TX Senator Demands That Air Force Answer to Him for Pulling "Jesus Loves Nukes" Training
David Smith, the spokesman for the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command, made the following statements to Fox News Radio explaining the Air Force's decision: "In an effort to serve all faiths, we try to introduce none in our briefings and our lectures. Once we heard there were concerns, we looked at the course and said we could do better," and, "The military is made up of people from all walks of life, all faiths. It's most appropriate to let folks practice their faith on their own and not try to introduce something else to them." Nobody could have a problem with this, right? Wrong. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, doesn't like the Air Force's decision, and has written the following letter to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley.
Let's get something straight here: This isn't about a few Bible references. It's about slide after slide of Bible verses, as well as a slide presenting former Nazi and SS officer Werhner Von Braun not as a scientist, but as a moral authority promoting the Bible (for some reason, defenders of this training like Senator Cornyn keep leaving that pesky little detail out). The training quoted Von Braun, upon surrendering to American forces in 1945, saying: "We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured." Another fact: Twenty-nine of the thirty-one Air Force officers who came to MRFF for help in getting this training stopped are Christians -- both Catholics and Protestants. Got that? The overwhelming majority of the officers who complained about so-called "free exercise of religion" are objecting to the Air Force inappropriately pushing THEIR OWN religion. In the few days since Fox News Radio released Sen. Cornyn's letter, thirty-eight more Air Force officers have contacted MRFF wanting to join the original thirty-one. Thirty-two of these thirty-eight are also Christians. (So you don't have to do the math, that's sixty-one Christian Air Force officers who completely disagree with Sen. Cornyn.) The "Just War Theory" section of the presentation begins with a slide containing an image of Augustine of Hippo, the 4th century Catholic bishop most closely associated with this set of ethical principles, although an earlier version of these principles dates back to Cicero two centuries earlier. Ironically, immediately preceding the Just War Theory slides in this uber-religious ethics presentation, George Washington is used as an example on a slide titled "Can a Person of Faith fight in a War?," even though Washington's wartime ethics were more in line with Cicero's principles of Just War than Augustine's version. And there were also the writings of later thinkers like Hugo Grotius, whose writings were based on international and natural law, and had largely supplanted Augustine's Just War Theory by the time of the founding of our country. But, of course, presenting Washington as a religious figure is to be expected in military training promoting religion. The next two slides simply list "Augustine's Qualifications for Just War" -- Just Cause, Just Intent, Legitimate Authority, A Reasonable Prospect for Success, and Last Resort. That's all fine. It's simply a list of criteria from Augustine's theory, which, although from an historically religious figure, are criteria still accepted by many ethicists, both religious and secular, to determine if a war is morally justified. If the Air Force's presentation stopped here and continued with a discussion of these five principles, divorced from any particular religion, there would be no problem with this section of the training. But, instead, the presentation continues with six slides of Bible verses, each with the big heading of "Christian Just War Theory" at the top. This includes the slides with Old Testament verses, which the defenders of this presentation are pointing out to say, "See, they included Jewish stuff, so it's not a Christian presentation." And, of course, slapping a clip art menorah on one of the slides that's titled "Christian Just War Theory" (seriously, that's what they did) also makes this presentation inclusive of other religions. In addition to the number of Bible verses in this training, it's hard to figure out what some of them even have to do with Just War Theory. For example, the presentation cites 2 Timothy 2:3, saying, "Paul chooses three illustrations to show what it means to be a good disciple of Christ," one of which is a soldier. Sure, this verse mentions a soldier -- it says "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." So, our U.S. Air Force missile officers are supposed to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ? Well, of course! The next and final Bible verse in the presentation explains it all. That one is from Revelation 19:11 -- "Jesus Christ is the mighty warrior." Is it any wonder that this presentation has been nicknamed the "Jesus Loves Nukes speech," or that so many Christian Air Force officers are complaining about it? As often is the case, once MRFF goes public with something like this training presentation, others around the military start coming forward and reporting similar things that they've seen going on that they want to do something about. So, within days of the news that the Air Force had stopped the "Jesus Loves Nukes" training, MRFF received another PowerPoint, this one from an ROTC instructor. This one was the Air Force ROTC's "Core Values and the Air Force Member" training presentation. The complaints about this training? Well, let's start with the "Have no other Gods before me" commandment in the Ten Commandments part of the training, which along with the Sermon on the Mount, is what the Air Force ROTC is using at colleges across the country as its "Examples of Ethical Values." As reported by the Air Force Times, upon the revelation of this second completely inappropriate Air Force training presentation, the Air Force has now decided to review all of its ethics training materials. According to spokesman David Smith, "Air Education and Training Command is conducting a comprehensive review of training materials that address morals, ethics, core values and related character development issues to ensure appropriate and balanced use of all religious and secular source material." That should make Senator Cornyn's head explode. MRFF will continue work to hold the Air Force accountable to freedom of religion. Add your voice by signing the petition and tell Senator Cornyn you support the Air Force's action, and that all members of the military are owed the honor of serving their country without being preached at. The petition can be found here: http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/cornyn_petition/
TX Senator Demands That Air Force Answer to Him for Pulling "Jesus Loves Nukes" Training | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
TX Senator Demands That Air Force Answer to Him for Pulling "Jesus Loves Nukes" Training | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
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