The QUEST To Turn The U.S. Military Into THE ARMY OF GOD

[Segami]

Mikey Weinstein has said in an interview that “The rise of evangelical Christianity inside the military went on steroids after 9/11 under this administration and this White House, This administration [President Bush] has turned the entire Department of Defense into a faith-based initiative.”

Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) combats fundamentalist Christian control of our nation’s military every day. The rot of Christian nationalism is widespread. Soldiers who do not jump on the Jesus bandwagon are persecuted. For his troubles, for defending religious freedom, he is dubbed “Field General of the Godless Armies of Satan” and inundated with hate mail. Because that’s what Jesus told his followers to do: don’t turn the other cheek or love your enemies, but write hate mail. Bad enough our military has been put in the role of playing religious crusaders in the Middle East. The situation in our military is anything but friendly to atheists and non-Christian religionists. Fundamentalists men and women in the military feel their duty to “spread the Gospel” is more important than the Constitution, and they have widespread support from their superiors. Thousands of soldiers have been pressured by their commanding officers to convert to Christianity.

MRFF tells us,

Evangelism is firmly entrenched in American military culture. It pervades several aspects of military life, and each of these — from the social exclusion of nonbelievers, to the influence of evangelism on access to military resources, to the toxic fusion of national security objectives with religious terminology — warrants serious consideration. For all the honor and respect we give our soldiers, we certainly don’t hold some of the ideas they defend — namely, the separation of church and state — in very high regard.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/61629/inside-the-military-s-campaign-to-make-its-soldiers-christian

You can read about this discrimination of non-Christians and the military campaign to make its soldiers Christian at Policymic. It makes for some shocking reading, if you are not already familiar with these efforts. Remember, these are people who think that separation of church and state is a lie. They want control of our government and more frightening yet (think about Christian communities occupied by religious zealots in the Middle East) they want control of our military. Weinstein speaks of the “pernicious, fundamentalist Christian pressure” being brought to bear on all branches of our military – but particularly the Air Force and here - as he struggles to defend not only atheists and other non-Christians, but Christians themselves from these fundamentalist attacks on religious freedom. But you will be aware of none of this if you watch Fox News, or read the Fox News website, where the hysteria is all about the Air Force Cracking Down on Christians or how Christian Air Force Veteran Punished By Lesbian Commander. Matt Barber and Shawn Akers have used this incident, where an Air Force sergeant got worked up over gay marriages in the military to the extent that he was reassigned, to claim, reports Right Wing Watch,

“In just a few short years,” Akers said we’ve reached “a place where it very well seems safest not to mention your Christianity; we may have very well entered a time of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Christianity within the United States military.”

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/barber-akers-christians-are-now-victims-dont-ask-dont-tell

Barber called his enemies “hordes of locusts” who want to destroy “every noble institution that adheres to traditional values and righteousness and upholds Biblical principles … It’s sad what’s happening to America now, folks.” Of course, in reality, nobody is trying to say fundamentalist “Christians” have to marry somebody of the same sex. What we are saying to them is that we don’t have to live our lives according to their religious beliefs. And it is not just atheists and non-Christians who are the victims of this attempted purge of our military, but Jews, allegedly fundamentalist Christianity’s best-friend. The Philadelphia Jewish Voice reported in 2007 that,

An Orthodox Jew and former petty officer in the US Navy said his civil rights were violated after a chaplain and officials at a Veterans Administration hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, tried to convert him to Christianity while he was under the V.A.’s care.

http://www.pjvoice.com/v24/24002crusade.aspx

cont'





http://www.politicususa.com/2013/09/08/quest-turn-u-s-military-army-god.html

[hobbit709]

1. "Die-hard supporters of the Constitution"? since when?

The fundy types want to setup a theocracy based on their totally mistaken belief of what the Constitution says.

[Segami]

2. "...Really, the problem for fundamentalists is that they hate being told “no.”..

....This really infuriates them, because they say they are only doing what God wants them to do, which is, apparently, to defame and abuse and discriminate against everybody who does not submit to them and to their religious beliefs. They do not like being thwarted...."

[Raksha]

3. Thank you for posting this very important article.

You probably know this already, but the anti-theocracy website Talk To Action has been covering the topic of Dominionism in the U.S. Military for several years, which means that Mikey Weinstein's name comes up frequently. A search on his name turned up 30 articles.

Here's the most recent one, dated October 16, 2012:
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/10/16/132655/58

It's called "USAFA Classmate Threatens Imprecatory Prayer if Mikey Weinstein Attends Class Reunion" and it begins this way:

Next week, Mikey Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), will be attending the 35th reunion of his class at the Air Force Academy. Apparently, some of his "Spirit-filled born again Christian" classmates have a problem with this, threatening imprecatory prayers to put the Psalm 109 whammy on him if he shows up.
Here's the email Mikey got from one of his "Spirit-filled born again Christian" classmates the other day. (I've inserted asterisks with explanations below for a few things this guy refers to in his "Spirit-filled" email.)

You can read the actual email (or as much of it as you can stand) at the link. It will become painfully clear that Mikey Weinstein's "Spirit-filled" classmate is full of something, but it's not what I would call "Spirit."

[KG]

4. amusing considering how islam is portrayed as the violent religion.

[felix_numinous]

5. The PTB don't have the draft, so they resort to brainwashing

--because they need compliance, and blind loyalty. I don't know what is more disturbing, a religious fanatical army of Christians overseas, or what potentially happens when these vets reintegrate back into American society.

[jmowreader]

6. No...that's not what Christians are...

What Christians are is defenders of the Articles of Confederation and lovers of the George W. Bush Edition of the Bible (all the smiting and genocide, none of the peace and love)

[liberal_at_heart]

7. My father claims Chuck Hagel is anti-Christian.

[malaise]

9. K & R

Important subject

[raouldukelives]

10. Just as anything, they warp the message to fit their meaning.

They wield Christianity as a cudgel. Only using it for personal gain, political points or justifying the need of indiscriminate slaughter of innocents. Forever ignoring the very edicts they claim to honor.