The Clever Badger I'm not dead yet!

The Air Force Academy, MRFF, and Cadets for Christ

This story has been floating around for a while.  I initially picked it up from Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, but it's also being covered at truthout and at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation's site.

The short version of the story is that a cult-like group called Cadets for Christ, led by a couple named Don and Anna Warrick, are entrenched at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.   Cadets for Christ is part of the "Shepherding Movement".   Cadets who join Cadets for Christ, according to Chris Rodda writing at The Huffington Post:

...are separated from their families and anything else that might interfere with their brainwashing. In the shepherding movement, the female is the "sheep" and the male is the "shepherd," and a woman's sole purpose in life is to be a good wife and mother, subordinating herself to her male shepherd.

The name most closely associated with this situation is that of Lauren Baas, a 2010 Academy graduate, who has become estranged from her family due to the influence of Cadets for Christ.  The quick version of her story is that she went to the USAFA with the goal of becoming a pilot in the Air Force, got involved with Cadets for Christ, was placed into an arranged engagement to her "shepherd", and has basically given up all of her dreams to be a sheep.  (The photo below, of a cookbook given to Ms. Baas, is rather chilling.  Her last name is a pure coincidence.)

Cookbook belonging to Lauren Baas, via Chris Rodda at the Huffington Post

The Baas family, in an effort to call attention to the situation at USAFA, wrote a "holiday letter" to the Warricks.  Their pain is heartbreaking.  An excerpt from the letter, again via Chris Rodda at The Huffington Post, is below.  The letter in its entirety can be read here.

Did you ever have the guts to ask Lauren about her career goals before squelching them? From birth she was a very determined individual. As parents, we taught her to work hard and be persistent in any endeavor she chose to undertake. She completed elementary and high school with great pride and high academic achievement. Her next goal was to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy and become a USAF pilot. Of course, being a female, you made sure that goal was extinguished. In your words, she is the sheep and her career is to follow the male shepherd. HOW DARE YOU PLAY GOD!!!

Did you know that Lauren never experienced the thrill of dating someone? Growing up, she was always quiet, shy and spoke of getting her feet on the ground before entering the dating arena. Of course, you instructed her that God sent a USAFA Cadet over two years her junior, to be her life long partner. They never had the opportunity to date, as it would interfere with their "Bible study." Five months into their relationship you were shoving "Biblical" marriage preparation materials down their throats!!! Don't tell us that you had no part in orchestrating their engagement. YOUR SELFISH GOAL WAS TO PERPETUATE THE FUNDAMENTALIST EVANGELICAL MISSION!!!

There's a lot of wrong going on here - a climate at USAFA that fosters religious intolerance, a lack of scrutiny of religious groups that are allowed to operate on campus, a particular group using classic cult techniques to isolate and control its members, families being broken apart by the activities of the aforementioned group.

The fact that this is happening at a military academy is unsettling, but when we move beyond that, the situation is one that's not uncommon on college campuses around the country.

It's not hard to see why.

Young adults starting college are often finding their first real taste of responsibility.  They're away - possibly thousands of miles away - from home, they don't know very many people, they're seeking their own identity yet looking for some familiarity.  There are clubs and groups of all sorts, and many students find their way to Bible/religious study groups.  More than likely, they'll end up in one that's fairly congruent with whatever faith they grew up in - Catholics tend to find Catholic groups, different sorts of Protestant Christians will tend to find groups with similar views, and so forth.

Some, like Lauren Baas (raised Catholic), end up in groups that are radically different.  Indeed, Ms. Baas' parents indicate that Cadets for Christ actively led her to reject her Catholicism¹:

Do not attempt to trivialize these circumstances with the rationalization that we are merely a family that cannot accept the fact that their daughter has "chosen" to change religions and marry outside the Catholic faith. YOU KNOW, AS WELL AS WE, THIS STATEMENT IS SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH!!! You have taken Lauren's mind and soul and twisted it to your fundamentalist Christian liking. She was brainwashed to believe she was "unenlightened" and an "unsaved fool" in the Catholic faith. She now lives in fear of God and feels "shameful" if she does not continually stand guard against "ungodly people."

