Does the Air Force ‘Encourage Atheism’ and ‘Prosecute Christianity’?
Thus, Starnes has the comparison between that incident and “Ask an Atheist Day” backwards: they were both attempts to encourage a more inclusive environment, not to encourage atheism or silence the voices of others.
Besides, what Starnes’s piece neglects to mention is that in fact the Academy doesn’t support theists and nontheists equally. Christians and other people of faith in the armed forces have access to supportive chaplains—while atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists still do not.
But while there is still work to be done, the Academy is making strides—for example, in October 2013 they announced that they were making the “so help me God” clause of the cadet Honor Oath optional.
Like the Bible verse incident or “Ask an Atheist Day,” the oath change was not an example of anti-Christian bias; it was a move toward greater inclusivity. As the Academy stated when announcing this change, they want to “build a culture of dignity and respect” for all—including nontheists.
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