The Air Force Academy paid for cadets to attend a Wiccan festival, a witches ball and other “earth centered” activities with church tithes and offerings in 2014, documents obtained by Judicial Watch revealed.
A group called “Spiritual Programs in Religious Education” hosted events at an area of the Air Force Academy designated for worship in traditions that include “Wicca, Paganism and Druidism,” reported Judicial Watch. The Academy took $260 from the Academy’s “Church Tithes and Offerings Fund” to pay a vendor called “Living Earth” that hosted a Wiccan festival on campus in March, 2014.
The “Spiritual Programs in Religious Education” group that hosted events on campus encouraged people to engage in Wicca, witchcraft, Faery Magick and voodoo, according to a brochure obtained by the Freedom of Information Act documents requested by Judicial Watch.
The Academy also paid for registration and meals from the church fund for two cadets to attend a Denver Wiccan festival in May, 2014, and was requested to pay for another four cadets to attend the “23rd Annual Denver Witches Ball” in October, according to the documents. The cadets who attended the Witches Ball were designated in the pay request as “Earth Centered/Pagan Cadets.”
Judicial Watch sought the documents in an October, 2015, request for:
“Any and all records regarding, concerning or relating to ‘Earth-based’ worship service events occurring at the [Air Force Academy] campus in the 2013/14 academic years, including but not limited to, programs, hand-outs, proposals, agreements, contracts, invoices, budget documents, and related materials.”
At the Wiccan festival, attendees were encouraged on the event website to “dance with ecstasy around the maypole,” “drum with the heartbeat of Mother Earth,” and “conjure Springtime within nature and yourself.”
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