Kansas Republicans: The Air Force is repressing Christians!

[TechBear_Seattle]

Forwarded by a friend. I've not seen this mentioned yet, so I figured I would post.

Kansas politicians take issue with religious guidelines
By Joel Mathis (Contact)

Monday, November 14, 2005

Three members of the Kansas congressional delegation are asking the Air Force to backtrack on new guidelines meant to protect servicemembers from religious harassment.

"Freedom of religion as protected in the U.S. Constitution does not require the removal of all religion from public settings," Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said in an Oct. 31 letter to President Bush.

U.S. Reps. Jim Ryun and Todd Tiahrt, also Kansas Republicans, signed onto an Oct. 11 letter to the Air Force secretary saying that parts of the new guidelines "clearly restrict free exercise of religion and are misguided."

Air Force officials unveiled an interim version of the new rules in August, after reports that non-Christians at the U.S. Air Force Academy had been subjected to religious slurs, jokes and disparaging remarks.

The guidelines generally discourage public prayer, except under "extraordinary circumstances" such as mass casualties.

"The bottom line here is the Air Force is not a faith-based institution," said Robert Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which led calls for the service to clamp down on problems at the academy. "Its job is to defend the American people, not spread evangelical Christianity."

The article continues in the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World at http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/nov/14/kansas_politicians_take_issue_religious_guidelines/?politics

It seems to me that Brownback, Ryun and Tiahrt are insisting that if Christians are prohibited from using positions of power to ridicule people of other religions and force conversion to their own religion (both were happening at the Air Force Acadamy, thus the new rules), then Christians are being subjected to unconstitutional restrictions on their First Amendment rights. In other words, they seem to insist that persecuting people who do not share their faith is a religious duty and preventing them from persecuting people who do not share their faith is itself religious persecution.

Added:
A few other news articles on the same topic mention 33 other members of Congress signing their name to the October 11 letter. I would not be at all surprised to find out that all signers are Republicans. I will do some research and see if I can find names.

[atommom]

1. Brownback is definitely a Dominionist at heart.

Ryun and Tiahrt are scary in their own right, though they aren't as high-profile. It mystifies me that people like this keep getting elected. If Brownback does run for president, things could get very interesting ... and the GOP might split apart from the strain.

[madrchsod]

2. maybe they should think about this----

[atommom]

5. Love that bookcover. It's even more apropos now in 2005!

[Neocondriac]

3. Mr. Boston is short sighted...

every government institution that deals with young minds is now faith based.State and Federal prisons and all the service acadamies are all head long into fire and brimstone.It's the cheapest opiate available.

[Fovea]

4. Sam Brownback--

Fighting for freedom for *his* religion.

Screw all you heathens.

[TlalocW]

6. Conservative "christians" are so good at playing the victim card

If they're not allowed to ram their version of the Bible down everyone's throat whenever they want to, it's discrimination.

TlalocW

[Inland]

7. Restraining oppression, not oppressing religion.

These guys think the baseline is that they can use the military to proseletyze, and that's the natural state of things. Any restraint on the brass's use of their power over people is contrary to religious commands. Screw it. It's a military, not a church.