From The Wild Hunt by Jason Pitzl-Waters

Christian Military and Malicious Magic

( Excerpt. Click headline for full story. )

Mother Jones: Merry Christmas From the U.S. Military

( Excerpt. Click Headline for full story. )

Warning, there is explicit language in the article, quoting a threat received by Mikey Weinstein.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

MRFF Lawsuit Alleges Mandatory Christianity in US Military

[...] MRFF [Military Religious Freedom Foundation], in effect, has thrown down the gauntlet: does article VI, clause 3 of the Constitution apply here ? Or will the US courts proclaim that religious tests for office, in the US military, are Constitutional ? Article VI had better apply. It's foundational to the health our democracy - the ban on religious tests for office was embedded in the US Constitution, in part, to prevent the sort of terrible religious wars that wracked Europe following the Catholic/Protestant split of the Reformation. [...]

Read the full article (linked above) for details from Bruce Wilson's KOS diary Troutfishing. More can be read as well at the Truthout.org site where the story first broke.

Thanks to sunfell for the heads up on this one.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dkmnow)

Published on Thursday, September 6, 2007 by Inter Press Service

Bush Appointee Campaigns for Evangelicals

The head of the U.S. federal government agency that doles out benefits to disabled veterans is under fire for saying Bible study is “more important than doing [my] job.”
by Aaron Glantz

SAN FRANCISCO - Two organisations, Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), demanded an investigation Tuesday of Daniel Cooper, President George W. Bush’s undersecretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs.Their complaint stems from an appearance Cooper made in a fundraising video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.

( full text under cut )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

DOD Inspector-General finds officers' participation in Christian group's video inappropriate

( Excerpt. Click Headline for full story. )

A copy of the video can be found at the above link as well.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY horvendile)

I wouldn't usually link to something of unknown provenance but if this is true I find it very disturbing.

A soldier in Iraq went through all the proper channels to organize an meeting of atheists. A Fundamentalist Christian Major attended and berated and threatened the other attendees all enlisted men.

Science Blog.com: Atheists Mistreated in Iraq.

That Major needs to be disciplined. I am not going to prejudge the army's response. Unfortunately i doubt I'll ever find out what it it.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY catvincent)

Dave at Orcinus brings the bad news...

' If this story from Max Blumenthal in The Nation doesn't shake you to your core, then you may not appreciate fully what's happening to this country. It opens with an update on the most recent exploits of actor Stephen Baldwin (one of the Baldwin brothers, mostly known for their liberal politics):

Baldwin became a right-wing, born-again Christian after the 9/11 attacks, and now is the star of Operation Straight Up (OSU), an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military. As an official arm of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, OSU plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also scheduled to embark on a "Military Crusade in Iraq" in the near future.

"We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war torn region," OSU declares on its website about its planned trip to Iraq. "We'll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq."

The Defense Department's Chaplain's Office, which oversees OSU's activities, has not responded to calls seeking comment.

Think about this:

By making this proselytization part of official DOD "outreach," we begin the process of making the Christian conversion of American soldiers official military policy.

And then we are sending these converts into a Muslim war zone with visions of crusades dancing in their heads.

Can things possibly get any more insane?

Well, yes they can. Read on... '

Ah well... Baldwin's not done anything good since The Usual Suspects, so I guess starting a crusade keeps him busy.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

I don't think I've seen this posted...


Full article here; excerpt below

A year ago, he was a Pentecostal Christian minister at Camp Anaconda, the largest U.S. support base in Iraq. He sent home reports on the number of "decisions" -- soldiers committing their lives to Christ -- that he inspired in the base's Freedom Chapel.

...

Larsen's private crisis of faith might have remained just that, but for one other fateful choice. He decided the religion that best matched his universalist vision was Wicca, a blend of witchcraft, feminism and nature worship that has ancient pagan roots.

