Opinion

To swear or not to swear

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

This week I was sorely disappointed in my brothers in arms, the U.S. Air Force.

Actually it was some lawyer in the Department of Defense that made a politically correct judgment. "The resulting opinion concluded that an individual may strike or omit the words 'So help me God' from an enlistment or appointment oath if preferred." Tradition be damned!

The case came from an Airman at Creech AFB that somehow found any reference to God offensive to his atheistic beliefs. Obviously he was some rear echelon drone not a combat hardened front line warrior!

On his enlistment paperwork he scratched out the "So help me God" phrase. The Airman's unit was unable to process the paperwork due to Air Force guidance that prohibits any omissions of the reenlistment form as printed. Now after the official opinion from on high the Airman's enlistment paperwork will be processed to completion. Just wonderful!

I'm disappointed and several that I've spoken to are in agreement. It is just another building block that has been removed from the foundation of this great and formerly moral nation.

The phrase "So help me God" rang a bell as I remembered it from the oath of office that I took after being elected County Commissioner. I queried the Web and sure enough that moral and binding phrase is still included in the current oath of office that all Nebraska State, district, county, precinct, township, municipal, and especially appointed officers take and subscribe before entering upon their respective duties.

Now I am wondering how long it will be before some scumbag appeals to the sorely inappropriately named ALCU to press for elimination of "So help me God" from the State oath. The ALCU will jump on the request like a duck on a June bug because it will be a good fundraising gambit for them and prohibitively expensive for any small unit of State government to defend in court.

Something similar happened just recently in one of the Bible Belt Southern States. A high school was sued by the American Criminal Liberties Union for having a public prayer before each football game. Long standing tradition at that school had the announcer give a prayer over the sound system as the cheerleaders and players of both teams gathered, heads bowed and holding hands on the field. Can't have any prayer in a public place because some unbeliever may just be offended!

The school board folded like a cheap suit when the lawsuit was brought and recommended that the prayer be replaced with a moment of silence. Bless her heart when the moment of silence was called for, the Captain of the cheer squad spoke out loud the first words of the Lord's Prayer. The fans in the stands, the visiting cheer squad, and players from both teams all joined in and prayed the sacred words in unison. "And a child shall lead them"! Well done.

Public prayer in school at the start of the day and at the beginning of our football games was never the practice in the McCook schools that I attended so many moons ago. Thanks to Uncle Sam my family spent several years attending schools in Oklahoma and those practices were the way of life in the public schools there. I was surprised and thought in a nice practice. I have no idea if that practice continues today just as I have no idea why any would be offended. I just think it sad that any mention of public or personal morality is relentlessly attacked in the liberal society that we are degenerating toward today.

What good and moral thing is next for the chopping block? Vote wisely in the next election.

Thank you for letting your old columnist grumble in this public way but that is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail

Comments
View 11 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • Oh for pete's sake, little brother, your prejudices are getting the best of you. Would you prefer hypocrisy to a solemn affirmation of truth for those who cannot honestly swear in the name of a "God" in which they don't believe? After all, an oath is about truth telling and honesty is it not? There are more folks in this world than Christians and it is obvious that Christians have no monopoly on virtue. Rigidity and self-righteousness have no place in a loving heart, which I know that you actually do have.

    I have been deliberately omitting the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance for five decades and, behold, the sun still comes up in the morning, the Republic persists in all its glory and folly and the institutions of religion have not yet crumbled.

    Your way is your way, as it should be, but please refrain from cramming it down the gullets of those who walk a different path.

    Just saying. Lighten up, bro.

    -- Posted by Virginia B Trail on Tue, Sep 23, 2014, at 3:05 PM
  • To the author - you do realize that "so help me God" is optional under Nebraska law, right? Of course that's been the case since 1951.

    "11-101.03. Oath; affirmation; effect.

    Whenever an oath is required by section 11-101 or 11-101.01, the affirmation of a person conscientiously scrupulous of taking an oath shall have the same effect.

    Source:Laws 1951, c. 206, § 5, p. 768."

    Here's my source:

    http://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/laws-index/chap11-full.html

    In addition, the USAF always made it optional to leave out "so help me God" since that line was added in 1959. The change to make it mandatory was made in late 2013, and only for the USAF. None of the other services made it mandatory at any time.

