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