Are U.S. Troops Being Force-Fed Christianity?

[kskiska]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

A watchdog group alleges that improper evangelizing is occurring within the ranks.

By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

At Speicher base in Iraq, US Army Spec. Jeremy Hall got permission from a chaplain in August to post fliers announcing a meeting for atheists and other nonbelievers. When the group gathered, Specialist Hall alleges, his Army major supervisor disrupted the meeting and threatened to retaliate against him, including blocking his reenlistment in the Army.

Months earlier, Hall charges, he had been publicly berated by a staff sergeant for not agreeing to join in a Thanksgiving Day prayer.

On Sept. 17, the soldier and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) filed suit against Army Maj. Freddy Welborn and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, charging violations of Hall's constitutional rights, including being forced to submit to a religious test to qualify as a soldier.

The MRFF plans more lawsuits in coming weeks, says Michael "Mikey" Weinstein, who founded the military watchdog group in 2005. The aim is "to show there is a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense."

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1004/p13s02-lire.html

[Tinksrival]

1. yep..................

The Fellowship is incorporated in the United States as a tax-free 501(c)(3) organization operating under the name The Fellowship Foundation. While they conduct no fundraising operations, they reported revenues of more than $12 million in 2003 from donations. Its mission statement is:

"To develop and maintain an informal association of people banded together, to go out as "ambassadors of reconciliation," modeling the principles of Jesus, based on loving God and loving others. To work with the leaders of other nations, and as their hearts are touched, the poor, the oppressed, the widows and the youth of their country will be impacted in a positive manner. Youth groups will be developed under the thoughts of Jesus, including loving others as you want to be loved."

While The Fellowship, which strives to be "invisible," has received some media attention for allegedly having behind-the-scenes influence over political leaders, the allegations have never been proven.

Their primary activity is to develop small support groups for members of Congress, businesspersons, and anyone else who is interested in the teachings of Jesus. Prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense. Connections to the CIA have also been alleged.

The Fellowship maintains a three-story townhouse on C Street in Washington, D.C., near the United States Capitol. As many as six members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, live here while in Washington. In 2003, these men paid $600 a month to live there: U.S. Reps. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.; Bart Stupak, D-Mich.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; and Mike Doyle, D-Pa.; and U.S. Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev.; and Sam Brownback, R-Kan. The house, which was valued at $1.1 million in 2003, is owned by a Fellowship sister organization called the C Street Center. IRS records show that the Center received more than $145,000 in grants from the Fellowship between 1997 and 2000.<2>

The Fellowship operates a retreat center as an "unofficial headquarters," at the end of Twenty-fourth Street North in Arlington, Va. Called "The Cedars," it was purchased in 1978 through donations from, among others, Tom Phillips, CEO of arms manufacturer Raytheon; and Ken Olsen of Digital Equipment Corporation. <1>

There is no official membership of the group, but members of Congress who participate are mostly from the Republican Party. However many are also Democrats. Senators who have been cited as members of the organization include Don Nickles and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, John Ensign of Nevada, Bill Nelson of Florida, Conrad Burns of Montana. A recent article in the Atlantic Monthly noted the participation of Hillary Clinton of New York. Congressmen who have been cited as participants include Frank Wolf of Virginia and Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania.

The unofficial members do not often discuss their connections to The Fellowship openly. Some members of the group meet in an Arlington, Virginia neighborhood.

[undergroundpanther]

2. These fundies DO have connections

To the CIA Assemblies of God does,they have"cell churches" as in little informal invisible groups of loyal brainwashed followers that meet in peoples houses. They also have pretty damn direct connections,to political power. I hate the Assemblies of God. I hate all Christian fundies who are bullies with bibles who want to force evangelize all people.They are idealogical bullies who think religion gives them a free harassment pass..I wish there was a way to get them for harassment and false advertising, anything to get them to STOP, SHUT UP already, and leave people ALONE.I hate the bible god and it's pushy minions..I wish there were no organized churches or religions and no evangelizing.

