Sen Cornyn (R-TX) Demands Air Force Answer to Him for Pulling "Jesus Loves Nukes" Training

[Emit]

This summer, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) scored a big victory, getting the Air Force to review all of its so-called "ethics" training. This decision by Air Force leadership was made after thirty-one Air Force officers decided to take a stand against what some officers had nicknamed the "Jesus Loves Nukes speech," part of the Air Force's missile launch officer training. (...)

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In late July, Truthout.org exposed the content of this training in an article titled "Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons." The Air Force immediately suspended the training.

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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.

The Honorable Michael B. Donley
Department of the Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330

Dear Secretary Donley:

I write to express my concern regarding recent reports that the Department of the Air Force has suspended a course entitled "Christian Just War Theory." It is my understanding that this course, taught by chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base, was suspended and is currently under review by Air Force officials after complaints were made that the curriculum referenced passages from the Bible.

As you may know, the reports indicate that a spokesman for the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command has said that the main purpose of the course was to enable missile launch officers to understand that "what they are embarking on is very difficult and you have to have a certain amount of ethics about what you are doing to do that job." Our military services, like our nation, are comprised of people representing all faiths. However, that fact does not preclude military chaplains from teaching a course on just war theory -- a theory that has been a part of moral philosophy and the law of war for centuries -- merely because it has historically been predicated on religious texts.

Moreover, suspending a course like this because of references to religious texts misinterprets the First Amendment. Although our Founding Fathers rightly included language in the Constitution that precludes the Federal government from establishing an official religion, this language does not, as some have argued, protect them from exposure to religious references. The First Amendment is intended to guarantee an individual's right to the free exercise of religion according to his or her conscience. The Air Force personnel who have taken this course for the past 20 years have been free to determine, according to their own consciences, whether they accept or reject the premises of just war theory.

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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."

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... the presentation continues with six slides of Bible verses, each with the big heading of "Christian Just War Theory" at the top. (...)

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?

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http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/9/8/175144/4230/Front_Page/TX_Senator_Demands_That_Air_Force_Answer_to_Him_for_Pulling_quot_Jesus_Loves_Nukes_quot_Training

[Generic Other]

1. Sounds like the educational software Neil Bush pimps

I still remember the rousing GOP rendition of "Manifest Destiny" I saw.

[Emit]

2. And I recall the piece in GQ about Rumsfeld mixing crusade-like messaging with war imagery

And He Shall Be Judged

On the morning of Thursday, April 10, 2003, Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon prepared a top-secret briefing for George W. Bush. This document, known as the Worldwide Intelligence Update, was a daily digest of critical military intelligence so classified that it circulated among only a handful of Pentagon leaders and the president; Rumsfeld himself often delivered it, by hand, to the White House. The briefing's cover sheet generally featured triumphant, color images from the previous days' war efforts: On this particular morning, it showed the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down in Firdos Square, a grateful Iraqi child kissing an American soldier, and jubilant crowds thronging the streets of newly liberated Baghdad. And above these images, and just below the headline secretary of defense, was a quote that may have raised some eyebrows. It came from the Bible, from the book of Psalms: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him…To deliver their soul from death."

This mixing of Crusades-like messaging with war imagery, which until now has not been revealed, had become routine. On March 31, a U.S. tank roared through the desert beneath a quote from Ephesians: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” On April 7, Saddam Hussein struck a dictatorial pose, under this passage from the First Epistle of Peter: “It is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.”

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These cover sheets were the brainchild of Major General Glen Shaffer, a director for intelligence serving both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense. In the days before the Iraq war, Shaffer's staff had created humorous covers in an attempt to alleviate the stress of preparing for battle. Then, as the body counting began, Shaffer, a Christian, deemed the biblical passages more suitable. (...)

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Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/200905/donald-rumsfeld-administration-peers-detractors#ixzz1XWyTpS5j

[Emit]

3. Or how Bush told Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog

A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush
JAMES A. HAUGHT
Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse.

Honest. This isn’t a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”

This bizarre episode occurred while the White House was assembling its “coalition of the willing” to unleash the Iraq invasion. Chirac says he was boggled by Bush’s call and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.”

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http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=haught_29_5

[Scuba]

4. There's no crazy like god crazy. n/t

[Emit]

6. No kidding! n/t

[MilesColtrane]

5. If your job is to press a button to fire a missile that kills 6 or 7 million people...

I guess you have to justify it somehow.