Army of God

[Patters]

http://www.motherjones.com/news/upda...weinstein.html

Weinstein is the middle rung in three generations of soldiers. A former Air Force JAG and White House attorney for Ronald Reagan, he has adopted a shock-and-awe approach to battling efforts by the military to impress Christianity upon American soldiers. "We have the Christian Taliban and the Christian Al Qaeda inside our military," says Weinstein, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, "and they really have WMD, unlike Saddam."

...

Weinstein is certain that fundamentalists will stop at nothing to transform the United States military into an army of God. He notes that Officers Christian Fellowship, with chapters in every major U.S. military installation in the world, envisions—and here he quotes its mission statement—a "spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit." The group has helped boost fundamentalist Christianity among the armed forces from a negligible presence 20 years ago to a faith currently held by 30 percent of U.S. soldiers, according to Weinstein. He adds that many of those soldiers—hardcore end-timers and Dominionists—desperately want America to invade Iran, thereby triggering the biblical prophecy of the Rapture.

This summer he uncovered plans by the Pentagon to ship "freedom packages" to soldiers in Iraq that were to contain Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic, and Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a video game inspired by post-Rapture novels in which "soldiers for Christ" hunt enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers. Partly due to Weinstein's efforts, the packages were never sent. "It's not just the Holocaust or the inquisition or the pogroms or the nine—count 'em: nine—crusades," Weinstein cautions. "It's everything that's happened since then. Whenever a virulent form of any faith has engaged the machinery of the state, in the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, we have ended up with tidal waves of blood."

And so Weinstein is laying sand bags. He has fielded more than 6,000 complaints from soldiers who claim to have been persecuted by Christian evangelicals; 95 percent of the complaints come from mainstream Christians. Tipsters helped him catch uniformed military officers publicly endorsing an evangelical group and ferret out an anti-Semitic Bible study guide on an army base website. In September, he shunted many of the complaints into a massive lawsuit against the Department of Defense. His lead plaintiff, U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Hall, alleges that a major at Iraq's Speicher base threatened to block his reenlistment in the Army in retaliation for organizing a meeting of atheists.

[Fogbuster]

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We are living in an age of breath-taking extremism on all sides. The only solution is to get to the basics of life itself: what is most essential, most important for life to go on in the most productive and happiest way possible for all people in the world.

I say it starts with a family based upon true love, the true love, eternal love, unchanging love that God has always given to people who seek after Him with utmost sincerity, not extremist attacks on others, but sincere self-offering.

As Pogo said: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Only we can change that.


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[DarrylS]

Originally Posted by Fogbuster

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As Pogo said: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Only we can change that.
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Interesting quote, originated in the Viet Nam Backlash and often used by the environmental movement.. guess you can use political license.

[PatsFanInVa]

Hats off to Mr. Weinstein. I mean, unless you always keep your hat on for religious reasons.

What part of "separation of church and state" don't we understand?

PFnV

[Patters]

Originally Posted by Fogbuster

I say it starts with a family based upon true love, the true love, eternal love, unchanging love that God has always given to people who seek after Him with utmost sincerity, not extremist attacks on others, but sincere self-offering.

That's why we should have an overarching desire to try to understand, accept, and tolerate each other. That's why we should not judge when cruelty or abuse are not at stake.

[PatsFanInVa]

Originally Posted by Patters

That's why we should have an overarching desire to try to understand, accept, and tolerate each other. That's why we should not judge when cruelty or abuse are not at stake.

Aw crap do we have to go over the damn Redskins game again?