was taught by chaplains for more than 20 years because the material
included Bible passages.
The course, called “Christian Just War
Theory” was taught by chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.,
and used Scripture from both the Old and New Testaments to show missile
launch officers that it can be moral to go to war.
But the watchdog group, Military Religious
Freedom Foundation, said the course violated the constitutional
separation of church and state and filed a complaint last Wednesday on
behalf of 31 missile launch officers—both instructors and students.
David Smith, the spokesman for the Air
Force’s Air Education and Training Command, said the main purpose of the
class was to help missile launch officers 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.”
He said the class was suspended the same day the complaint was filed.
The class is currently under review by Air
Force officials who will determine whether or not to revise the material
or end the class.
“In an effort to serve all faiths, we try to
introduce none in our briefings and our lectures,” Smith told Fox News
Radio. “Once we heard there were concerns, we looked at the course and
said we could do better.”
Smith said the inclusion of the Bible verses was an “inappropriate approach” in a “pluralistic society.”
“The use of Bible passage and other elements
was just inappropriate,” he said. Mikey Weinstein, the president of the
Military Religious Freedom Foundation, hailed the military’s decision
to suspend the course. “We’re very pleased that the Air Force did it,”
Weinstein told Fox News Radio. “Had they not done that, we would have
filed an immediate class-action lawsuit in federal court to force their
hand.”
Read the rest of this story on Fox News.
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