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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Good grief. This is frightening, especially given our
involvement in wars in non-christian countries. Given the problems with "don't
ask, don't tell", the difficulty of military Pagans killed in action getting
their tombstones marked with their religious affiliation, and the dramatic
decrease in those willing to be part of the US military as it now functions, you
would think these officers might catch a clue. How far our proud military has
fallen to be taken over by zealots and bigots. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Pained,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Debi R-S</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=donaledwards@hotmail.com
href="mailto:donaledwards@hotmail.com">donald edwards</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, March 10, 2008 3:33
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] The Evangelical
Christian Takeover of the Military</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR>
<P class=storyheadline>The Evangelical Christian Takeover of the Military</P><!-- end: headline --><!-- start: byline -->
<P class=storybyline><B>By <A title="View all stories by David Antoon"
href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/8791/"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>David
Antoon</FONT></U></A>, <A href="http://www.truthdig.com/"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>Truthdig</FONT></U></A>. Posted <A
title="View all stories published on November 16, 2007"
href="http://www.alternet.org/ts/archives/?date[F]=11&date[Y]=2007&date[d]=16&act=Go/"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>November 16, 2007</FONT></U></A>.</B></P><BR><!-- end: byline --><!-- end: headline and byline --><!-- start: teaser -->
<DIV class=teaser>
<DIV class=teaserleft>Retired Air Force Col. David Antoon investigates
proselytizing within the military, where religious ideology threatens to
supersede the values of the Constitution. </DIV>
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<NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT><!-- End Quantcast tag --></DIV><I>"I will support
and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign
and domestic. ..." <BR></DIV>
<DIV id=storycontainer>--Oath of Office<BR></I><BR><I>"Our mission is to
educate, train, and inspire men and women to become officers of character
motivated to lead the United States Air Force in service to our nation."
<BR><BR>--Air Force Academy mission statement<BR></I><BR><I>"We will not lie,
steal, or cheat. ..." <BR><BR>--Air Force Academy honor
code<BR></I><BR><I>"Military professionals must remember that religious choice
is a matter of individual conscience. Professionals, and especially
commanders, must not take it upon themselves to change or coercively influence
the religious views of subordinates." <BR><BR>--Religious Toleration (Air
Force Code of Ethics, 1997)</I><BR><BR>Forty-two years ago, at the age of 18,
I took the oath of office on my first day as an <A title=" Air Force Academy "
href="http://www.usafa.af.mil/index.cfm?catname=AFA%20Homepage%20"
linkindex="2" set="yes"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Air Force Academy
</FONT></U></A>cadet. The mission of the academy was not only to train
future leaders for the Air Force but for America as well, because, in the end,
most academy graduates do not serve full military careers. The honor
code became an integral part of everyday life. These are the values that
I, and most graduates of the 1960s and early '70s, took with us from our
four years at the academy.<BR><BR>I, as did many graduates, underwent pilot
training followed by tours of duty in Vietnam. Like military men and women of
today, we did our best to become technically competent and professional
leaders. Never, during my four years at the academy and subsequent pilot
and combat training, was the word <I>warrior</I> used; nor, whether as a cadet
or officer, did I ever encounter "Christian supremacist" rhetoric.<BR><BR>In
April of 2004, my son, after receiving a coveted appointment to the United
States Air Force Academy, asked me to accompany him to the orientation for new
appointees. This 24-hour visceral event changed my life forever, and
crushed my son's lifelong dream of following in my footsteps.<BR><BR>The
orientation began with a one-hour "warrior" rant to appointees and parents by
the commandant of cadets, <A title=" Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida "
href="http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7721%20" linkindex="3"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida</FONT></U></A>. The fact that the
word <I>warrior</I> had replaced <I>leadership</I> was a signal of what was to
follow. I later learned that cadets, to determine when a new record was
