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/
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