These people have to start following the rules or follow each other out
the door.

Hunting People for Jesus: Growing Fundamentalism in the U.S. Military

By Jon Perr Monday May 04, 2009 5:00pm

After revelations that some American soldiers were given Bibles and
encouraged to "hunt people for Jesus," the Pentagon on Monday denied
allegations that the U.S. military allows its personnel to seek the
conversion of Afghans to Christianity. But while the copies of the New
Testament translated into Pashtun and jaw-dropping video from Bagram may
seem like exceptions that prove the rule of American prohibition on
proselytizing by the military, they are just the latest episodes in the
disturbing rise in influence of Christian conservatives in the United
States armed services.

As Jeremy Scahill detailed in the Huffington Post, the incidents first
reported on Al Jazeera are an affront both to the U.S. military code of
conduct and America's Afghan allies:

The center of this evangelical operation is at the huge US base at
Bagram, one of the main sites used by the US military to torture and
indefinitely detain prisoners.

In a video obtained by Al Jazeera and broadcast Monday, Lieutenant-
Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in
Afghanistan, is seen telling soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ,
they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him."

"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same
things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them
down," he says.

"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom.
That's what we do, that's our business."

As it turns out, that has indeed been the business of Christian
conservatives in the U.S. armed services since 9/11. In word and deed,
evangelicals in recent years have aggressively boosted their visibility
and influence within the American military.

An early warning came in 2003 in the guise of Lt. General William
Boykin.

Boykin, who later became a deputy under secretary of defense, claimed
during speeches to prayer groups and breakfasts that militant Islamists
sought to destroy America ''because we're a Christian nation.'' General
Boykin also explained to evangelical audiences that Muslims worship an
''idol'' and not ''a real God.'' While President Bush expressed his
disagreement (noting Boykin "''didn't reflect my opinion" and "it just
doesn't reflect what the government thinks"), Boykin remained on the
job.

The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has been a hotbed of
evangelical activism - and controversy. While cadets in 2004 distributed
leaflets at dinner place settings for a screening of "The Passion of the
Christ, football coach Fisher DeBerry displayed a sign in the team's
locker room proclaiming, "I am a Christian first and last. I am a member
of Team Jesus Christ." In May, 2005, Lutheran minister and Captain
MeLinda Morton was removed from her post after warning evangelical
Christians were trying to "subvert the system" in trying to win converts
among cadets at the Academy. A June 2005 study at USAFA described other
incidents of religious intolerance, insensitivity and inappropriate
proselytizing, and concluded:

"Additionally, some faculty members and coaches consider it their duty
to profess their faith and discuss this issue in their classrooms in
furtherance of developing cadets' spirituality."

In the wake of the Brady report and complaints from Military Religious
Freedom Foundation founder Mike Weinstein (himself a graduate of the
Academy), the Air Force in October 2005 moved to withdraw a "code of
ethics" document which permitted chaplains to evangelize military
personnel who were not affiliated with any faith. ("I will not
proselytize from other religious bodies," it read, "but I retain the
right to evangelize those who are not affiliated.") Still, even that
minor restriction produced an avalanche of opposition from Focus on the
Family, the Christian Coalition and other groups which protested that
the new guidelines abridged "the constitutional right of military
chaplains to pray according to their faith."

Undaunted, the push to proselytize in the U.S. military continues. In
2007, an inspector general's report highlighted ethics violations among
current and former officers, including two major generals, for appearing
in uniform for a promotional and fundraising video for the evangelical
group Christian Embassy. As the Washington Post noted, the report
"offers a vivid picture of how inappropriately intertwined Christian
Embassy had become with Pentagon operations by the time the video, with
its extensive scenes inside the Pentagon, was filmed in 2004."
Nonetheless, the New York Times reported earlier this year that military
personnel were shown videos featuring football's Terry Bradshaw
professing his Christian religion as part of an official military
production dealing with depression, suicide and "the importance of
faith."

The aggressive campaign for military converts is producing a climate of
fear and intimdation in the armed forces. Specialist Jeremy Hall sued
the Army after a superior officer interrupted his meeting for atheists
and free-thinkers by proclaiming, "People like you are not holding up
the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who
were Christians, wanted for America!" In another case, Army Specialist
and Iraq Purple Heart recipient Dustin Chalker filed a lawsuit after
being subjected to a mandatory ceremony that began and ended with a
Christian prayer. As he put it:

"The Army enforces policies against racism and sexism, but doesn't bat
an eye at these kinds of religious discrimination. Why is it acceptable
that soldiers are unable to serve this nation without attending state-
led religious practices they find offensive and false?"

Of course, it isn't acceptable, not under Central Command's General
Order Number One and myriad other guidelines issued by the Pentagon
before or since. Tragically, as the United States wages a global
struggle against terrorists espousing a virulent strain of Islamic
fundamentalism, fundamentalists in the ranks of the American military
are betraying its values - and jeopardizing its mission.

http://crooksandliars.com/node/27891

--- Xnews/5.04.25