Air Force Flies Right

BDvX4AUwT9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--
Yahoo! News - USA

Katrina vanden Heuvel Mon Feb 13, 9:59 AM ET

The Nation -- It seemed like the Air Force knew it had a problem with
religious intolerance.

A "Team Jesus Christ" banner was hung by the head football coach in the
team locker room. Cadets of various faiths reported conversion attempts and
harassment by superiors as well as evangelical prayer at official academy
events. And a Lutheran minister confirmed a systemic evangelical bias by
administrators, faculty, and upperclassmen.

So a draft of new guidelines on religious expression discouraged sectarian
prayer at public gatherings, and warned superiors against proselytizing to
subordinates. But Focus on the Family and other evangelical groups would
have none of it.

According to the Washington Post, "They launched a nationwide petition
drive, sounded alarms on Christian radio stations, and deluged the White
House and Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne's office with e-mails
calling the guidelines an infringement of the Constitution's guarantees of
free speech and free exercise of religion."

The result? The
Pentagon released a new draft of guidelines emphasizing the freedom of
superiors to exercise their faith when it is "reasonably clear discussions
are personal, not official."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State put it well: The
revisions "focus on protecting the rights of chaplains, while ignoring the
rights of nonbelievers and minority faiths."

The bottom line: the military caved to evangelical pressure and reaffirmed,
rather than reformed, the continual eroding of the separation of church and
state. One more victory for the right wing, one more slap at the
Constitution.

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You are invited to check out the following:

The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm

American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]

HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]

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. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote

"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"

That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.

It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.

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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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