Pat Robertson is not pleased by the Air Force’s recent decision to make the words “So help me God” optional in the oath of enlistment, a result of the controversy over an airman in Nevada who was not allowed to re-enlist after he omitted the line.
The “700 Club” host reacted to the news today by criticizing the Air Force as cowards for “caving” to the “little Jewish radical” Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, whom he said is “terrorizing” the military:
There is a left-wing radical named Mikey Weinstein who has gotten a group about ‘people against religion’ or whatever he calls it and he has just terrorized the Armed Forces. You think you’re supposed to be tough, you’re supposed to defend us, and you’ve got one little Jewish radical who is scaring the pants off of you. You want these guys flying airplanes to defend us when you’ve got one little guy terrorizing them? That’s what it amounts to. We swear oaths, ‘So help me God,’ what does it mean? It mean’s with God’s help. You don’t have to say you believe in God, you just have to say you want some help beside myself with the oath I’m taking. It’s just crazy. What is wrong with the Air Force? How can they fly the bombers to defend us if they cave to one little guy?
Of course, as Don Byrd of the Baptist Joint Committee notes, it’s not just atheists but also some Christians “whose religious teachings prohibit oaths to God” who would be affected by the policy.
