“They are proselytizing not on behalf
of the Constitution of the United States . . . but rather on behalf
of some sort of fanatical view of end times. And they are using our
army to affect that.” -Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson
Last August the watchdog group, Military
Religious Freedom Foundation, foiled a Pentagon plan that would have
allowed the shipment of “freedom packages” to soldiers and Marines
in Iraq. The parcels were put together by the fundamentalist Christian
ministry, Straight Up, and contained Bibles, proselytizing tracts in
English and Arabic, and the apocalyptic “Left Behind” computer game,
in which Christian Tribulation forces convert or kill infidels-nonbelievers,
Muslims and Jews.
On May 1 the Senate approved the promotion
of Brigadier General Robert L. Caslen Jr. to Major General. Currently
the commandant of cadets at West Point, he will become the commander
of the 25th Infantry Division. He is also president of the stridently
fundamentalist Officer’s Christian Fellowship, whose vision is a “spiritually
transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered
by the Holy Spirit”
General Caslen was promoted despise the
Defense Department’s recommended disciplinary action against him and
several other senior military leaders because they had “improperly
endorsed and participated with a nonfederal entity while in uniform”
by participating in a promotional video for the Campus Crusade For Christ’s
Christian Embassy, an evangelical organization that ministers to Beltway
politicians and sponsors weekly Bible studies at the Pentagon.
According to the DoD Inspector General’s
report, one of the generals involved “asserted that Christian Embassy
was treated as an instrumentality of the Pentagon Chaplain’s office
for over 25 years, and had effectively become a “quasi federal entity.””
Arguably, he believed his participation in the video was in the line
of duty.
Considering both the Pentagon’s evangelical
proclivity and a 2006 Pew survey which found that of the major religious
groups in America, evangelicals have the most negative views of Islam
and Muslims, the U.S. sniper who was recently caught using the Quran
for target practice in the Baghdad neighborhood of Radhwaniya might
be excused for thinking the book was a legitimate target upon which
to perfect his craft . . . excused for thinking he was acting in the
line duty.
And is it any wonder that with evangelicals
and fundamentalists at the very top of the military’s officer corps
-to say nothing of their Commander in Chief-that an enlisted Marine
was passing out Christian “witnessing coins” inscribed in Arabic
at a checkpoint in Fallujah? One side of the coin asked, “Where will
you spend eternity?” An evangelical favorite, John 3:16, was on the
flip side.
Sheik Adul-Rahman al-Zubaie, a tribal
leader in Fallujah who was outraged by the Marine’s proselytizing
said, “This event did not happen by chance, but it was planned and
done intentionally.”
While the Marine’s proselytizing is
not the official policy of the predominately Christian force occupying
the predominately Islamic Iraq, it was done “in the line of duty”
with a wink and a nod from his chain of command. Think Abu Ghraib!
From Fort Jackson, the Army’s largest
basic training facility, where trainees are encouraged to attend Campus
Crusade’s weekly “God’s Basic Training” programs, to the U.S.
Air Force Academy where students are pressured to attend the Crusade’s
weekly “cru” (short for crusade) Bible study, American military
personnel are, as Campus Crusade’s Scot Blom gloats, “government
paid missionaries” when they complete their training.
As the demands of fighting a perpetual
war against “radical Islam” begins to strain both the military’s
resources and the country’s resolve, the Pentagon has begun outsourcing
larger chunks of the war to private contractors. Predictably, our “government
paid missionaries” have become more expensive and much less controllable
or accountable.
The Bush administration’s favorite
contractor, Blackwater, is the most powerful private army in the world.
It commands thousands of mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, has over
a billion dollars in government contracts, and enjoys complete immunity
from prosecution for its theater of operations” conduct.
Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince,
a staunchly conservative Catholic, has also served on the board of directors
of Christian Freedom International, a crusading missionary organization
operating in the overwhelmingly Islamic countries of Sudan, Somalia,
Afghanistan and Iraq. Prince envisions an evangelical “end time”
role for his warriors, “Everybody carries guns, just like Jeremiah
rebuilding the temple in Israel-a sword in one hand and a trowel in
the other.”
No one in the last decade has contributed
more to end time, apocalyptic evangelism than John Hagee, a televangelist
seen by millions of viewers weekly and pastor of the 19,000-member Cornerstone
Church. Hagee preaches that in order to bring about the Second Coming
of Christ and the Rapture of true believers, Islam first has to be destroyed.
In a 2006 interview with National Public
Radio’s Terry Gross, Hagee told her, “Those who live by the Quran
have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews.” He went on
to claim that there are 200 million Muslims waiting for the chance to
attack Israel and the United States. From his pulpit, Hagee makes it
clear to his congregation and the radio and television audience what
they can expect from American Muslims if such an attack ever took place,
“While American Muslims live in America, 82 percent are not loyal
to America and are not willing to fight and defend America.”
In his book, “Jerusalem Countdown –
A Warning to the World,” Hagee warns that the war between Islam and
the West “is a war that Islam cannot and must not win.”
John Hagee is not just a mad evangelizing
prophet. He is “the” mad evangelizing prophet who is courted
by a war president, a hawkish presidential candidate and members of
Congress from both parties. His Islamophobic bilge has trickled down
from Capital Hill, through the labyrinthine corridors of the Pentagon,
and into the chamber of a sniper’s rifle and the hand of a Marine
guarding a checkpoint in Fallujah.
Officers in the military are expected
to lead by example. Enlisted personnel are expected to follow that example.
If the recent incidents at Radhwaniya and Fallujah are not just the
acts of renegades, then the chain of command seems to be working the
way it was designed.
Robert Weitzel lives in Middleton,
WI. His essays regularly appear in The Capital Times in Madison, WI.
He has also been published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Skeptic
Magazine, Freethought Today and on the web sites, smirkingchimp.com and commondreams.org. He can be contacted at: rweitz@tds.net.