U.S. Air Force Discontinues Training Nuclear Launch Officers with Bible Quotes

The U.S. Air Force is suspending an ethics course that had nuclear missile launch officers consider the moral implications of a nuclear strike by reading Bible quotes.

Officers filed a complaint about the 20-year-old course, taught by military chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, for its using Biblical references and passages to offer a rationale for war. One slide noted that "Abraham organized an Army to rescue Lot," and other read "Revelation 19:11 Jesus Christ is the mighty warrior."

Offended officers brought the class to the attention of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group which tries to ensure religious freedom among the troops.

"There were several things that they found disgusting," Mikey Weinstein, founder of the foundation, said. "The first was the fact that there is actually a slide that makes it clear that they're trying to teach that, under fundamentalist Christian doctrine, war is a good thing."

Air Force officials contended that they were unaware of the religious undertones running through the briefings, and said the lectures were intended to be a space for discussion.