For 20 years U.S. Air Force officers training to operate America’s missile silos were instructed on the morality of war and the launching of a nuclear attack—with the aid of quotes from the Bible and a former Nazi SS officer.

 

The two-decade training program abruptly ended, however, after the watchdog website Truthout published a report on the use of passages from St. Augustine, Jesus and Wernher Von Braun.

 

As part of new missileers’ instruction at Vandenberg Air Force Base, chaplains taught an ethics course that included a PowerPoint presentation on St. Augustine’s “Christian Just War Theory,” as well as examples of biblical teachings that discuss the “righteous way” to conduct war.

 

Truthout wrote: “The documents’ blatant use of religious imagery and its numerous references to the New and Old Testament would appear to constitute a violation of the First Amendment establishing a wall of separation between church and state and Clause 3, Article 6 of the Constitution, which specifically prohibits a ‘religious test.’”

 

The now-withdrawn curriculum included quotes from Von Braun, regarded as the father of the U.S. space program. However, prior to that, he was a member of the Nazi Party and an SS officer during World War II who “used Jews imprisoned in concentration camps, captured French anti-Nazi partisans, civilians, and others to help build the V-2, a weapon responsible for the death of thousands of British civilians,” said Truthout.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Air Force Pulls Christian-Themed Ethics Training for Nuclear Missile Officers After Publication of Truthout Report (by Jason Leopold, Truthout)

Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons (by Jason Leopold, Truthout)

AF Pulls 'Jesus Loves Nukes' Training (by Bryant Jordan, Military.com)

Ethics (by Chaplain, Captain Shin Soh, U.S. Air Force) (pdf)