The U.S. Air Force (USAF)
has refused to punish a general officer for referring to God in a testimony speech,
despite agitations from a group ‘hell-bent’ in stripping the military of
religion.
On May 7, Maj. Gen.
Craig Olson (of Hanscom Air Force Base, MA) stated at the congressionally
supported National Day of Prayer Task Force that God guided and strengthened
his career; and without God’s help, he wouldn’t have been able to fly aircraft
or execute nuclear missions, reported the Air
Force Times. “He [God] put me in
charge of failing programs worth billions of dollars,” Olson said. “I have no ability to do that, no training to
do that. God did that. He sent me to Iraq to negotiate foreign military
sales deals through an Arabic interpreter. I have no ability to do that. I was not trained to do that. God did all of that.” He further stated that he is a “redeemed
believer in Christ.”
Well, such a profession of
faith was too much for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). The group wrote a letter to Chief of Staff
Gen. Mark Welsh on May 13 demanding for Olson to be court-martialed immediately
… due to violations of USAF rules. According
to MRFF, Olson’s speech was “brazenly illicit” and constituted “fundamentalist
Christian proselytizing” … effectively amounting to an endorsement of a
particular belief.
The USAF disagrees. According to a spokesman for the service, Lt.
Col. Pete Hughes, Olson did not breach Instruction 1-1 dealing with the
exercise of religion. “His remarks were
his own personal opinions and do not represent the views of the United States
Air Force,” Hughes told Air Force Times. That decision didn’t satisfy MRFF.
Commenting on the
National Day of Prayer controversy, Rev. Franklin Graham, a prominent
evangelical Christian leader, said in a Facebook post that “this group would’ve
tried to court martial George Washington when he prayed at Valley Forge! Come on — whose civil liberties are really
being infringed on here? They want to
bully Christians into silence.”
Preach it, Rev.
Graham! And I, furthermore, salute the
USAF for not succumbing to the bullying tactics of MRFF!
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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