{"id":17022,"date":"2012-03-29T01:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T04:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=17022"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:14:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:14:00","slug":"air-force-says-chapel-weinstein-has-conniption-film-at-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/29\/air-force-says-chapel-weinstein-has-conniption-film-at-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force Says “Chapel.” Weinstein has Conniption. Film at 11."},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Weinstein is taking the US Air Force to task, again, for using the word “chapel”<\/a> in a course from Squadron Officers’ School<\/a> (SOS), a junior officer military education course.<\/p>\n

The sentence at issue is important in context. Therefore, the surrounding text is included below.\u00a0 Weinstein’s lawyers have declared these words “unconstitutional,” saying the SOS course<\/p>\n

mandates that regular chapel attendance is part of the “Spiritual and Ethical Responsibilities” of a commissioned Air Force officer…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s an extraordinarily tortured reading of the text.\u00a0 It’s also ignorant, since it is a commentary <\/em>on leadership, not an Air Force policy document.<\/p>\n

The manufactured offense over a single phrase is so stretched Weinstein likely views this as a test case.\u00a0 Will the Air Force knee-jerk and scrub the course for the offensive reference to a chapel?\u00a0 Or will it take a more measured response — or even acknowledge the virtue <\/em>of the text he is attacking?\u00a0 The Air Force’s reply will be enlightening.<\/p>\n

The “again” portion of this is notable.\u00a0 The perpetually offended Weinstein has brought up this SOS course\u00a0before, in 2009<\/a>, without success.\u00a0 Weinstein is apparently trying to capitalize on recent publicity in an attempt to win a do-over, presenting it as a ‘new’ scandal over which to wail and moan.<\/p>\n

The offensive language is below, included as a module of the correspondence course of SOS, entitled “Three Important Documents.”\u00a0 Contrary to the insinuations of Weinstein’s “religious freedom” group, the text is exceedingly appropriate commentary on leadership, particularly given the shocking leadership failures in the military in recent times.\u00a0 It is well worth the read, even if you’re an experienced leader.<\/p>\n

Spiritual and Ethical Responsibilities of the Leader<\/strong><\/p>\n

Officership is more than your professional responsibility — it is your moral responsibility as well.\u00a0 The government has entrusted you with a position of leadership, and it has the right to expect that your conduct will reflect the ideals and values that our nation cherishes.\u00a0 Your commission expresses our nation’s trust.\u00a0 The oath of office expresses your willingness to accept trust.<\/p>\n

You represent our government and you are a servant of the people. Because of your influence as a leader of people, you need a clear understanding of what American values are, and how they affect human behavior.\u00a0 You have to be alert to the moral and spiritual forces at work in our nation’s life.\u00a0 At the same time, you must exemplify the ideals of our democratic philosophy in your own life.\u00a0 You must possess the qualities of character that we think of as truly American.\u00a0 If your personal life rests on sound moral principles, your leadership will prove more resolute, responsible, and best exemplify the American way of life.<\/p>\n

Because of the nature of the military organization and the authority that you hold as a leader, you exert tremendous influence on the morale, morals, habits, actions, and attitudes of your subordinates.\u00a0 You create an atmosphere.\u00a0 When you take over an organization, the people watch with interest to see what kind of person you are.\u00a0 In time, the unit reflects, consciously and unconsciously, your attitudes and actions.\u00a0 If you reveal a deep concern for the Airmen, other officers and noncommissioned officers will evidence this concern.\u00a0 If you are indifferent to the civilian community, public relations will deteriorate because the people in the command take their cue from you.\u00a0 If you attend chapel regularly, both officers and Airmen are likely to follow this example.\u00a0<\/strong> If you are morally lax in your personal life, a general moral indifference within the command can be expected.\u00a0 On the other hand, if you give evidence of being a person of integrity who is as strict with yourself as you are with others, who measures yourself by the same standards that you expect of your command, your sense of moral responsibility will pervade the organization.<\/p>\n

Moral responsibility is not practiced in a vacuum.\u00a0 It exists only in relation to principles that are sincerely accepted and practiced consistently.\u00a0 It is demonstrated by your personal code of conduct:\u00a0 your sense of honor, sincerity, integrity, honesty, justice, fairness, self-respect, personal dignity, and the dignity you accord to others.\u00a0 The moral principles are the stars by which you set the course of your life.\u00a0 The rank you wear on your shoulders symbolizes duty constituted by external authority.\u00a0 Your loyalty to moral principles provides the internal authority that gives power to your leadership.\u00a0 Our society places demands upon you as a commissioned officer.\u00a0 When you take your oath, you become a member of a profession with a special code of conduct, which is well expressed in the West Point code: Duty, Honor, Country.\u00a0 Gen Douglas MacArthur offered a classic tribute to this code, and the people who follow it, in his retirement speech at the US Military Academy on 12 May 1962:…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\ufeff<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Weinstein is taking the US Air Force to task, again, for using the word “chapel” in a course from Squadron Officers’ School (SOS), a junior officer military education course. The sentence at issue is important in context. Therefore, the surrounding text is included below.\u00a0 Weinstein’s lawyers have declared these words “unconstitutional,” saying the SOS course mandates that regular chapel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[134,38,82,85,2,5218,7,171,1625],"class_list":["post-17022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-chapel","tag-constitution","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religious-freedom","tag-sos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}