Apparently not. I guess I’m the only one who thinks having a preponderance of theocracy-advocating evangelicals in charge of our nuclear arsenal could be a problem, so I’ll just shut up about that. (Until one of them presses the button to bring on the Rapture, anyhow.)

Anyhow, get a load of the latest guidelines from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, coincidentally, or not, the world capital of the evangelicals. They’re withdrawn, but still, the mentality of these guys:

The Air Force, facing a lawsuit over alleged proselytizing, has withdrawn a document that permitted chaplains to evangelize military personnel who were not affiliated with any faith, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

The document was circulated at the Air Force Chaplain School until eight weeks ago. It was a “code of ethics” for chaplains that included the statement “I will not proselytize from other religious bodies, but I retain the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated.”

The Air Force distanced itself from the code of ethics after complaints by Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate who has accused the academy’s current leaders of fostering pressure on cadets to convert to evangelical Christianity.

Last week, Weinstein filed suit in federal court in New Mexico, alleging “severe, systemic and pervasive” religious discrimination in the Air Force. Among other evidence, the suit cited a July 12 New York Times article that quoted Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, the Air Force’s deputy chief of chaplains, as saying: “We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched.”

“Unchurched”? I prefer “deprogrammed,” thank you very much.

Weinstein said yesterday that before filing the lawsuit, he asked senior Air Force officials to explain whether Richardson was speaking for the service.

“They say the bad guys we’re fighting, the jihadists, represent a theocratic, fascistic movement,” Weinstein said. “If the United States Air Force, probably the most technologically lethal organization ever assembled by man, has a policy of evangelizing ’the unchurched,’ you tell me how that makes us look.”

Um, like crusaders?

The Air Force has new guidelines on religious tolerance that discourage public prayers on all but rare occasions. They do not ban evangelizing but say chaplains “must be as sensitive to those who do not welcome offerings of faith as they are generous in sharing their faith with those who do.”

“Generous…” I keep thinking of that airline pilot who started evangelizing over the intercom during a flight… Don’t these guys ever shut up? Fly the damn plane, already!

Weinstein called the guidelines insufficient, but evangelical Christian groups attacked them as overly restrictive. Mikey Weinstein might not like it, but it is the job of an evangelical Christian chaplain to evangelize,” said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for the Colorado-based Focus on the Family. “It’s protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion.”

Not of the military says it’s not their job, it isn’t. Or is Weinstein saying that evangelicals in the military get to decide when they’re in the chain of command and when they aren’t?

Resnicoff said the “amazing, positive thing that people are missing” about the NCMAF code of ethics is that “even the most evangelical chaplains are agreeing not to try to change the religion of a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu — anyone who has a religious faith.”

God, please just get away from me! I know all about you, and I know where I can find your church. Don’t touch me. Ick. Get away. Shut up.