[saigon68]

11. Here is FREDDY'S MY SPACE Page

http://www.myspace.com/freddywelborn

What an Ass Clown




Drivel from the page all about FREDDY and his 26 year old Girl Friend



MAJ Freddy & HIS Girl's Blurbs
About me:
Warrior for the Lord Jesus Christ. Currently serving w/3rd Inf Div Civil Military Operations (Governance) in Baghdad Iraq. Carla & I place all our Faith & Trust in our Savior the Lord Jesus - who provides eternal life to anyone that believes that he is the Son of God, that he was born of a virgin, lived as God in the flesh (as man) was crucified, died, and was buried then rose from the grave the third day, then acended to the right hand of the Father - True repentance (turning away from Sin to God) Being born again, Forgivness & Justification occure to the True Believer in Christ when Baptized w/God's Holy Spirit. He who has the Son has life, he who has not the Son of God has not life. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It is by GRACE that we are saved thru Faith - It's a free gift and can't be earned. I love the Lord Jesus more than words can express, and seeking to gain a stronger relationship w/Him. I'll finish Bible College upon returning from Opns Iraqi Freedom. My Girl is Carla(26 years) she is my best friend and the best thing next to Jesus that has ever happened to me, and it keeps getting better.

(Note--- SPELLING MISTAKES HIS NOT MINE)

[Trillo]

19. That's funny. It wasn't only spelling mistakes! There's a clarity issue.

Instead of writing "Jesus", MAJ Freddy wrote "he", changing the meaning (IMO) considerably.

"to anyone that believes that he is the Son of God" should have been written as
"to anyone that believes that Jesus is the Son of God".

[azurnoir]

3. "Truely disturbing" is an understatement

This part is frightening in its connotations

Several conservative Christian ministries publicly proclaim an evangelistic aim "to transform the nations of the world through the militaries of the world," and they are active at US military installations in many countries.

I have read on rightie blogs that Islamists are trying to impose Islam on the entire world, could it be projection?


spelling demons

[HuffleClaw]

4. wasn't this a real problem at the air force academy recently? n/t

[0007]

15. .....yeah! And with General Boykin.......

In late 2003, Maj. General William G. Boykin (serving as Deputy Undersecretary for Intelligence under Stephen Cambone) took a lot of heat when the press suddenly noticed a bunch of his wacky statements. Before being placed in charge of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the former Delta Force commander had recently made several in-uniform appearances at church congregations to explain why Jesus is on America's side.

* Speaking of Somali militia leader Osman All Otto, captured in 1993: "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol." After this comment started drawing flak, Boykin backpedaled: "Comments to Osman Otto in Mogadishu were not referencing his worship of Allah but his worship of money and power; idolatry."

* Regarding the convoluted election of President George W. Bush: "Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this." On another occasion, Boykin put it this way: "George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States. He was appointed by God."

* In a slideshow program he presented at various church groups, Boykin showed a photo he had taken from a helicopter over Mogadishu in 1993 depicting black patches in the sky. "Whether you understand it or not, it is a demonic spirit over the city of Mogadishu. Ladies and gentlemen, that's not a fake, that's not a farce."

* Another comment from the slideshow: "Well, is he (Osama bin Laden) the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man (Saddam Hussein) the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He's called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan."

Regarding this last point, magician and celebrity atheist Penn Jillette responded thusly:

A guy? A guy? A guy named "Satan." We can't even find a guy named Bin Laden, and now we're looking for an evil tooth fairy? Satan's not a guy, it's just someone else's imaginary friend. How did we end up fighting a war against a sock monkey?

According to Boykin, his religious conversion broke up his marriage: "My wife of 25 years <...> walked in and said, 'I don't love you anymore, you're a religious fanatic, and I'm leaving you.'"

[MADem]

5. I hate to say it, but "Major Freddy " sounds like moron. What parent names their kid

"Freddy?" Frederick, Fred, but Freddy?

By their DNA we shall know them, I guess.

This isn't the first time this shit has come up, and it won't be the last. It's gotten way worse in the BushCo years, though.

[provis99]

6. goofy

These fundamentalist seem to think you can only carry a gun and shoot people if you're a Christian. They completely miss the irony in that, and miss the whole point of Christianity, which is pacifism (you know, turn the other cheek and stuff).

Or are these the fundamentalists who have the "I kill for Christ" bumper stickers on their pickup trucks?

[xchrom]

7. same thing goes for the airforce.

only there -- the top brass are quite open about it.

[SlingBlade]

8. Man, They have a White House Office Now

The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives....

