Air Force Bans Proselytizing

A just publicized new directive from the Air Force bans commanders from proselytizing to troops. The wingnuts are totally going to lose their shit. Via NBC News:

Just days before retiring as Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Norton Schwartz issued a document designed to dictate the conduct of U.S. airmen worldwide — all violations enforceable by military law. For the first time, amid regulations on tattoo size and flag handling etiquette, it laid down the law on religious proselytizing by leaders: Don’t do it. Section 2.11 of the 27-page Air Force Instruction AFI 1-1 Standards of Conduct is the latest salvo in a battle over religious bias and Christian proselytizing in the military branch. It calls on officers and supervisors to "avoid the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion." The document's section on religion echoes a memo Schwartz sent out to all Air Force leadership on religion last September, but adds the threat of penalty for violations.

The new edict states in bold: "Compliance with this directive is mandatory." The Air Force has long been considered the military branch most infested with ardent Christianists who often staged mandatory indoctrination sessions. The above-linked story notes that the Air Force just last year suspended a course titled "The Christian Just War Theory," which used biblical quotes and images to defend the morality of nuclear war.