As reported by NPR, yesterday, Air Force Gen. John "Jay" Raymond was sworn in as head of the recently created United States Space Force. The swearing-in was unusually controversial because Raymond was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence using a Bible that was blessed for that purpose at a ceremony last Sunday at the Washington National Cathedral. (Washington Post). Maj. Gen. Steven A. Schaick, chief of chaplains for the U.S. Air Force, held the Bible as it was being blessed.
Yesterday, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed a strongly worded letter of complaint (full text) with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, calling the National Cathedral ceremony "a horrid example of DoD-endorsed, fundamentalist Christian supremacy, ...exclusivity ... and triumphalism...." God and Country blog also has coverage of the controversy.