No reason not to believe they are shoving this down the troops throats as well.
In any position where you are totally reliant on a hieratical system such as the military this is magnified 100 times. The Cristo-Fascist are no doubt pushing hard with their new found power under George W Bush and company. :shrug:

[Vinca]

9. Do they really want to threaten soldiers with not allowing them to reenlist?

If they start expelling atheists the way they do gay people, I predict a rise in nonbelievers.

[hadrons]

10. Yeah, when I read 'blocking his reenlistment' ....

I thought they were doing him a favor.

[happyslug]

13. When I first heard this story it was about an AIR FORCE Enlistee

Now, The Christian Science Monitor may have just had that fact wrong (Reading the Article it does NOT imply first had knowledge about the incident) but the rest of the article indicates a growing distaste for the Fundamentalist in the Military as a whole (i.e. the quote let me paraphrase, the majority of complaints are from other Christians).

As to re-enlistment, the main problem as to getting people to re-enlist has been the Army and Marines, not the Air Force. In fact until the last few years the Air Force did not even Advertise for enlistments (Unlike the Army, Navy and Marines, through in the last few years the Air Force has been forced to advertise for enlistees the first times in decades). The Air Force has always had enough people willing to enlist (This fact as to enlistments goes back to the 1970s). Thus the Air Force has been in a stronger position to do something stupid like supporting Fundamentalist, something the other three services can NOT afford to do given their problems of getting and retaining enlistees. I am NOT saying this is NOT a problem in the other three services, but it keeps coming back as "Air Force", over and over again for the Air Force is the only service that seems to have the option NOT to re-enlist someone who wants to re-enlist.

[happyslug]

12. I can NOT find the site now, but this is tied in with a lack of Catholic Priests

In the 1980s the US Military found it had a Shortage of Catholic Priests for Chaplains. This has to do with Catholics waiting till their mid to late 20s to become priests unlike the pre-1940s days when most priests became priests in their teens (This is more a result of most people going to High School than any other factor, most people education ended at 8th grade or earlier prior to about 1940, in fact one of the big difference between the US Army in WWI and WWII was the WWII army was the first time majority of soldiers had graduated High School). Non-high School graduates were common in the Military as late as the 1950s, but by the 1960s even the local draft boards had learned that the army no longer wanted non-high school graduates.

Anyway, back to the Catholic Priest shortage. The Military, adopted a plan to solve the problem of not enough young Catholic Priests who wanted to serve in the Military (The New York City diocese is the headquarters for Catholic Priests in the US Military). The plan was for the Military to "grown" their own Catholic Priests. To keep this program "Secular" the program was open to anyone, not just Catholics and/or Catholic Priests. The Fundamentalist jumped into his program big time and it was the base for their expansion in the Military (The Catholics were quickly forgotten).

Just a comment about un-intended consequences of programs more than anything else.

[DinahMoeHum]

14. "Killing For Jesus" (The Circle Jerks)

www.circlejerks.com

"Killing For Jesus"

All across the world
The holy armies on a tear
Ripping through the planet's faiths
Population's running scared
Christianity's all around
Zealots they abound
I wanna blow them to pieces
Cause I...I'm

Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus

With god on my side
The holy armies gonna ride
Go on a rampage
To rape, plunder and pillage
Insanity's everywhere
Must be something in the air
I wanna blow them to pieces
cause I...I'm

Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus

I'm never bored
When I'm killing for the lord
Now I've seen the light
Hail Mary! I've got Jesus on my side!
Insanity's everywhere
Must be something in the air
I wanna blow them to pieces
cause I...I'm

Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus
Killing For Jesus


:evilfrown:

[KansDem]

16. Well, that's the only way you'd get me to accept it, so I would have to say probably "yes."

And this comes from someone who attended church regularly while growing up, joined that church when I was about 10 (we had to stand before the congregation and recite the Apostle's Creed and the Ten Commandments for which I received a Bible), attended youth group meetings during junior high and senior high school, and sang in that church's choir my first year in college, so it's not like I'm someone who doesn't know what I'm talking about.

Organized religion and I parted ways a couple of decades ago.

[defendandprotect]

17. Christianity introducing the Cross with the Sword . . .. again ---

[saigon68]

18. Yikes