established, had created a game in which <I>warrior</I> was counted in each
speech Weida gave. <BR><BR><BR><BR>My son and I then made our way to the
modernist aluminum chapel, where I expected to hear a welcome from one or two
Air Force chaplains offering counsel, support and an open-door policy for any
spiritual or pastoral needs of these future cadets. In 1966, the academy
had six gray-haired chaplains: three mainline Protestants, two priests and one
rabbi. Any cadet, regardless of religious affiliation, was welcome to
see any one of these chaplains, who were reminiscent of Father Francis Mulcahy
of "MASH" fame. <BR><BR>Instead, my son's orientation became an
opportunity for the academy to aggressively proselytize this next crop of
cadets. <A title=" Maj. Warren Watties "
href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4191/is_20050427/ai_n14605130%20"
linkindex="4" set="yes"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Maj. Warren Watties
</FONT></U></A>led a group of 10 young, exclusively evangelical chaplains who
stood shoulder to shoulder. He proudly stated that half of the cadets
attended Bible studies on Monday nights in the dormitories and he hoped to
increase this number from those in his audience who were about to join their
ranks. This "invitation" was followed with <I>hallelujahs</I> and
<I>amens</I> by the evangelical clergy. I later learned from Air Force
Academy chaplain MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran who was forced to observe from the
choir loft, that no priest, rabbi or mainline Protestant had been permitted to
participate. <BR><BR>I no longer recognize the Air Force Academy as the
institution I attended almost four decades earlier. At that point, I had
no idea how invasive this extreme evangelical "cancer" had become throughout
the entire military, that what I had witnessed was far from an isolated case
of a few religious zealots.<BR><BR>In order to better understand this shift to
a religious ideology at this once secular institution, I called the <A
title=" Academy Association of Graduates " href="http://www.usafa.org/%20"
linkindex="5"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Academy Association of Graduates
</FONT></U></A>(AOG). Its response: "We don't get involved in
policy." What I didn't know was that the AOG, like the academy, had
affiliations with <A title=" James Dobson's "
href="http://www.focusonthefamily.com/%20" linkindex="6"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>James Dobson's </FONT></U></A>and <A title=" Ted Haggard's "
href="http://www.alternet.org/asoldierspeaks/67385/%20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Haggard%20"
linkindex="7"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Ted Haggard's </FONT></U></A>powerful
mega-churches. When Dobson's Focus on the Family "campus" was completed,
the academy skydiving team, with great ceremony, delivered the "keys from
heaven" to Dobson. During some alumni reunions, the AOG arranged bus
tours of Focus on the Family facilities in nearby Colorado Springs,
Colo. I also learned that the same Monday night Bible studies discussed
at orientation were taught by bused-in members of these evangelical
mega-churches and that some spouses of senior academy staff members were
employed by these same religious institutions. It seemed that my beloved
United States Air Force Academy had morphed into the Rocky Mountain Bible
College.<BR><BR>The academy chaplain staff had grown 300 percent while the
cadet population had decreased by 25 percent: from six mainline
chaplains to 18 chaplains, the additional 12 all evangelical. The
academy even gained 25 reserve chaplains, also nonexistent in earlier times,
for a total of 43 chaplains for about 4,000 cadets, or one chaplain for every
100 cadets.<BR>In the following weeks, a uniformed <A
title="Army Maj. Gen. William Boykin"
href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/15/60II/main643650.shtml"
linkindex="8"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Army Maj. Gen. William
Boykin</FONT></U></A> began sharing his Christian supremacist views from
church pulpits around the country, declaring that he was "God's Warrior" and
that "America is a Christian nation." He demeaned the entire Muslim world by
stating that his God was bigger than a Muslim warlord's god and that the
Muslim's god "was an idol." He received little more than a token slap on the
wrist. At the time, <A title=" Joseph Schmitz "
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Schmitz%20"
linkindex="9"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Joseph Schmitz</FONT></U></A>, then the
Department of Defense inspector general (Schmitz is currently the chief
operating officer of Blackwater International), found that Boykin had
committed no ethics violations.<BR><BR>Days later, the May 10 edition of The
