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By ROBERT WELLER

Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) - A national group that monitors the separation of church and state says it may sue the Air Force Academy, claiming the school allows evangelical Christians to harass cadets who do not share their faith.

"This is the most significant, systemwide example of religious discrimination I have seen in a military setting. Every cadet should be treated as a first-class citizen but instead those who are not evangelical Christians have a lower status," said Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Lynn's group said it conducted a two-month investigation that included contacting about 15 cadets and staff, and has sent a report to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Among its conclusions:

-Former and current cadets said that their fellow students, faculty, staff and members of the chaplains' office frequently pressured them to attend chapel and receive religious instruction.

-Prayer frequently is conducted before mandatory or otherwise official events at the academy. In one case, a professor required a prayer before a test, and faculty members have promoted their religion in class.

-Non-Christian junior cadets have frequently been harassed by senior class members.

-Christians have been allowed to hang crosses or other religious items in their dorms, while cadets are banned from displaying non-religious items in similar fashion.

An academy spokesman declined comment. Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Amy Rogerson said Friday the report had not yet been received and she could not comment on its contents.

"The Air Force's position is that one's religious beliefs, or the absence of beliefs in an established religion, should never be grounds for unlawful discrimination," Rogerson said. "The Air Force senior leadership has total confidence in the academy, and together we will promote self-critique, self-inspection and self-improvement in all areas. The Air Force and the academy actively promote a respectful educational and spiritual environment."

The academy has launched mandatory religious tolerance classes after complaints from Jews and other cadets that they are the target of religious harassment and insults by Christians. Some have also questioned the activities of senior leadership at the prestigious school near Colorado Springs.

Lynn said senior officials, including commandant Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, a born again Christian, attended a program held by an evangelical group that identified "secularism" and "pluralism" as threats to "followers of Jesus."

Lynn said his group would work with the Air Force and Congress, but warned a religious discrimination lawsuit is possible if there is no progress in 30 days.

"We fight hard to make sure that the freedom of religious expression is guaranteed and also to prevent special preference being given to majority religious faiths," said Lynn, noting his group had successfully fought for the right of Jewish chaplains in the military to wear yarmulkes.

Earlier this month, members of the Yale Divinity School who attended basic training at the academy last year reported hearing a chaplain tell cadets to go back to their tents and tell cadets who are not born again they would burn in hell.

"I feel very vindicated," said Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 academy graduate who has been outspoken about religious intolerance at the school attended by his two sons. "When you put Americans United together with the Yale Divinity School, you have an unmistakably dispassionate third party that is clearly buttressing the view that this is a systemwide and extraordinarily serious problem."

On the Net:

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State: http://www.au.org

Academy: http://www.usafa.af.mil