Who are “they”? Well, high-level Pentagon officials, who are imposing fundamentalist Christianity on our soldiers. The following excerpt is from a report by Truthout.org: [1]
On the heels of a scathing report issued by the Defense Department’s inspector general that took high-level Pentagon officials to task for allowing an evangelical Christian organization unfettered access to the Department of Defense (DOD) to promote its fundamentalist agenda, comes word the Pentagon’s top chaplain opened its doors yet again to another evangelical group whose leader recently spent two days at the facility proselytizing, passing out Christian literature, and “saving souls.” . . .
According to documents obtained by the watchdog group the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and made available to Truthout, David Kistler, President of Hickory, North Carolina-based H.O.P.E. Ministries International, embarked on a “DC Crusade” along with dozens of members of the evangelical organization for two weeks that included two days inside the Pentagon proselytizing and preaching the “gospel” to government employees and “saving souls.”
Kistler is a somewhat controversial figure whose sermons contain apocalyptic messages and bizarre prophecies. He believes certain Democratic lawmakers will burn in hell while “good Christians,” such as President Bush, will be swept up into the heavens. The Rapture will soon vacuum up good Christians, including George W. Bush, to Heaven, he said in a past sermon to his congregation. Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton will not be Raptured up to Heaven. Following The Rapture, the Anti-Christ will appear and children will be “micro-chipped.”
Well, a little religion never hurt anyone, right? Even while working at the Pentagon. Maybe, then, it’s time to tell those dissenting soldiers to shut up worship Jesus Christ. Mikey Weinstein, the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation Weinstein said he and his legal staff are still preparing to file a comprehensive federal lawsuit against the DOD
for widespread First Amendment and Bill of Rights violations as well as similar violations of Clause 3, Article VI of the Constitution, which prohibits any “religion test” for any position in the federal government.
Weinstein said the lawsuit has been delayed only because of the “overwhelming, non-stop reports of out-of-control Christian fundamentalism his organization has been receiving” from soldiers who indicated to Weinstein’s staff that rampant Christian fundamentalism has plagued the halls of the DOD and soldiers on the battlefield in Iraq are being forced by their superiors to accept Jesus Christ as their saviors. Weinstein, a former White House attorney under Ronald Reagan, general counsel H. Ross Perot and an Air Force Judge Advocate (JAG), has called for Congressional hearings into the Pentagon’s attempts to “Christianize” the military and the DOD.
“We need immediate and sustained bipartisan and Congressional oversight coupled with no-holds barred federal litigation to stop this unconstitutional, fundamentalist, Christian contagion and its military lick spittle sponsors from the West Wing to West Baghdad,” Weinstein said.
As I write this, I’m wondering what effect it has on our soldiers to convince them that the people they are trying to save over in Iraq are inevitably hell-bound for their Islamic beliefs. Perhaps, if they convinced me that the Iraqi civilians I’m allegedly assisting are going to burn in hell forever anyway, I would tend to mistreat Iraqi civilians, [2]shooting at them, kicking in their doors and throwing thousands of innocent men in prison without charge.
Perhaps this is a good reason for erecting a high wall between government and religion, especially at the Pentagon. Then, perhaps, the soldiers will be better able to see that all of us, even the Iraqi Muslims, are human beings deserving of respect.
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