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Letters from Home by this well-published and anointed servant of God is actually a collection of letters Pastor Ted wrote for the benefit of his teen-age children, Christy (19 years old when this book was written and published last year) and Marcus (17 years old). They have reached an age ready to go out into the world, "to pursue college, internships and job offers," and soon they "will be raising families of their own!" As a parent, Ted felt that it is his duty to prepare them for these tasks. The letters are for all young people who will be "traveling on the road of life."

Point #1
"Think of people who tried to keep something secret. Richard Nixon thought no one would ever know about Watergate, but that's the only thing most Americans know about him. … Today's biggest headlines are stories about people who thought they were doing something that was secret . . ." (p. 14).

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Chapter 5: The Duke of Haggard and the Evangelical Vatican
Meet Ted Haggard, the tongues-speaking White House insider who talks to George Bush every Monday. Take a "prayerwalk" through Colorado Springs, the so-called Evangelical Vatican.

Back Cover:
Meet real-life evangelicals like Amanda, a lesbian against gay marriage, and Ted, a megachurch pastor who speaks in tongues-not to mention with George Bush every Monday...

Discover why rock 'n' roll can bring wayward sould to the light, but SpongeBob Squarepants is an agent of the Devil.

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The sprawling campus of America's elite Air Force Academy is silent for the summer holiday, but the din surrounding its role as an alleged hot-bed of religious intolerance is only getting louder.

For months now, unsavoury stories have circulated - first in the local media and now nationally - of cadets at the academy, situated at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, being bullied and discriminated against by evangelical Christians.

The academy, already rocked by a rape and sexual abuse scandal, has admitted that all is not well.

Authorities have received more than 50 complaints from students who felt they were being inappropriately proselytised.

His eldest son is also a graduate, and his youngest son had been there just a few months when he complained of abuse from evangelical cadets.

Mr Weinstein said his son had complained of being called an "f-ing Jew" and was told Jews were responsible for "executing Jesus".

Air Force Academy chapel, which combines a synagogue and Catholic and Protestant chapels...

The academy chapel is built to cater to several religions
Mr Weinstein said 117 people had given him examples of abuse. Only eight of them were Jewish, he said - the rest were Catholics, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Methodist.

"They're not used to being preyed upon... by their evangelical brothers and sisters. But that's exactly what's happening."

Mr Weinstein believes that some senior officers are so heavily involved in a culture of intolerance - and the rest are so blase about what is going on - that the entire academy leadership should be replaced.

A Yale Divinity School report and a liberal group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, cite many examples of alleged abusive behaviour by evangelicals.

Examples include placing "Passion of the Christ" flyers on every place-setting in the mess hall to frogmarching cadets who fail to attend chapel into their barracks.

The fact that Colorado Springs is home to some of America's most powerful evangelical Christian organisations has exacerbated the situation, she said.

"Many of them have particular goals when it comes to people in uniform, that they are there to teach and encourage those folks to use their power and their position in the military," she added.

Focus on the Family - perhaps the most powerful lobbying organisation on the Christian right - is over the road from the academy.

Mega-church

Colorado's largest evangelical mega-church, the New Life Church, sits on a hill just a few kilometres away, looking down onto the academy grounds. Its pastor is Ted Haggard, president of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals.

He boasts his own huge congregation of 11,000.

"Liberal movements in America treat people like they're stupid," said the man whose national prominence means that he talks to President George W Bush most weeks.

"Are we saying that we want those students to understand representative government... but they can't understand religious discussion?"

"Proselytising causes people to improve their argument, and exposes false arguments. Why in the world would we adopt a view that freedom of speech applies in every area except religion?"

Pastor Haggard says he believes cadets should be robust enough to withstand passionate evangelising. He denies systematic evangelical links to the academy.

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Ted Haggard's name is not yet a household word like Billy Graham, but he's getting there.

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