Well, one really can’t say that Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz is worried about Jesus. But apparently he is concerned that some in the upper echelon of his own service have decided that “Christianity” as they define it is more important than respecting the Constitution. Therefore, General Scwartz issued a memo on September 1st of this year that required commanders to avoid even the appearance of favoring one religion over another:
Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz sent a servicewide memo Sept. 1 cautioning leaders at all levels to balance the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom and the prohibition on government intrusion.
“We have seen instances where well-meaning commanders and senior noncommissioned officers appeared to advance a particular religious view among their subordinates, calling into question their impartiality and objectivity. We can learn from these instances,” said Lt. Col. Sam Highley, Schwartz’s spokesman. […]
In the memo, titled “Maintaining Government Neutrality Regarding Religion,” Schwartz wrote leaders must avoid even the appearance of using their position to proselytize.
“Commanders or supervisors who engage in such behavior may cause members to doubt their impartiality and objectivity,” Schwartz wrote. “The potential result is a degradation of the unit’s morale, good order and discipline.”
Specifically what concerned General Norton was the fact that in training classes led by USAF military chaplains on the ethics of nuclear war expressly taught that Christianity and the Catholic Church approved of nuclear war. Some anonymous Air Force officer called lt the “Jesus loves Nukes Speech.” Furthermore days after learning of the Christian themed ethics training being given to Air Force personnel regarding their nuclear weapons duties, further evidence of overt Christian influence in the Air Force was found in its ROTC Leadership Training materials.
The ROTC briefing, called “Core Values and the Air Force Member,” contains references to the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments as examples of ethical values. Two additional slides list the New Testament teachings of Jesus known as the Beatitudes, and seven of the commandments, including “Have no other gods before me.”
The 22-slide briefing also cites the Golden Rule as an example of ethical values. One of the slides points out that the Golden Rule — “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” — is found in five of the world’s major religions.
Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the foundation, said he has been contacted by 21 instructors and 42 cadets from various universities about the training. He said the majority of both groups say they are Roman Catholic or Protestant.
All this pissed off Senator Cornyn of Texas who sent an angry letter to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley. In that letter he claimed that the Air Force decision was inappropriate and an overreaction. I wonder why the Senator from Texas considers teaching and preaching Christianity to a members of a branch of the military, which under the Constitution is required to not promote any specific religion appropriate, especially since many of them are (1) not Christians and/or (2) even if the are members of Christian denominations, consider such training a violation of their constitutional right to be free from governmental intrusion into their religious beliefs or lack thereof?
Actually, I don’t wonder about it at all, not when Texas Governor (and presidential candidate) Rick Perry has allied himself with Dominionist Christians such as David Barton and the “Prayer Warriors” of the New Apostolic Reformation movement, who believe Christians should dominate all sectors of society, including the government and the military:
Another advantage for Perry is support from an extensive 50-state “prayer warrior” network, organized by the New Apostolic Reformation. A religious-political movement whose leaders call themselves apostles and prophets, NAR shares its agenda for control of society and government with other “dominionists,” but has a distinctly different theology than other groups in the Religious Right. They have their roots in Pentecostalism (though their theology has been denounced as a heresy by Pentecostal denominations in the past). The movement is controversial, even inside conservative evangelical circles. Nevertheless, Perry took the gamble that NAR could help him win the primaries, a testament to the power of the apostles’ 50-state prayer warrior network.
While it may not have been obvious to those outside the movement, Perry was publicly anointed as the apostles’ candidate for president in his massive prayer rally a few weeks ago, an event filled with symbolism and coded messages. This was live-streamed to churches across the nation and on God TV, a Jerusalem-based evangelical network.
There’s little doubt that Perry is NAR’s candidate — its chosen vehicle to advance the stated agenda of taking “dominion” over earthly institutions.
Imagine what would happen to our armed forces if a Dominionist Christian backed candidate was elected President? Obviously the Air Force is overrun with Fundamentalist Christians in its officer corp. To what, or to whom would they pledge their allegiance if Rick Perry becomes President?