    -- Posted by y_p_w on Tue, Sep 23, 2014, at 7:19 PM
  • Lots of people don't believe there's a god. Many eastern religions - like buddhist - have no god. Of course, too, there are lots of atheist and agnostics and unaffiliated. Hindus have hundreds of gods - they would have it no other way. The only 3 groups who could have taken the air force oath were the muslims and the christians and the jews.These 3 have the same god. The one that the air force is looking at. And the air force wanted to restrict enrollment to just these 3. I don't see the benefit of that. ALSO - y_p_w is correct. the change is recent. And only for the air force. Probably some "low echelon drone" in the dark bowels of the air force probably changed it without telling anyone.So the air force had a mess on their hands.

    -- Posted by bob s on Tue, Sep 23, 2014, at 8:51 PM
  • Therefore, to hold steadfast to Christian beliefs, which is to honor God the Creator, should they serve a country which has removed God?

    -- Posted by Hugh Jassle on Tue, Sep 23, 2014, at 11:03 PM
  • Again - for chunky peanut butter - there are two requirements for Christians - the "honor the creator" you mention - but the "treat your neighbor as yourself" you do not mention. Why do Christians want to move away from this second requirement? They want to make their going to their heaven contingent on just the belief aspect. That is not what their main man Jesus says. What he says is that you can believe till you face falls off and it gets you nowhere without this second aspect - acting in a certain way - doing the things he says. Anyway, a lot of people don't believe in a god. There's nothing wrong with that. The mere fact that those people can live in the USA ,serve in the army, and live without persecution -- that is what separates the USA from other countries that kill or damage non believers. Religious freedom - believe whatever you like. If you would have believed in a god during some periods of Russia's history, you would have been persecuted. Why now that the Christians are in the majority do you want people who do not believe in a god persecuted. Wouldn't you want them to be treated the same as you would have liked Christians to have been treated in Russia during the atheist era? Christians are having trouble in Egypt now - as we speak. Is that ok because they are not the majority there? Wouldn't you like the Christians there to be treated with the same respect by the muslims that the very same muslims expect when they are the minority?

    -- Posted by bob s on Wed, Sep 24, 2014, at 9:03 AM
  • Is not loving your neighbor as you love yourself a part of loving God with all your heart mind and soul. Jesus/God is the perfect vision of what love is. Heven't you learned anything bob?

    And if Christians are all sitting on there hands, why are Christian food pantries overflowing with food? Why are Christian disaster relief services always there to help? Sorry, but this is not an idle movement.

    Why not be a part of it?

    -- Posted by Hugh Jassle on Wed, Sep 24, 2014, at 3:29 PM
  • My belief on this is that if Christians were doing as Jesus told them to do in the 1st place there would be no need for food banks. Try to argue your way out of that, Chunky. Good luck!

    -- Posted by bob s on Wed, Sep 24, 2014, at 4:42 PM
  • The correct answer, bob, is when the world becomes sinless. Until then, the work of the disciple will be incomplete. There is no amount of wealth or time to fully reconcile the sins of depraved mankind. It is when the last human being claims "Jesus is Lord, and I will follow with complete obedience", then the life of Jesus Christ is complete.

    -- Posted by Hugh Jassle on Wed, Sep 24, 2014, at 9:06 PM
  • As long as we're near the subject of Christianity and all I'd really like some wingnut to define precisely for us all what is meant by "politically correct"and precisely how it differs from do unto other...

    -- Posted by davis_x_machina on Fri, Sep 26, 2014, at 8:29 AM
  • No one who sits in the pilots seat of any aircraft in their climate-controlled comfort is a "hardened front line warrior" you have to get down and agitate some gravel to earn that besides the militry I was in no longer uses the term "front line" since generally there is no front in the current appelation is FEBA( Forward Edge of the Battle Area) but you'd need to have some infantry experience to know that. The School board chose not to spend money better expended on education to avoid an unnecessary lawsuit over a trivial matter I'd believe fiscally responsible persons would salute them for that decision.

    -- Posted by davis_x_machina on Fri, Sep 26, 2014, at 8:43 AM
  • I'd just note that the airman in question has been reported to hold the rank of Technical Seargant, so he wouldn't be a pilot. More than likely he would be ground support. There are dozens of personnel in the Air Force for every aircraft in their inventory, and the large majority are enlisted personnel who aren't pilots.

    Also - the Air Force does have a certain number of skilled ground troops, such as the Combat Controller position. I mean - being an FAA-certified air traffic controller and being able to fend off fire does appear to be one heck of a mission.

    -- Posted by y_p_w on Tue, Sep 30, 2014, at 11:46 AM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: