Air Force removes Bible from POW-MIA display

Fox News ^ | March 31, 2014 | Todd Starnes

[DaveMSmith]

On March 14 Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told members of the House Armed Services committee that there was no war on religious liberty.

“The single biggest frustration I’ve had in this job is the perception that somehow there is religious persecution inside the United States Air Force,” the general told lawmakers. “It is not true.”

Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) told me the Air Force seems to be the worst offender when it comes to attacks on religious liberty.

If that’s true, perhaps Gen. Welsh could explain why a Bible was removed from a POW/MIA Missing Man Table at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. The removal of the Good Book was first reported by the Gannett-owned newspaper Florida Today.

[...]

Ron Crews, the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, told me he hopes the Air Force will restore the Bible to its rightful place. He called it a symbol of hope and courage for military personnel and their families.

“It is sad when military traditions honoring our POWs and MIAs are trumped by pursuits to remove any vestige of the faith that has sustained our warriors since Valley Forge,” Crews told me.

[DaveMSmith]

The following is the Air Force’s explanation of what happened:

"The 45th Space Wing deeply desires to honor America's Prisoners and War (POW) and Missing in Action (MIA) personnel. Unfortunately, the Bible's presence or absence on the table at the Riverside Dining Facility ignited controversy and division, distracting from the table's primary purpose of honoring POWs/MIAs. Consequently, we temporarily replaced the table with the POW/MIA flag in an effort to show our continued support of these heroes while seeking an acceptable solution to the controversy. After consultation with several relevant organizations, we now intend to re-introduce the POW/MIA table in a manner inclusive of all POWs/MIAs as well as Americans everywhere."

[Jack Hammer]

No doubt Obama is thrilled - as are all the countless Moslem enemies of America, and the nation’s atheists as well.

Personally, I find it a little strange that some air force boffin somewhere, despite all the facile and specious excuses, went along with this, but apparently in an age of declining expectations, you have to expect these things.

[easternsky]

SICK

[RobinOfKingston]

..., we now intend to re-introduce the POW/MIA table in a manner inclusive of all POWs/MIAs as well as Americans everywhere."

Wonder how they will do that? Maybe a little statue of satan on the table, Buddha, too, and maybe drawing of mohammed fondling Aisha.

[narses]

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[certrtwngnut]

What a bunch of crap. Once again our military gives in to a few loud voices. We truly are in the dumper.

[jch10]

Who told the general to move it? Who approved the move?

How much controversy is created by moving it?

Our country is in dire need of patriotic, military leadership....not gutless pansies.

[Sioux-san]

Mikey Weinstein is at again.

[boycott]

Drudge Report today had a story about Valerie Jarrett going to healthcare.gov today to join. She tweeted that it was “easy peasy.”

Anyway, I went to looking into the photos on her twitter page. I was hoping to find some diversity .... well that’s another story.

Anyway, here is a pic of her (I believe at the White House) celebrating Nowruz. Nowruz? Nowruz is partly rooted in the religious tradition of Zoroastrianism.

The men and women of our services cannot be exposed to the Bible but the clowns running (and ruining) our nation can have their twisted religious holidays there?

https://twitter.com/vj44/media

[jsanders2001]

Another mark down for Satan. I wonder when they will convert The Pentagon into The Pentagram?

[smoothsailing]

Shameful.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

When I joined the USAF back in 1966, we had a Master Sergeant tell us that he feared that within five years, chapels would no longer be allowed on the military bases.

He was off by quite a few years, but it is now happening.

[Pollster1]

On March 14 Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told members of the House Armed Services committee that there was no war on religious liberty. “The single biggest frustration I’ve had in this job is the perception that somehow there is religious persecution inside the United States Air Force,” the general told lawmakers. “It is not true.”

There is absolutely no war on Christianity and no religious persecution in Obama's military. The removal of divisive symbols such as a Bible in this display, crosses in many military chapels, the American flag in areas where that might give offense, the Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights, and other symbols of bitter clingers all have nothing to do with a war on Christianity.

The fact that Obama promised to stand with the Muslims if things got ugly is irrelevant. I'm confused on why only 343% of Americans can correctly identify Obama's faith as Christian even after innumerable mainstream media stories confirming that report.

[onedoug]

On March 14 Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told members of the House Armed Services committee that there was no war on religious liberty.

General Welsh, in the footsteps of his CIC, is a liar.

[SkyDancer]

I emailed my dad this story and he said he’s going to find a decal of a Bible and put it on his POW/MIA sticker he has on his car.

[kaehurowing]

How about two men on a wedding cake, and a barbie doll with a man’s head?

[ConorMacNessa]

Please indulge me as I post this graphic that I post periodically on the FR Canteen. The Bible is not only a religious Testament - it is the seminal work of Western Civilization. Without the Judeo-Christian Tradition, as formed by the Old and New Testaments, there is no Western Civilization. There is only hedonism, materialism and relativism. Our Founding Fathers kept its principles close to their hearts, and our society's retreat from those principles in recent decades has wrought substantial damage to our basic Freedoms, our security, and our way of life.

Welcome To All Who Enter This Canteen, To Our Serving Military, To Our Veterans, To All Military Families, To Our FRiends and To Our Allies!



Missing Man Setting

"The Empty Chair"

By Captain Carroll "Lex" Lefon, USN (RET), on December 21st, 2004

"In the wardroom onboard the aircraft carrier from which I recently debarked was a small, round table, with single chair. No one ever sat there, and the reasons, both for the table being there, and for the fact that the chair was always empty, will tell the reader a little bit about who we are as a culture. The wardroom, of course, is where the officers will dine; morning, noon and evening. It is not only a place to eat – it is also a kind of oasis from the sometimes dreary, often difficult exigencies of the service. A place of social discourse, of momentary relief from the burdens of the day. The only things explicitly forbidden by inviolable tradition in the wardroom are the wearing of a cover or sword by an officer not actually on watch, or conversation which touches upon politics or religion. But aboard ships which observe the custom, another implicit taboo concerns the empty chair: No matter how crowded the room, no matter who is waiting to be seated, that chair is never moved, never taken.

The table is by the main entrance to the wardroom. You will see it when you enter, and you will see it when you leave. It draws your eyes because it is meant to. And because it draws your eyes it draws your thoughts. And though it will be there every day for as long as you are at sea, you will look at it every time and your eyes will momentarily grow distant as you think for a moment. As you quietly give thanks.

AS YOU REMEMBER.

The small, round table is covered with a gold linen tablecloth. A single place setting rests there, of fine bone china. A wineglass stands upon the table, inverted, empty. On the dinner plate is a pinch of salt. On the bread plate is a slice of lemon. Besides the plate lies a bible. There is a small vase with a single red rose upon the table. Around the vase is wound a yellow ribbon. There is the empty chair.

We will remember because over the course of our careers, we will have had the opportunity to enjoy many a formal evening of dinner and dancing in the fine company of those with whom we have the honor to serve, and their lovely ladies. And as the night wears on, our faces will in time become flushed with pleasure of each other’s company, with the exertions on the dance floor, with the effects of our libations. But while the feast is still at its best, order will be called to the room – we will be asked to raise our glasses to the empty table, and we will be asked to remember:

The table is round to show our everlasting concern for those who are missing. The single setting reminds us that every one of them went to their fates alone, that every life was unique.

The tablecloth is gold symbolizing the purity of their motives when they answered the call to duty.

The single red rose, displayed in a vase, reminds us of the life of each of the missing, and their loved ones who kept the faith.

The yellow ribbon around the vase symbolizes our continued determination to remember them.

The slice of lemon reminds us of the bitterness of their fate.
The salt symbolizes the tears shed by those who loved them.
The bible represents the faith that sustained them.
The glass is inverted — they cannot share in the toast.
The chair is empty — they are not here. They are missing.

And we will remember, and we will raise our glasses to those who went before us, and who gave all that they had for us. And a part of the flush in our faces will pale as we remember that nothing worth having ever came without a cost. We will remember that many of our brothers and sisters have paid that cost in blood. We will remember that the reckoning is not over.

We many of us will settle with our families into our holiday season, our Christmas season for those who celebrate it, content in our fortune and prosperity. We will meet old friends with smiles and laughter. We will meet our members of our family with hugs. We will eat well, and exchange gifts and raise our glasses to the year passed in gratitude, and to the year to come with hope. We will sleep the sleep of the protected, secure in our homes, secure in our homeland.

But for many families, there will be an empty chair at the table this year. A place that is not filled.

WE SHOULD REMEMBER."

Many Thanks To Alfa6 For Finding Capt. Lefon's Chronicle Of "The Empty Chair."

"Träumerei"
Robert Schumann
(Click)

Never Forget The Brave Men And Women Who Gave
Their Lives To Secure Our Freedom!!

"Riamh nár dhruid ó sbairn lann!"

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[silverleaf]

wouldn’t want the muslim and wiccan POW’s to feel offended now, would we?

[KC_Lion]

Wow, typical Air Force pandering BS.

That statement says nothing other than “Whoops”

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

I don’t freakin believe this!