WASHINGTON — The Air Force announced today that it would no longer require recruits to become baptized Christians in order to graduate basic training following yet another bout of criticism over bias from Air Force leaders who identify as evangelicals.
[...]
The move comes amid increasing scrutiny from groups like the
Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) who say leaders are pushing their religious beliefs in inappropriate ways
. By removing the baptism requirement, the Air Force hopes to tamp down mounting controversy.
The MRFF says there still is room for improvement.
“I mean, for goodness sake, the Air Force Academy – an engineering school that is supposed to mass produce pilots – has outsourced all science and engineering classes to Focus on the Family,” said MRFF President Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate himself. “We’ve got a generation of aviators and potential astronauts who think that gravity is the devil trying to suck them down into hell and that Elijah’s magic chariot dust is what propels them into the air.”
[...]