti-Defamation League recently, "a large majority of (my) people don't agree."

But when the non-Christian students and staff were surveyed, 42 percent of non-Christian cadets and 50 percent of non-Christian faculty and staff said the academy did not support their religious freedom.

Such differences in perception suggest that a Pentagon report released Wednesday went out of its way to rationalize a raft of religious intolerance complaints at the academy. The Pentagon's 16-member panel concluded that there were no instances of overt discrimination, but the academy failed to accommodate the diverse religious needs of cadets and staff.

Team Pentagon's evaluation diverged markedly from an earlier investigation by Yale Divinity School that uncovered significant incidents of unacceptable Christian proselytizing and religious intolerance. Jewish cadets complained of being called "Christ killers" and said they were subjected to religious slurs. An academy chaplain was said to have urged Christian students to inform cadets not "born again" that they faced "the fires of hell." During basic training, freshman cadets who declined to attend after-dinner chapel were marched back to their dormitories in ``heathen flights'' organized by upperclassmen.

Air Force credibility suffered an additional blow when Capt. MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran chaplain at the academy, was abruptly transferred to Asia after complaining that some cadets were being abused by "systemic and pervasive" Christian proselytizing. Morton, who says her transfer was the equivalent of being fired for speaking out, resigned from the military on Tuesday.

Gen. Rosa appears to have a better handle on the situation than the Pentagon investigators. Rosa acknowledges a problem with inappropriate proselytizing at the academy. He knows his non-Christian students and staff are feeling marginalized. The superintendent predicts that transforming the school's overwhelmingly Christian culture into an environment where people of all faiths feel respected will take "five to six years if everything goes well."

Maintaining religious tolerance in an institution in which almost 90 percent of the population belongs to one faith is no small undertaking.

But it's an undertaking required by law of the U.S. armed forces, which do not factor religion into the decision to order individuals to defend to the death a flag that stands for religious freedom. The service academies that train the military's elite officers are where the commanders of tomorrow learn how to lead these troops - all of whom play for "Team America."