New Yorker featured the Abu Ghraib torture article by Seymour Hersh, who more
than three decades earlier had brought us the story of My Lai.<BR><BR>As a
late critic of the Vietnam War, in which I lost many high school and academy
classmates, I was skeptical and critical of the drum beat for war orchestrated
by the Bush administration. When then-Secretary of State Colin Powell
again sold his soul in front of the United Nations and the world, the die was
cast. I say <I>again</I> because as a major on his second tour in
Vietnam, Powell whitewashed reports of the My Lai massacre and attempted to
discredit and silence those few, most notably <A title=" Ron Riddenhour "
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Ridenhour%20"
linkindex="10"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Ron Ridenhour</FONT></U></A>, who had
the courage to get the story into Hersh's hands.<BR><BR>These were some of my
thoughts on the day my son had to decide whether or not to accept his
appointment to the Air Force Academy. It was a time in my life when
fatherhood and truth were confronted with faux nationalism. With
tremendous courage and sadness my son declined his appointment and ended his
dream--and my dream for him--to attend the Air Force Academy. Though deeply
saddened, we were not sorry. <BR><BR>In what would have been my son's
academy summer encampment, chaplain Watties "suggested" that cadets return to
their tents and tell their tent mates they would "burn in hell" if they did
not receive Jesus as their savior. At the same time, the academy
commandant, Weida, made a habit of including biblical passages in official
e-mails and correspondence to subordinates and cadets. He had developed
a secret "chant and response" with the cadets: When he yelled "Airpower," the
evangelical cadets in the know would respond "Rock, sir" in reference to the
Bible story that Jesus built his house upon a rock.<BR><BR>Coincidentally, at
this time and at the invitation of the academy, the Yale Divinity School was
observing the pastoral care program for sexual assault victims at the
academy. Under the leadership of professor Kristen Leslie, the Yale team
issued a stunning report on the divisive and strident evangelical pressures by
leadership and staff at the academy.<BR><BR>The response from academy leaders
was telling. They at first denied the reports of Watties' "hell-fire"
threats. Under media pressure, they later claimed the violations were
committed by a visiting reserve chaplain, when in fact they were by the recent
Air Force Chaplain of the Year himself: Watties. In an interview after
receiving his Chaplain of the Year award, Watties boasted of baptizing young
soldiers in Saddam Hussein's swimming pool. It is difficult to think of
more inflammatory and Crusader-like behavior in an Arab nation.<BR><BR>In
response to the Yale report, the academy demanded that <A
title=" chaplain Morton "
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/12/AR2005051201740.html%20"
linkindex="11"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>chaplain Morton </FONT></U></A>denounce
the report she had co-signed. When she refused, she was transferred to
East Asia, ultimately resigning from the Air Force in protest. Morton
was the only officer who put her oath of office "to support and defend the
Constitution" above careerism.<BR><BR>Then-DoD Inspector General Schmitz,
noted for his Christian supremacist rhetoric in the book "Blackwater," sent a
team led by evangelical "born again" Lt. Gen. Roger Brady to investigate the
academy. Schmitz had recently found no ethics violations in the actions
of Gen. Boykin and allowed Boykin's promotion to senior military officer in
charge of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and "extraordinary rendition." The "Brady
Report" found the academy only to have an "insensitivity" problem. Air
Force Academy graduate Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, "silenced" and removed from
the major general promotion list, was secretly promoted with back pay the
following year at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
<BR><BR><BR><BR>Following the release of the "Brady Report," West Point
graduate and Secretary of the Air Force Mike Wynne, ignoring the existing code
of ethics, issued another "code of ethics" that allowed evangelical
proselytizing. A month later, in an effort to appease the religious
right, Wynne issued an even softer "code of ethics." Amazingly, Wynne's
document is in complete violation of the code of ethics issued in 1997 by
Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall prohibiting proselytizing by
commanders and other officers.<BR>The pre-existing Air Force code of ethics in
The Little Blue Book states: <BR><BR>"Military professionals must
remember that religious choice is a matter of individual conscience.