On July 6, he applied to become the first Wiccan chaplain in the U.S. armed forces, setting off an extraordinary chain of events. By year's end, his superiors not only denied his request but also withdrew him from Iraq and removed him from the chaplain corps, despite an unblemished service record.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

The good people at Jews on First have been doing a bang-up job tracking the involvement of evangelical groups in the military.

While it's OK for religious groups to have access to the troops, it is NOT OK for the military to officially sponsor any religious group. But that was exactly what happened on Memorial Day weekend in Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta, GA:

Last-minute intervention by constitutional watchdog organizations forced the Army and Air Force to drop their sponsorship of a right-wing evangelical Christian event.

The event, "Salute to the Troops," at Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta ran without official government sponsorship. Planned military involvement in the three-day Memorial Day weekend event was also greatly reduced after Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) wrote to the secretaries of the Army and Navy.

Nevertheless, Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said he is planning to sue the Pentagon over the event.

The Salute to the Troops event was advertised locally as having official Army and Air Force sponsorship. It was to have featured official military displays and speakers, most notably Army parachute jumps and hourly Air Force flyovers -- until Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation learned of it.

Americans United wrote to the secretaries of the Air Force and the Army, confronting them with evidence of their services' official involvement in the event.

In its May 23rd letter, AU exposed the services' involvement and forced both Army and Air Force to make statements backing away from their endorsements and to greatly tone down their official participation. AU quoted a Robins Air Force Base publication calling the Stone Mountain event an "official" Air Force event. The URL AU cited, "http://www.robins.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070504-20.pdf," appears to have been taken down.

Task Force Patriot USA
The Salute's main sponsor was Task Force Patriot USA, a suburban Atlanta group whose website says:

Task Force Patriot exists for the purpose of sharing the fullness of life in Jesus Christ with all U.S. military, military veterans and families. The outreach is to those in need of gaining new growth and balance in their lives.... as they assist others, while serving Him.

According to a local paper, the Gwinnett Daily Post, TFP has ambitions to expand across the country.

This super show is not a one-shot deal. Salute to the Troops is on the calendar for the next 10 years, and Task Force Patriot is planning similar events in other major cities.

But weekend celebrations are only a minor detail. The group’s main task is to set up military support groups like theirs all over the nation.

The article linked above has all the embedded links. This was a partial excerpt. There's more- lots more- at the site.

For the newcomers here, the military has long been a very juicy target for infiltration by elements of the hard Christian Right. Unfortunately, the diversity of chaplains serving in the military has been nearly obliterated by a huge inflow of Assemblies-sponsored chaplains, who apparently are not as obedient to the requirements of being a military chaplain as the older corps was. They have flaunted the requirements of non-sectarian prayer at public events, actively pursue 'unchurched' soldiers, openly proselytize people who are their inferiors in rank, and do many other things that have started to turn the military into a religious right bastion. It goes all the way up to the Pentagon. Check the 'military' tag for past posts about this.

Worse, the influx of these chaplains and believers has created a climate of open distaste for non-believers, which was very sharply demonstrated at the USAF Academy. Mikey Weinstein's own children were cadets there, and they, along with others, reported open evangelicizing, and punitive assignment to 'heathen squads' for those who either did not bow to the pressure, or would not convert. "Jews on First" has done an excellent job in covering this. I recommend exploring their site, along with Mikey's, to learn more about this ongoing problem.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Maybe our voices are finally being heard. Americans United reports that the Army and the US Air Force have decided not to participate in a 3-day evangelical event in Georgia this weekend.

The Washington Post also has details about this event:

After complaints by a government watchdog group, the Air Force and the Army partially [emphasis mine] distanced themselves yesterday from a three-day evangelical Christian event this weekend at a Georgia theme park.

The Memorial Day weekend "Salute to the Troops" celebration at Stone Mountain Park is sponsored by Task Force Patriot USA, a private group that says its purpose is "sharing the fullness of life in Jesus Christ with all U.S. military, military veterans and families," and whose Web site says "Christ is our Commander-in-Chief."

Huh? I thought that Dubya was the 'commander guy'. ( But wait, there's more! )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Navy Chaplains Tried Converting Me

Navy veteran David Miller said that when he checked into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, he didn’t realize he would get a hard sell for Christian fundamentalism along with treatment for his kidney stones.

