Speaking at the Hudson Institute, a neoconservative think tank whose cadre of “experts” includes the former guy’s Christian nationalist Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Paul Marshall, whose 2002 book God and the Constitution: Christianity and American Politics was described as “an indispensable guide for Christians searching for a way to interject their religious convictions into their political actions,” Lt Gen Richard Moore, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, had the perfect venue to espouse his Christian nationalist opinion that the U.S. military’s use of AI will be more ethical than that of other nations because:
“Regardless of what your beliefs are, our society is a Judeo-Christian society and we have a moral compass.”
Yes, this fine “Judeo-Christian” (a term used by Christian nationalists so they don’t sound antisemitic) 3-star U.S. military general just exemplified what the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has seen for many years — that Christian nationalism goes all the way up to the highest ranks in our military.
This was Lt Gen Moore’s entire only-Christians-can-be-moral statement:
“What will the adversary do? It depends who plays by the rules of warfare and who doesn't. There are societies that have a very different foundation than ours. Regardless of what your beliefs are, our society is a Judeo-Christian society and we have a moral compass. Not everybody does, and there are those that are willing to go for the ends regardless of what means have to be employed, and we'll have to be ready for that.”
Imagine if you will (yeah, we’re in Rod Serling territory), an AI model trained on the Bible, a book full of violence and vengeance in which God on several occasions called for genocide, like in Deuteronomy 20:16-17, which says, “But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them,” or this gem from the destruction of Jericho in Joshua 6: “Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it.“
Or will the military’s AI be trained with materials like the “Jesus Loves Nukes” presentation that MRFF put a stop to back in 2011, in which the Air Force was training young missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons by citing passage after passage from the New Testament.
Putting aside how, exactly, the military’s AI will be trained to make “Judeo-Christian” decisions, in publicly making his statement that America is a “Judeo-Christian society” and, thus, somehow morally superior, Lt Gen Moore was not only in clear violation of the truth, but of Air Force Instruction 1-1, Section 2.12, which unambiguously states (emphasis added):
“Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for their own free exercise of religion, including individual expressions of religious beliefs, and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion. They must ensure their words and actions cannot reasonably be construed to be officially endorsing or disapproving of, or extending preferential treatment for any faith, belief, or absence of belief.”
Retired Air Force Brig Gen and MRFF Advisory Board member Marty France had a few thoughts on Lt Gen Moore’s outrageous Christian nationalist statement:
“Are our bombs more ethical? Our nukes? The implication here--stated without the slightest disguise, or sense of hubris--is that ‘other’ societies have no moral compass, no values, no restraint at all in how they would use power and weapons. I would guess that many of the victims of America's Judeo-Christian weapons would disagree. Indigenous Americans? Vietnamese villagers napalmed in their huts? Iraqi and Afghan civilians mistakenly killed in drone attacks? A country invaded on the pretense of having WMDs? Does our Judeo-Christian societal foundation console the dead and their survivors because ‘we’ have values and presume that they did not? Comments by White Christian Nationalists in uniform like Lt Gen Moore undermine our international standing and paint us as colonialist elites that can't be trusted as allies and are a threat to any nation that doesn't look and think as he does.
“And, by the way, Putin claimed the same moral high ground of ‘Christian Values’ when he invaded Ukraine with the endorsement of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. How about those "Christian values?" Don't forget as well that the inscription on the belt buckle of most German Wehrmacht Nazi soldiers was ‘Gott Mit Uns.’”
MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein also had a bit to say about the Christian nationalist Lt Gen:
“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is demanding that the Department of Defense (DoD) immediately, publicly and aggressively bring General Court Martial charges against Lt. General Richard Moore for one of the most flagrant and brazen Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) criminal violations of Air Force Instruction 1-1, Section 2.12 that MRFF has ever seen!
“And let me make one thing DAMN clear to everyone right now from MRFF, as specific subject matter experts in this EXACT type of extremist religious warfare in our U.S. military; when wretched fundamentalist Christian bigots, like this hateful, repugnant Lt. General Moore, mention the deceptive term ‘Judeo-Christian’ society those are mere thinly veiled, fundamentalist Christian code words for ONLY “Christian” society!
“Again, ONLY CHRISTIAN SOCIETY!!
“Moore’s undeniably repugnant, fundamentalist Christian nationalist rhetoric MUST be answered swiftly by DoD to stem the tide of Moore’s vomitus spewing which WILL generate rampant destruction of good order, morale, discipline, and unit cohesion within the ranks of our American armed forces.
“DoD Secretary Lloyd Austin made it crystal clear when he assumed his present position of leadership that he wanted to be the lodestar for racial and religious diversity at DoD. So DO SOMETHING now, Mr. Secretary!!
“Lt. General Moore’s filthy statements of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, exceptionalism, domination, and exclusivity are in DIRECT violation inter alia of the No Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, its construing Federal caselaw, a slew of DoD and USAF directives, instructions, and regulations, the UCMJ ,and the Core Values of the United States Air Force.
“Either Court Martial that base, evil, and vile monstrosity or spawn legions of others just like him!"