Thursday, November 7, 2013

“So help me God” is History



The U.S. Air Force has Removed “So help me God” from the Air Force Oath

You may not have heard about the unceremonious demise of “so help me God” in the Air Force’s oath.  It was the result of a challenge filed by an atheist advocacy group that recruited an officer candidate who was willing to object to saying these four words.

Rather than just waive the requirement for the one lone dissenter who objected, Air Force officials afraid of not being political correct, over reacted and took immediate steps to protect themselves and their careers from the slightest hint of controversy.  Rather than risk standing up to the small but vocal group of atheists that is always trying to chip away at America’s religious freedom, Pentagon officials quickly abandoned a military tradition that dates back to the founding of the Air Force.

Having spent eight years on active duty in the Air Force, I am disgusted by this decision, and I cannot help but wonder how long it will be until it is once again changed to something like “so help me Allah”.

I am fully aware that it has become common practice to give people who are taking an oath in a court of law or when applying for a passport the option of swearing to God or just affirming their commitment with no mention of God.  I don’t much care for this practice either, but in today’s age of anti-Christian activism it is a fact of life.  But the Air Force is not even giving its personnel the option of swearing to God.  The words “so help me God” have been removed from the Air Force’s oath altogether.  This action is not just an affront to the thousands of Christians who serve in the Air Force it is evidence of cowardice in the Pentagon. 

The way I see it, the name “GOD” does not necessarily have to mean the God we of the Christian faith believe in.  Every religion has a God.  Only names which refer to Jesus are making reference to the Christian faith.  As for atheist, they could simply be given the option to not include that one sentence in the oath.

I know there are a lot of people who will disagree with me on this, but I believe we should all speak up for what we believe in while we still have the freedom to do so.  Judging from recent trends in this country, we may not have that freedom very much longer.


 


UPDATE: Here’s a good blog I just found.



1 comment:

  1. To paraphrase our dictator, "If you like your god, you should be able to keep your god".

    ReplyDelete