02 August 2011

Jesus Christ: The Former Mighty Warrior of the United States Air Force

The US Air Force has discontinued its Christian-based training class for nuclear missile officers after a report by Truthout. I guess the Air Force no longer points to Jesus as a model for its mighty warriors.

Here is a slide that was used in the program's Power Point presentation.

And here is the full description of Jesus "Mighty Warrior" Christ from Revelation 19 (verses 11-17).

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; hat ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men.

Yep, that's Just War Jesus for you.

He makes war, has eyes of fire, with many crowns on his head, a name that nobody knows but himself, has clothes dripping with blood, has another name called "the Word of God," leads an army of heavenly soldiers with a sharp sword sticking out of his mouth and an iron rod in his hand with a third set of names ("King of Kings and Lord of Lords") tattooed on his thigh (or scrotum), smiting nations and feeding the flesh of all the resulting dead human bodies to the birds.

Now that's a guy who'd enjoy launching a nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile!

2 comments:

nazani said...

Having been in the Army for over 11 years, myself, I'd just like to point out that the lengthy existence of this briefing is likely due to inertia. The military doesn't attract many people who have a clue about PPTs, graphics, etc. By the time you're assigned to a nuke post, you've already demonstrated that you're cool with 'just war, just any old war,' so I doubt that the religious content meant anything to anyone except the brownnoser who made the PPT.
In 1987 I was given a tray of slides and told to put together a mandatory threat briefing for brass in Heidelberg. Some of the slides were from the '60s, showing nude models with 'flip' hairdos and signs over their naughty bits. Had I shown those slides, my CO and I would have had our asses handed to us. When it comes to training materials, the Earth has to shift on its axis before the military will update them.

Unknown said...

I disagree with nazani. I am in the AF and we are changing our wing's training slides monthly. maybe if you had kept your perspective to comments about the army and not the military, as I know nothing about the army's way of doing things. AETC is quite different. Also, PPT use usually follow AETC guidelines where one slide shows only one piece of information as you don't want to expose too much at one time and have all sorts of problems like getting ahead of the material, having them raise questions before you can get to all of them, etc.

Also, the point of the slides were for chaplains to give a bit of justification from the religious side. Chaplains wouldn't be faced with the question the missileers have to face about turning the key, but they have a little knowledge about the Bible and that helps the missileer, or in theory it helps.