Miller, 46, an Orthodox Jew, said he was repeatedly proselytized by hospital chaplains and staff in attempts to convert him to Christianity during three hospitalizations over the past two years.

He said he went hungry each time because the hospital wouldn’t serve him kosher food, and the staff refused to contact his rabbi, who could have brought him something to eat.

Miller, an Iowa City resident and former petty officer third class who spent four years in the Navy, outlined his complaints at a news conference in Des Moines on Thursday. The event was sponsored by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an activist group based in Albuquerque, N.M.

He described the Iowa City facility as an institution permeated by government sponsorship of fundamentalist Christianity and unconstitutional discrimination against Jews.

Here's an 15-minute audio interview with Miller by Jews On First.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

From CounterPunch

By STEPHEN LENDMAN
April 23, 2007

Chris Hedges is a journalist who for two decades was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times spending much of his time reporting from conflict zones in El Salvador, the Middle East and from Serbia covering the Balkan wars of the 1990s that divided and destroyed a country under the guise of humanitarian intervention providing cover for naked imperialism. There it allowed NATO (meaning the US) to expand into Central and Eastern Europe to keep predatory capitalism on the march for markets, resources and cheap labor everywhere using wars to get them and eliminate "uncooperative" heads of state like Slobodan Milosevic who was kidnapped, Mafia/Mossad style, by the ICTY kangaroo court in the Hague, hung out to dry when he got there, and in the end effectively or, in fact, murdered to shut him up and prevent ugly truths coming out about what the conflict was really about and who the real criminals were.

The wars and subsequent show-trials had nothing to do with myths about it fed us by Western media. Those wanting the truth can find it in excellent books like Diana Johnstone's Fools' Crusade; the extensive research and writings of Edward Herman, Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, law professor Michael Mandel; and the newest book out on the subject titled Travesty: The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic and the Corruption of International Justice by British journalist John Laughland. Edward Herman wrote a superb review of the book in the April, 2007 issue of Z Magazine now available in which he pointedly says "the rules of the (illegally constituted) ICTY (established by the US and UK) stood Nuremberg on its head" and Laughland states "instead of applying existing international law, the ICTY has effectively overturned it" to hide NATO's crimes and allow more of the same playing out now in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

( The Christian Right supports these type crimes and motives for them readers will understand from Hedges' new book... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Evangelism and Discipleship page is a good look at how our military is being inculcated into religious conformity.

There's a quicktime video that loads and plays upon accessing the site.

Military Ministry’s first strategic objective is to Evangelize and Disciple All Enlisted Members of the US Military [emphasis theirs]. We seek to provide every uniformed son and daughter of America with an anchor for the soul through Jesus Christ. This process begins at the recruit training bases…boot camps…where new troops are transformed physically, mentally, and ideally… spiritually.

We seek to not only impact the Armed Forces in this way, but to also transform our entire nation as we build values, character and Christian faith into these dear ones who serve us at home and abroad.[emphasis mine]

Reread that last bit. "Onward Christian Soldiers" has a sinister new sound to it now. But now, it's nonbelievers they are hoping to march off to war against.

This is interesting... and also chilling:

Fast Facts

* This year, more than 400,000 young Americans will begin their military service in basic trainings centers.

* Ninety percent of enlisted recruits are aged 17 to 24 – challenging Military Ministry to remain relevant and effective.

* Each Sunday of the year, Military Ministry Gateway staff and volunteers conduct evangelistic and discipleship classes attended by more than 2500 enlisted trainees.

* These workers invest about 130,000 hours of their time in the US military’s newest generation each year.

* Every week, an average of 300 enlistees indicate decisions for Christ at these basic training locations:

o Ft Jackson, South Carolina (largest Army Basic Training)
o Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Chicago, Illinois (Navy Basic Training)
o Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas (Air Force Basic Training)
o Parris Island, South Carolina (Marine Consolidate Recruiting Depot)

* In addition, we run programs at the following advanced training centers:
o Ft Eustis, Virginia (Army Transportation Command)
o Defense Language Institute, Monterey, California (Military Language Schools)
o Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA

* We’ve recently launched a medical ministry in San Antonio to serve the returning wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan.