What other intrusions into our diverse secular and religious culture by this extreme fundamentalist christian sect would be given the President’s blessing? Would we all end up having to register what religious faith we practice? Would women be asked on government applications for student aid, grants employment if they ever had an abortion? I’d rather not find out, frankly.
“Specifically what concerned General Norton was the fact that in training classes led by USAF military chaplains on the ethics of nuclear war expressly taught that Christianity and the Catholic Church approved of nuclear war. Some anonymous Air Force officer called it the “Jesus loves Nukes Speech.” [That first sentence would work without the “in”.]
What makes this even more bizarre is that as a matter of fact, the Catholic Church does NOT approve of nuclear war.
“Definitive Catholic teaching on nuclear deterrence is found in Vatican II and subsequent statements by Pope John Paul II. Vatican Council II taught:
‘Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation.’ (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, No. 80).
“The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992 on the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Vatican Council, affirmed the permanent validity of the moral law during armed conflict. It stated, “The
mere fact that war has regrettably broken out does not mean that everything becomes licit between the warring parties.” It warns against modern warfare with the opportunity it provides to commit crimes against God and man through the use of atomic, biological and chemical weapons.”
For the rest, see the .pdf file
http://www.gsinstitute.org/mpi/docs/Roche_CatholicBishopsNuclearWeapons.pdf
Somehow this post generates a Google Ad for Regent University on my screen. Irony and all that. I made sure to click through and find out how I can become a Christian Leader.
Colorado Springs must be a strange place. I’ve never been there.
I was there as a 7-9 year old kid in the late 1960s, when my dad was an Army officer stationed at NORAD. I was too young to have noticed a lot of social stuff, but I didn’t feel any suffocating Jesus presence either.
I wonder when Colorado Springs turned into Jesusville. ‘Tis a pity, because CS is in some beautiful country.
The majority is not everyone. The Springs (as everyone here calls it) votes overwhelmingly Republican, but there still is a good 35-40% who don’t. Maps showing voting by precinct reveal that the trendy areas near downtown, Colorado College, and in the Colorado City/Manitou areas to the west are decidedly Democratic. There is also a large poorer area, heavily hispanic and home to many of the few African-Americans who live here, in the south-easterly regions of the city and they too are more Democratic.
There is an Independent weekly newspaper that appeals more to this demographic. It’s basically understood that the “left”, as such, isn’t going to win any county-wide elections (and the powers in charge have set up the city elections with enough “at large” seats to avoid any chance of a surprise takeover by the left winning enough marginal districts). So, most actions taken by the left are to participate in local boards, volunteer for things like creating trails and parks, and helping out in statewide elections.
Just about every place outside the core cities has their modern big-box far right churches and many places have some evidence of current or recent duty military, what makes the Springs different is that we have so many of both. I sometimes get bored with seeing “we support our troops” and American flags everywhere, including lots of businesses, but fortunately these things are rarely discussed in normal conversations.
Oh, I also get bored seeing the big state-funded signs for the “Focus on the Family” exit from Ronald Reagan Highway (I-25). But the Air Force Academy has just installed a large solar panel complex near the South entrance and I-25, so now the local wingnuts have something in that location that pisses them off too.
Say what you will about the fundamentalist right, they know that power is siezed first at the capillary level. School boards, etc. It is worth noting that the Bolsheviks, who sought to take state power as well, had cells throughout the Tsar’s army. The US posh left, however, fancies itself above such things and as a consequence is totally ineffective. When was the last time we saw a straight-up progressive school board candidate, for example?
I’m not sure what the numbers on school board candidates looks like, but I did run twice as an obviously leftist candidate for school board in a very conservative rural community. I lost both times, although my numbers improved the second go around. I do see plenty of reason to go ahead and at least try to get one’s hands dirty at the local level as much as possible. Love the reference to the Bolsheviks by the way. 🙂
Great you ran. That’s enormously important.
People need to go back and study the Bolsheviks. Doing so doesn’t mean you want to do everything like them. Doesn’t mean that Stalinism wasn’t awful. That said, if you want to think about radical change, Lenin has to be part of the discussion, and from an actual look at his approach, not from how he’s represented in high school history books. He didn’t have horns and a tail, for example, nor cloven hooves.