Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I've just read...

... a truly frightening report about the American Air Force. I honestly thought it was a spoof at first. The chap in charge of the US Air Force has announced that any endorsement of a religious faith is banned: so a course on leadership that quoted some verses from the Bible has been stopped, any announcements about any religious activities must be made by a chaplain and not by any commander, and even ordinary conversations that appear to offer any sort of religious support are forbidden.

The only link that I - or most other British people - have with the American air force is this one. Now what are they going to do to remove the religious symbols there? Would the current Chief of Staff of the US Air Force like to begin work on the project, explaining to us all why he is doing so and how he is going to tell the families involved?

3 comments:

Ed Janeczko said...

Both links in the original post redirect to the same Cambridge American Cemetary page. I did a basic Google search and found a 2006 article (http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/938/119/) about a revised USAF policy and non-sectarian prayers in offical business. As an aside, the article repeatedly contains unhappy statements form the anti-religious Barry Lynn (executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and States). Anytime he's unhappy about allowed religious expression, it is good.

Jenny said...

Joanna, would you please post the article you were refering to? It seems the link for the American cemetery was posted twice. I was once US Air Force and my husband is serving now. I've heard of some changes they've made in leadership course to make it more "neutral", but I'm interested to see what the article you found says. Thanks!

Joanna Bogle said...

Now all corrected. Click on and you will find the relevant piece from TOUCHSTONE magazine. Scary.

best wishes

J.