Air Force Academy cadets are no longer required to say "so help me God" at the end of the Honor Oath, school officials said Friday.
The words were made optional after a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, that they violated the constitutional concept of religious freedom.
Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson said the change was made to respect cadets' freedom of religion.
The oath states, "We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably, so help me God."
Cadets are required to take the oath once a year, academy spokesman Maj. Brus Vidal said.
It is not taken out completely, it is still there for those who want it. And as Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundations, points out in the article there still might be times when it may be included even if the cadet does not want it.
However this is yet another positive step forward in respecting the belief systems, or lack of belief systems, of individuals in these academies and that is a good thing for everybody.
Unless of course your religion relies on indoctrination, or bullying people into giving thanks to your God whether they believe in him or not that is. But seriously, whose religion would be THAT insidious?
Finally!!! There is so much religious discrimination in the military it's about time they started to end it.
ReplyDeleteRequiring Buddhists, Muslims and/or every other religion to attend Christian religious services is over the top. Making them pray when they don't want to, is over the top.
“We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably, XXXXXXXXX”
Yay to Religious Freedom!!!
Yay to freedom FROM religion!!!
DeleteNext step: remove the words from the Court Rooms
ReplyDelete... and our money.
DeleteAnd get it out of the Pledge of Allegiance as well...it was never meant to be there, and I doubt God likes being second fiddle to a flag.
Delete@6:50.
DeleteSo you are aware, it is not required in any court in the US. An atheist, for instance may AFFIRM (rather than swear) and no bible or other religious book may be required, either.
Of course I'm aware. I'm not Sarah Palin. The Ten Commandments are all over the Supreme Court building.
DeleteThe argument is that the laws of man originate from the laws of God. The fairy tales rule this country.
It always "irks" me when PBO HAS to say every flippin' time he talks "and god bless america"
ReplyDeleteI hate that!
What god? The god of rain? Hindu god? xtian god?
Its so idiotic but you know if he DOESN'T say it, he will be attacked more than already.
I hate that.
OT: Oh now btw sarah is threatening Peirs morgan with a dead bear photo, haha the gun is pointing directly at her such a great hunter than she is.
She is really mething out this time!
http://dailym.ai/1a5BqPA
What a flippin' ASSHOLE she is! She needs to put away NOW!
god bless crap needs to go asap.
It's a step in the right direction. The Pledge of Allegiance and the US currency references to god should also be removed. This was set up as a secular government.
ReplyDeleteCan they say "...so help me Thor?"
ReplyDeleteIf not, why not?
Yeah, or so help me dog?
DeleteIt should all be gone. Separation of church and state.
Or better yet, "So help me Flying Spaghetti Monster." Because there's just as much (or little) proof of the existence of the FSM as there is of God.
DeleteGryphen,
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in this. It is about gun deaths and injuries to children in America. Good article.
http://tinyurl.com/ltgreaf
RAM is working on her next Facebook post "So Help Me God". Palin and crew are nothing if not predictable.
ReplyDeleteAs if reciting an oath once a year will keep anyone from lying, stealing or cheating, whether God is invoked or not.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that!
DeleteIs anyone prevented from adding "...so help me God (and/or any other deity of choice...either real or imaginary) to their taking of the oath?
ReplyDeleteIf a religious element can coerce a secular government to use its power to compel people who don't believe to swear an oath under the auspices of their deity, then isn't that deity reduced to being an agent of the state?
@10:02.
DeleteIf you read the article again, you will note that Gryphen already addressed that question. (In his first paragraph, actually.)
No one is REQUIRED to say it, nor is anyone PREVENTED from saying it.
It is now a personal choice!
The USAFA didn't used to be so nutty. It wasn't until focus on your own damn family & scads of other buybull thumpin", over zealous, fleecing "religious" organizations settled in the surrounding area of the Academy that this started. Since then they're constantly sticking their big, fat hypocritical noses in the academy's business...
ReplyDeleteIs Haggerty back yet?
Delete
ReplyDeleteThe government should not prescribe an the oath calling on officers to swear to god(s). Under our Constitution, the government has no business calling on anyone to voice affirmation of god(s) in any circumstances, let alone in the very oath the government prescribes for affirming allegiance to the country or honor among officers.
The government may also allow those wanting to finish their oath with an appeal to god(s) to do so by adding "so help me God" or the like. Be prepared, though, for appeals to Allah or god(s) other than the Christian one.
Like prayer in school. Are they ready for Muslim prayer mats, or Voodoo , or Zoroastrian?
DeleteIsn't the purpose of the words 'so help me God' to scare the oath taker in to living by the oath, or to suffer the wrath of God? If you don't believe, then your incentive to behave is weaker? P.S. Courtroom oath should also be G-free.
ReplyDeleteThis happened on Friday?
ReplyDeleteWhere the hell is BIG MOUTH PALIN? You just KNOW she is screaming and throwing things at the fridge - AND blaming POTUS!
Yay!! One nation, indivisible...
ReplyDeleteThe Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth's Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.
DeleteIn its original form it read:
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm
I seriously doubt Palin has any idea of this. Didn't she once ascribe The Pledge to the founding fathers?
It's time to undo the damage done by POTUS GWBush's "Faith based initiatives", and this is a start. Of course the blowback will be swift and exaggerated by the rwnj's.
ReplyDeleteIf one thinks about "honoring" a "god", money would be THE last place to do it. People do all kinds of nasty things with/for money and the obsession to hoard it and own it. That ten dollar bill in your purse may have been rolled up, stuck up someone's nostril and used to snort lines of cocaine, pay someone to off someone else,,, etc etc.