These are your kids folks. This is our military being pestered and harried by ministeries like this. They don't like to take 'no' for an answer.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This article about the Pat Tillman debacle illustrates the problems with Christian supremacy in the military. It also illustrates how atheists and other outsiders are treated by the Christianized command:

As an institution, does the American military exist solely to defend America or does it perhaps also have an obligation to promote Christianity? More than a few Christians in America seem to want to use the American military to promote Christianity, both to people in the military and abroad. Even worse, President George W. Bush may share these views on some level.

America's secular government is not compatible with a religious military that has a religious mission. If the military is used in any way to promote, foster, or encourage religious beliefs, then it will be acting to undermine not just secular, civil government, but also a religiously pluralistic society in America. The American military must remain neutral with respect to all religions, treating people of all religions and no religion equally. How can atheists or religious minorities trust the military to protect them or to protect secular government, for example, if the military is also promoting Christianity?

****

It should be noted that the Tillman family hasn't said whether they are atheists or not. They may be, or they may not be. They aren't Christians and whatever their beliefs are, they seem to tend towards secularism and humanism rather than supernatural religion. Pat Tillman's brother Rich certainly seems to be an atheist because at his brother's funeral, Rich said: "Pat isn't with God. He's f -- ing dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's f -- ing dead."

Ultimately, though, it doesn't really matter if Pat Tillman was an atheist or not, or if anyone else in his family is an atheist or not. The fact that they are not Christians and are perceived as atheists by Christians in the military was sufficient for them to be treated as inferior to Christians. [emphasis mine] The religious, anti-atheist bigotry is there regardless of whether it was directly at genuine atheists. For Christian Supremacists, it doesn't matter whether someone is really an atheist or not; all that matters is that one isn't a real Christian.

More about the poor treatment of atheists and non-Christians in the military can be found here.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Jeff Sharlet's Daily Kos diary goes into more detail about the Christian Embassy and the people who are part of it. It's an interesting and chilling read. Here's an excerpt:

Christian Embassy is political.
Unlike the conservative Family Research Council, which McCullough describes as an explicitly political lobby with which Christian Embassy sometimes coordinates, Christian Embassy focuses on "networking, individual counseling, that kind of thing." McCullough told me that Christian Embassy is apolitical; on the other hand, he also said its ministry has a political impact: "It’s more to help the individual grow as a person in their relationship with God, and then their politics is going to be an outcome."

Christian Embassy believes religion should guide politics.
Christian Embassy believes that politicians, diplomats, and officers should not consider their personal faith separate from their politics and their official duties. McCullough offers as a role model President Bush: "...in terms of the way [Bush] talks, the way he believes, he doesn’t really say ‘Oh I’m going to do religious things now and do other things later.’"

Christian Embassy sees the top brass as its mission field.
McCullough on Christian Embassy’s Pentagon presence: "At the Pentagon, we have a flag officers groups. Your stars, basically, 1-4 stars. We also have a disciple group at the pentagon. And there’s a general Bible study that meets Wednesday morning where 70-120 come. Most of our groups that we organize and work with are at the officer level. Flags, a good percentage. We have about 40 that come or are involved with that."

Christian Embassy is closely involved with political and military officials.
Those who work with Christian Embassy will typically meet in small groups, under the supervision of a counselor like McCullough, for an hour every week. Counselors typically select a scripture verse for discussion and attempt to draw out its "practical" implications, often through application to current events. Participants can and do call on Christian Embassy counselors for additional advice outside of their cell meetings. These counseling sessions typically take place in the officer’s or politician’s office. The most committed participants may travel overseas on behalf of Christian Embassy or arrange their official government travel to leave time for evangelizing work. This work may sometimes be "covert," such as a evangelizing in countries where it’s against the law.

