Air Force Revises Guidelines on Religion

[deadparrot]

DENVER - The Air Force released new guidelines for religious expression Thursday that no longer caution top officers about promoting their personal religious views.

The revisions were welcomed by conservative Christians, who said the previous rules was too strict and lobbied the White House to change them.

Critics called the revisions a step backward and said they do nothing to protect the rights of most airmen.

The original guidelines were created after allegations that evangelical Christians at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs were imposing their views on others. Some Christian chaplains were accused of telling cadets to warn nonbelievers they would go to hell if they were not born-again Christians.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060210/ap_on_re_us/academy_religion

[HuffleClaw]

1. "The revisions were welcomed by conservative Christians..."

"The revised guidelines say nothing should be understood to limit the substance of voluntary discussions of religion where it is reasonably clear that the discussions are personal, not official, and can be reasonably free of potential coercion.

They also omit a statement in the earlier version that chaplains "should respect the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs."

this is just disgusting, considering the history of religious abuse that has been documented previously. and just what the hell does "reasonably free of potential coercion" mean exactly?

[enlightenment]

5. Good grief. Okay, I'm an airman, or a cadet

and I run into my commanding officer while walking down the sidewalk, on the base or at the Academy. I'm on my way to the BX -- he (or she) is on his way to somewhere else. We are both in uniform. I am required to salute - and if he stops to speak to me, politeness to an officer demands that I stop and listen. We're not at work though -- so the conversation is not "official."
He starts preaching. I'm atheist -- or just not interested.
Do I feel "coerced?"
You bet your sweet patootie, I do.
Anytime there is a disparity in control, there is a potential for coercion. That is the basis of harassment -- the idea that the person in control has unwarranted control over you through the implied threat to your job.
ARggh.

[mom cat]

15. You got it. I would suggest becoming a plumber. At least the shit

you deal with there can be washed off.

[AndyTiedye]

2. It's Official, If You're In the USAF, Be Fundie Or Else

[LynnTheDem]

3. Bloody hell. American Talebornagains attack again.

Let's just go back to cave days already & get it the fuck over with.

[sarcasmo]

4. Sig he il to the President. Welcome to the new Third Reich.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Let me get this straight (so to speak . . . )

If you're gay and in the military, you have to be keep it a secret (No tell).

But if you're a religious fundamentalist, you can push yourself on anyone (whom you outrank or is your equal rank). Hassle, preach, threaten their permanent military record, promise they can't rely on you to save them because they're "not right with The Lord."

This is FAR MORE divisive than being an overt gay soldier/sailor, etc.

[MindPilot]

7. great news!!!

finally an end to the decades of persecution and oppression that has forced American Christians to the back of the bus. :sarcasm:

[leesa]

8. I hope some of these bastards get the snot beat out of them for telling

people they will go to hell. Sick assholes.

[kiraboo]

9. Oh come on people. Lighten up! Can't you enjoy the irony?

Christians trained to kill.

I hope this has a deleterious effect on the morale of the non-christians in their midst. I know I sound jaded. I am.

[nemo137]

10. wasn't there a fucking lawsuit over this?

I mean, I mean, I seem to remember something about that.

[BiggJawn]

11. It was like that 30 years ago.

My ESSO's ex-hubby was one of those guys who spent their days in the hole in the ground with THE KEY around his neck. She told me the Fundies were running rampant in the AF even back then. She didn't have to go see "The Stepford Wives", either, because she lived on a whole air base full of 'em...
Must have been something about having the potential death of a whole nation hanging around your neck that unhinged them.

[plasticsundance]

12. Way to go!!

Turn more people off. I guess the evangelical Christians are preparing so that only they will participate in Armageddon. Maybe God made up the entire end-of-times story to trick all the wing-nut religions to blow each other away. Then maybe the rest of us can learn to finally live in peace.

You gotta love the beauty of God's plan.

It's also a sign of desperation by the Air Force and the religious-right they cater to. No one is buying their bullshit, so they're going to attempt to shove it down our throats even more, for which I say fuck 'em and the horse they came ridin' into town on.

It would be better if the US military cut down on the number of rapes that happen within the armed forces. I think that might be better time spent. They really have no concept or meaning of the word justice or judgement.

[FlaGranny]

13. Somehow

these folks are confusing the meaning of "Onward Christian Soldiers." I don't think they understand allegory or else just never got past the introduction.

[Blue Poppy]

14. OK, I think there is something in the water down in

the Springs. Home of James "Sponge-bob Squarepants is gay & shower with your son to show him who the man is so he won't be gay" Dobson and the Air Force Academy. *shudder*

If you aren't being preached to at the Academy you are being sexually harassed. :puke:

I wonder what's up with this state. CU has a problem with sexual assaults too. hmmm...

[iverglas]

16. now what were we all saying about those fundie

... Muslims? Just this very week?

Yeah, there's a difference between not being allowed to ridicule Mohammed in the press and being forced to listen to yourself being condemned to hell by your colleagues and superiors.

Well, I mean, I'm sure there is. Maybe somebody can point it out to me.

I'm sure there's also a difference between living in a society where you are forced to hear your religion and the people it reveres portrayed as evil, and living in a situation where you are forced to listen to yourself being condemned to hell by your colleagues and superiors.

Again, not quite seeing it myself.