Bible and Nukes Don't Mix

I have written a number of times about the Christianists within the U. S. Military on issues ranging from Christianist intimidation and proselytizing at the U. S. Air Force Academy to mandatory attendance at Christianist themed events at nearby Fort Eustis in Newport News. The Air Force has gotten itself once more in the news over a story about what could best be described as Christianist indoctrination in the context of training for for new missile launch officers - a frightening concept inasmuch, as noted yesterday, Christians have the least qualms about military actions that kill civilians. Here are highlights from CNN:

The Air Force has suspended an ethics briefing for new missile launch officers after concerns were raised about the briefing's heavy focus on religion.
The briefing, taught for nearly 20 years by military chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, is intended to train Air Force personnel to consider the ethics and morality of launching nuclear weapons - the ultimate doomsday machine.

Many of the slides in the 43 page presentation use a Christian justification for war, displaying pictures of saints like Saint Augustine and using biblical references.

"Abraham organized an Army to rescue Lot," one slide read, referring to the story of the Hebrew patriarch and his nephew found in the book of Genesis. "Revelation 19:11 Jesus Christ is the mighty warrior," another slide read.

The Air Force halted the class last week after 31 missile launch officers reported the religious nature of the briefing to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group which tries to ensure religious freedom among the troops.

"There were several things that they found disgusting," Mikey Weinstein founder of the foundation said. "The first was the fact that there is actually a slide that makes it clear that they're trying to teach that, under fundamentalist Christian doctrine, war is a good thing."

Weinstein said his group had to act. "We were literally blown away by what we saw on the slide presentation. And one of the first things I did was to contact some of the most senior leadership for the Air Force in the Pentagon and made it very clear that this has to stop immediately," Weinstein said.

The Air Force said headquarters officials were not aware of the religious component of the ethics course, despite it being taught for nearly two decades by chaplains. . . . A review is underway at the base to see if an ethics briefing is needed at all.

The Christianists can rail all they want about Islamic fundamentalists and extremists, but in truth they are just as serious a menace as their Islamic counterparts. They have truly turned Christianity into something very evil.