How would Jesus fight a nuclear war?

CNN reports that the U.S. Air Force has just scrapped a long-running program that taught nuclear missile launching officers that the Bible is OK with nuclear war:

The Air Force has suspended an ethics briefing for new missile launch officers after concerns were raised about the briefing’s heavy focus on religion. The briefing, taught for nearly 20 years by military chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, is intended to train Air Force personnel to consider the ethics and morality of launching nuclear weapons – the ultimate doomsday machine. Many of the slides in the 43 page presentation use a Christian justification for war, displaying pictures of saints like Saint Augustine and using biblical references.

This program had been taught for two decades before the recent change.

nuclear jesus by evv
Image by Erich Vieth - Perugino Painting and creative commons missle photo
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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Avatar of Sterling (Chip) Camden
    Sterling (Chip) Camden

    Funny, I just emailed my son a critical review of Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The early Yahweh was a total bad-ass. Certainly not the same god as the one Jesus called Father. Of course, I don’t believe in any of them.

  2. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim

    Does it really surprise anyone that the military’s plan for Armageddon heavily relies on fundamentalist Christian doctrine? Shocking though it might be, the U.S. military strongly promotes evangelical Christianity (despite the official denials), so what better time to drag out the Bible than when ordering a soldier to create the apocalypse? Fundies believe it would bring the second coming of Jesus, so they would be delighted to witness nuclear annihilation.

  3. Avatar of Ben
    Ben

    I recently spent some time with a fellow (armed forces background) who did not believe in dinosaurs, etc. Was challenging for both of us not to step on the others’ toes, but we got along okay.

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