Christian Embassy takes political positions.
Participants may call on Christian Embassy for advice on specific issues. "'What does the Bible say about this?'" is a common question, according to McCullough. He says Christian Embassy will not give explicit policy advice, but as a counselor, he would tell a member of Congress or a military official that a particular position -- pro-choice politics, or pacifism, for instance -- is "contrary to scripture."

Christian Embassy believes the Iraq War may be biblically sanctioned.
On the question of the war in Iraq, McCullough counsels: "We have war all throughout the Bible. Man’s history is war. So what’s the right thing? Not necessarily [the] war in the Bible. But what are you looking for? Is peace possible?" McCullough answered his own question by laughing.

Christian Embassy is a lobby in all but name.
McCullough says Christian Embassy is not a lobbying organization, but describes his work thusly: "I often will go visit a member of Congress and say, ‘Hey, there’s this going on, could you be involved in that?’ ... Or I will recommend to some of these groups that are issue oriented as to who might be interested in helping them. I am aware of where people are. So we do try to connect the dots. Network people." He agrees that Christian Embassy participants use the Christian Embassy network to political advantage, but considers this a positive outcome since it gives ambitious political, diplomatic, and military figures an incentive to get more involved with Christian Embassy’s evangelical theology.

His latest article is in the December "Harpers" (online in January) about how fundementalists are actively trying to rewrite American history to turn historical figures into religious ones. He is also the author of "Jesus Plus Nothing" (the Fellowship) and "Soliders of Christ"- (Ted Haggard's church). He is a careful and reliable researcher, and has revealed some very chilling trends in the ongoing onslaught by certain Christian sects against the Separation clause and the government itself. The Pentagon is merely the tip of the iceberg.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Mickey Weinstein, a former USAF officer and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has an interview with Salon Magazine about the "Christian Embassy" embedded in the Pentagon. He is not happy, and we should not be happy either:

We have a systemic problem. You sound like you're too young to remember Robert Redford in "Three Days of the Condor," but the premise of that movie was that there was a CIA within the CIA. We have a virulently dominionist, fundamentalist evangelical Christian element within the Pentagon. [emphasis mine] They would prefer this to be the "Pentecostalgon," not the Pentagon. That's what they would prefer. They're trying to turn the Pentagon into a frickin' faith-based initiative, and that is not what our military is about.

( Court-martial is needed... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY starcat_jewel)

A Jewish Air Force veteran takes on right-wing evangelism in the military.

Open, vicious anti-semitism in the military academies. Does Godwin's Law really apply when the parallels to Nazi Germany are so clear?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY morchades)

Has anyone seen this article on polgamy yet? There's one paragraph that applies to this community In it, she's promoting a book of interest:

Unfortunately, the largest barrier to a healthy discussion will be the American instinct to treat religiously-motivated conduct as though it should not be held accountable - regardless of the harm that is caused. I document this phenomenon in my recent book, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, and it is a very real component of American debate.

Also, taken from my own journal last week (I haven't been able to find any reference to this in this community):

Found this lobbyist group through Mike the Mad Biologist. Sounds like it was started in reference to some new rule that lets Commanders endorse their religious beliefs to the troops in the USAF. The mission statement starts out wonderfully.

"The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

MRFF recognizes that military life requires individual adherence to shared patriotic principles. MRFF also recognizes the need for military personnel to at times temporarily relinquish some Constitutionally granted personal freedoms for the sake of military discipline and objectives.

However, MRFF believes that religious faith is a Constitutionally guaranteed freedom that must never be compromised, except in the most limited of military circumstances, because of its fundamental importance to the preservation of the American nation and the American way of life."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

Chaplains Group Opposes Prayer Order
Guarantee on Using Jesus's Name Not Needed, It Says

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Preventing Proselytism in the Workplace

There's nothing worse than being a 'captive audience' at some mandantory meeting where people spew religious stuff- especially if you are not religious, and don't care to be evangelized... I am glad this CT bill is on the table.