(From the Baas family's letter to the Warricks)

Had Ms. Baas simply decided to marry a non-Catholic, I suspect there wouldn't be much of an issue.  Had she decided, on her own, to leave the Catholic church and join a different one, the situation would be different.  In this case, though, it appears that she was intimidated and coerced² into rejecting her previous beliefs and manipulated into an engagement  - things that the "old" Lauren wouldn't have done.

It's reasonable to ask how a group can steer someone away from their worldview and into something so completely different.  It's fairly straightforward - surprisingly so - but it can be difficult to spot if you're in the middle of it.  I'd venture to say that Cadets for Christ uses some of these techniques on new members:

1. Love bombing - new members are made the focus of attention with an ulterior motive of drawing them deeper into the group.  They might be flattered or they might find that the group pays a lot of attention to anything they have to say.  In short, the group welcomes them with open arms and makes them feel special.   Of course, not every group that warmly welcomes new members is trying to brainwash them.  It can be very difficult to distinguish between a group that is engaging in love-bombing its members and a group that is genuinely friendly and welcoming until one tries to leave the group.
2. Controlling activities and contacts - the new members are presented with group-related activities that start to occupy all of their free time.  They may be strongly encouraged to spend leisure time with other members of the group.  Members might be encouraged or pressured to date within the group, or to invite their external friends to join.  Members might explicitly be discouraged from spending time in non-group activities or with non-group associates.  In extreme cases, members might end up leaving existing jobs to go to work within the group.  The end result of all of this is that a member is eventually steered to a point where nearly all of his or her interactions are with group adherents.
3. Controlling information - members are shielded from exposure to information contrary to the group's ideology, or are bombarded with information that agrees with the group.  They're encouraged to reject disconfirming information and look for data that supports what they already consider to be true.  Negative information may be portrayed as dangerous³.
4. Authoritarian leadership - the leadership of the group is seen as inviolate and inerrant.  When the leadership starts making important personal decisions for the group members, such as who they will marry, it's a very loud alarm that things are seriously wrong.

That's really about all it takes, and the Baas letter strongly suggests that Lauren was subjected to just these sorts of things as a member of Cadets for Christ.

Looking at the situation, it's very disquieting that the USAFA has allowed (and continues to allow) Cadets for Christ to operate on campus.  The dual messages being sent are that the Academy condones the theology that Cadets for Christ espouses and endorses the techniques they bring to bear on their members.  Neither of these messages is appropriate for a Service Academy.  It's very disquieting, based on the articles linked above, that the leadership at USAFA when confronted with evidence of unconstitutional proselytizing by Cadets for Christ has deliberately failed to act appropriately on it.

And it's very disquieting that at least one family has lost a daughter.

-Jay
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¹I am categorically not attempting to stake out a position that people should always and forever remain within whatever faith tradition they were raised in.  As people grow and learn and experience new things, their beliefs often change.  If your beliefs at age 30 are essentially the same as they were at age 10, you're doing life wrong.

²Threatening someone with eternal punishment in Hell as a consequence of not accepting a particular system of beliefs is every bit as coercive as forcing conversions at the point of a sword or at the end of a gun.

³Stop and think for a few moments about how often this occurs in daily life. Most often when this happens, someone is trying to sell you something. Nobody ever sold a car by saying "Go try the dealer down the street. Their prices are better and they sell better cars." It would be a rare pastor indeed who closed a sermon with "...and you should really read Ehrman's God's Problem for an interesting and insightful take on the problem of evil."   You'll probably never hear a politician say "The problems we're facing aren't really the fault of any one individual or administration.  They're the culmination of many decisions made by many individuals and administrations over the  last several decades and it's going to take a long time, a lot of cooperation, a lot of money, and a lot of work to fix them."