USAFA Hosts Transgenders at Character Symposium
Last week, the US Air Force Academy hosted its annual National Character and Leadership Symposium. Superintendent LtGen Jay Silveria — fresh off his “diversity” Op-Ed — noted that diversity was a large part of this year’s NCLS as well:
[Silveria said] the Air Force Academy’s appreciation for diversity and its willingness to respectfully address controversy make the school stronger…
The theme of the event is “Ethics and Respect for Human Dignity, a topic Silveria called “timely and pertinent.”
USAFA’s opening press release noted speakers at the NCLS included Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Virginia Prodan, Maj. Colin Merrin, Dr. Erroll Southers, Anne Munch, and “social critic” Cornell West.
That list dropped one reference from their initial press release: “members of a transgender panel.”
The NCLS included two panels. One was about moral decision making and leadership as fighter pilots, which asked
How do ethics shape the decision making process for Fighter Pilots? Does the respect for human dignity affect aggressiveness, lethality, and rules of engagement in a hostile combat environment?
The other panel was actually a couple, now known as Laila and Logan Ireland, who are both transgender (in opposite directions) and members of sexual activist organizations. The two-person “panel” purported to address the questions of
daily lives of transgender service members, issues they face and current military policies on transgender service. What military standards do they follow? How is that decided? Does being transgender affect one’s ability to deploy?
Without apparent irony, however, the two were introduced with the note that President Trump still hasn’t finalized military policy on transgender service — and has indicated his intent to change the policy currently in place. In that respect, USAFA’s hosting of the two was consistent with the USAFA’s Superintendent’s Op Ed last week.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis delivered his recommendation on the policy after this event took place. Reportedly, the policy recommendation includes allowing transgenders to continue serving if they currently are — but unknown is what it said about transgenders who want to enlist.
The NYTimes opined that this was an opportunity for President Trump to “do right by transgender troops“, and the Stars and Stripes repeated the sensationalist propaganda from The Virginian Pilot that a “transgender sailor was ready to die for America; Then President Trump tweeted.”
The USAFA NCLS announcement had indicated one of its goals was to “stretch your thinking” — though, interestingly, the NCLS appeared to only have one type of “thinking” on display. While several times people noted the topic of transgenders might make some “uncomfortable,” it does not appear the 2018 NCLS included anyone whose perspective on transgenders was different. How’s that “diversity” thing work, again?
The video from the rather benign panel can be viewed here. A USAFA press release can be read here.
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The question is often asked in evangelical circles, “Why is the United States, or its likeness, not mentioned in end-times prophecies?” Many answers are possible, but the most common two seem to be that the U.S. will either be part of the Anti-Christ’s global confederacy against God, or the U.S. will not be present in any meaningful way. The latter answer seems most likely.
The “National Character and Leadership Symposium” at the Air Force Academy, highlighted in this article, is one of many indicators of the ungodly direction in which this nation is headed. This symposium’s blatant advocacy of homosexuality under the guise of diversity sadly reveals what our “National Character and Leadership” has become. The Commandant of Cadets is now a homosexual lesbian. The Superintendent of the Academy, General “Tonto” Silveria, demands that we respect the false “dignity” of what God calls an abomination, adding that no one belongs at the Academy who doesn’t adhere to his personal vision of what it should be.
General “Tonto” graduated from the Academy in 1985. As a 1966 graduate and 19 years his senior, I say to this child of the 70’s that I am proud of what the Academy once was, but deeply ashamed of what it has become under the misguided and subversive leadership of officers like him and his homosexual lesbian commandant, Gen. Goodwin.
Yet, in a tragic way, he is right, but without really understanding why. Truly, those who don’t bow to his vision don’t belong there. Thousands of years ago, God said much the same thing to the unfortunate Lot, as God’s angels removed him and his family from Sodom before He destroyed that abominable city (Gen 19). No individual, no institution, no nation can reject God and His commands, as we have done for the last half-century, without serious consequences. This abomination of homosexuality is just one of many, many ways that we have shaken our fists in God’s face.
I don’t know exactly what the consequences will be for the United States, but as I said in the beginning, we are not mentioned in the Bible as a relevant presence on the world scene during its final days. The fate of Sodom, and those like her, is a lesson that we ignore at our peril. For the moment, we glory in our military might and our preeminence on the world stage, but the Bible warns: “How the mighty have fallen! The weapons of war have perished!” (2Sam 1:27)