3-star ripped for presentation referencing God

[Guest CAVEMAN]

I can't believe that as college-educated, professional military officers, we can't ing live and let live with regards to other people's personal beliefs.

I would tend to agree but I have since realized that education plays no role in such issues. People today are becoming wild animals with degrading ability to co-exist. A non-issue. And you wonder why democracy is working in our country.

[Guest]

People today are becoming wild animals with degrading ability to co-exist.

And you wonder why democracy is working in our country.

Wait, what?

This is about prayer...

[Red Fox]

I gathered from the article that this occured at a CC's call. IMHO, CC's calls are to recognize superior performers, brief the latest obligatory queep, and to give direction to the unit - meaning tell the unit what is expected and what needs correcting (only if necessary - don't oversteer a ship that's on proper course). Giving guidance on how/what to believe is inappropriate in that forum (and I consider myself a Christian). Again, save it for the prayer breakfast. The General's job is to give direction and to ensure those who work for him have the necessary tools to adhere to that direction, not proselytize. Maybe I've been in too long, but I'm tired of being a captive audience to people who want to spew forth about themselves or topics that have nothing to do with mission accomplishment. It strikes me as vain and vapid. Regards, RF.

Edited February 26, 2012 by Red Fox

[Day Man]

replace "god" with "the devil", and I can guarantee you there will be heads rolling...just because it's popular doesn't mean it's right.

[Masshole]

For those bothered by the General's public display of religion/spirituality, perhaps we should petition the AF to implement a new policy:

Any religious or spiritual person shall be prohibited from disclosing his or her religion/spirituality or from speaking about any aspect of religion while serving in the United States Air Force. Any service members who disclose that they are religious/spiritual or engage in religious/spiritual conduct should be separated (discharged) except when a service member's conduct was "for the purpose of avoiding or terminating military service" or when it "would not be in the best interest of the Air Force".

Furthermore, superiors should not initiate investigation of a servicemember's religion/spirituality without witnessing disallowed behaviors, though credible evidence of religious/spiritual behavior could be used to initiate an investigation.

I can find no flaws in this policy. This should protect your delicate eyes and ears from thoughts and ideas you may find umpleasant. We must put a stop to this before we find that our fighting men and women have become too offended by disagreeable subject matter to fight a war.

Don't ask, don't pray. Brilliant!

Personally, I can't wait to make general. I'll be using my first 0530 CC call to convert all of you filthy infidels. My first rule.......WWFSMD?

That would offend the followers of Raptor Jesus

Don't say "holy" shit, Hoss...that's religious and offensive.

From now on, the expression will be "it might have spiritual blessing, but we must also acknowledge that it can be ordinary" shit.

[Guest]

replace "god" with "the devil", and I can guarantee you there will be heads rolling...just because it's popular doesn't mean it's right.

Actually, that would be hella cool to see.

Wow. You just don't get it. Maybe you should go talk to a chaplain, if for no other reason so that you can at least be mad about legit stuff, not inaccurate assumptions. We have plenty of stuff you can disagree with that would be legit, but this...it's just so inaccurate that it's not even worth more than this post.

Calm dawn Billy Graham

[egochecks]

I don't believe you can truly or fully divorce anyone from their core beliefs/motivations (at any time in life let alone when someone fills a position in an institution) nor should you try. Saying leave religious/spiritual beliefs "out of work/what you do" (the AF, government, etc.) has seeming wisdom but it's not going to be the cause of an objective/un-biased/mutually-respective workplace. Somewhere you just have to trust that regardless of your CC's or your leadership's or your subordinate's core beliefs they're going to recognize the possible inherent difficulties in having beliefs that may be contrary to another's (whether atheist or theist) and be able to account for those biases and make the objective judgments they've sworn to make. You can't expect someone's decision not to be "colored" by who they are but you can expect them to keep their prejudices from negatively affecting how they make decisions with regard to others. For me it's similar to the "race" discussion. People have different colored skin and are culturally different. It's a fact. Acting like "you can't say that" or acknowledge that fact is ridiculous. There are many positive aspects of that fact and they should be embraced not consciously and forcefully ignored (as if that was possible). What's unacceptable is assigning negative judgments to those same facts and then allowing one's prejudice to negatively affect one's behavior or decision making.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the CC being explicit in making known his beliefs, however, I can see how sharing them in this way at his CC call, given subordinate expectations when being told what the CC's expectations are, can be seen as going too far in the wrong forum. I would think this should/could/would be chalked up to a bad decision or lack of a recognition of the effect his words may have had on the subordinates in his audience. At the same time, I can see how it could be seen that that may have been just his intention and thus the consternation. However, I've never personally met the General and I wouldn't feel right passing judgment on his motives.

Edit: Spell checker like a mo' fo' & an idiom correction.

Edited March 12, 2012 by egochecks

[Swizzle]

.......WWFSMD?

[guineapigfury]

Sweet, he used his noodly appendage to blur out the SSN. Saves your immortal soul and protects you from identity theft.

[Homestar]

I knew a guy who had "Jedi" listed as his religion. On dog tags and on vMPF. Thought that was pretty cool.

[Shortbus]

I knew a guy who had "Jedi" listed as his religion. On dog tags and on vMPF. Thought that was pretty cool.

I knew a guy who legally changed his name to Anakin. Thought that was pretty gay.

[guineapigfury]

I knew a guy who had "Jedi" listed as his religion. On dog tags and on vMPF. Thought that was pretty cool.

This is apparently the fourth largest religion in the UK.

I knew a guy who legally changed his name to Anakin. Thought that was pretty gay.

If I worked at the office that processed that application, I would have "accidentally" typoed that one as "Jar-Jar Binks".