Professionals, and especially commanders, must not take it upon themselves to
change or coercively influence the religious views of
subordinates."<BR><BR>Here are just a few violations of that principle over
the last three years: Academy football coach <A title=" Fisher DeBerry "
href="http://atheism.about.com/b/2004/11/23/team-jesus-banner-removed-at-air-force-academy.htm%20"
linkindex="12"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Fisher DeBerry </FONT></U></A>hung a
banner in the team locker room reading: "Competitor's Creed: I am a Christian
first and last. ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ." Baseball coach Mike
Hutcheon, recruited from evangelical Christian Bethel College, forced players
to lead team prayer during practice. When asked about locker room prayer
in March 2007, Lt. Gen. John Regni, the academy superintendent, responded "we
have chaplains that are attached to each of the teams and they are very
important in that area." In a July 12, 2005 interview with the New York Times,
Brig. Gen. Cecil Richardson, Air Force deputy chief of chaplains, stated,
"...we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched." For over a decade, the
official academy newspaper ran ads stating: "We believe that Jesus Christ is
the only real hope for the World. If you would like to discuss Jesus,
feel free to contact one of us! There is salvation in no other name
under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved." The ads were
signed by 16 department heads, nine permanent professors, both the incoming
and outgoing deans of faculty, the athletic director and more than 200 academy
senior officers and their spouses.<BR><BR>Mikey Weinstein, founder of the
Military Religious Freedom Foundation, in just a few short years has received
complaints from more than 6,000 service members and discovered church-state
violations at the academies, at military installations in Iraq and around the
world, and even within the inner corridors of the Pentagon. <BR><BR>In
2005, when Weinstein filed suit against the Air Force for constitutional
violations of church-state separation, the House of Representatives, with
little public notice, passed a chilling bill that undermines enforcement of
the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of
Religion Act, H.R. 2679, provides that attorneys who successfully challenge
government actions that violate the establishment clause of the First
Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorney's fees. According to The
Washington Post, the <A title=" purpose of this bill "
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601486.html%20"
linkindex="13"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>purpose of this bill </FONT></U></A>is
to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing
religion.<BR><BR>In December 2006, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
brought media focus to the Christian Embassy Evangelical Organization and its
now famous video, which clearly showed the egregious ethics and constitutional
violations of several flag officers and the breadth of the problem. Air
Force Academy graduate Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, who suggested in the film that
his religious beliefs trump country and his oath to the Constitution, was
cited last year for sending e-mails to military subordinates and contractors
advocating they vote for a particular candidate for Congress, arguing that
there are "not enough Christians in Congress." West Point graduate and Army
Brig. Gen. Robert Caslen, who was filmed stating "We are the aroma of Jesus
Christ here in the Pentagon," is now commandant of cadets at West Point.
West Point graduate Army Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, another Christian Embassy
star, was the "voice" and "face" of the press conferences at Qatar. His
office is famous for the creation of the "Rambo" Jessica Lynch fabrications
and the manipulation of the killing of Pat Tillman into a recruiting and media
event. West Point graduate and evangelical <A
title=" Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich"
href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20060728_worm_dirt/%20"
linkindex="14"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Lt. Col. Ralph
Kauzlarich</FONT></U></A>, involved in the investigation of Tillman's death,
stated publicly that Pat Tillman's family was not at peace with his death
because they are atheists who believe their son is now "worm dirt." Air Force
Academy graduate Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, assigned as the senior U.S. military
officer in Turkey at the time the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
brought the Christian Embassy into media focus, was questioned by Turkish
officials about his membership in a radical evangelical cult.
<BR><BR><BR><BR>Many are aware of the mercenary army, Blackwater USA, led by
<A title=" Eric Prince " href="http://www.nndb.com/people/926/000117575/%20"
linkindex="15"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Eric Prince</FONT></U></A>, former
Ambassador Cofer Black and Joseph Schmitz, the same Joseph Schmitz mentioned
above. It is here where the ties become complex and suggestive of an
even grander "crusade."<BR><BR>As described by Jeremy Scahill in his book
"Blackwater," Prince, who attended the U.S. Naval Academy, comes from a
wealthy theo-con family, is a "neo-crusader," and a Christian supremacist. He
has been given billions of dollars in federal contracts to create a private
army. COO Schmitz, another Naval Academy graduate, is a member of the
Order of Malta, a Christian supremacist organization dating back to the
Crusades, and happens to be married to the sister of Jeb Bush's wife,
Columba. And <A title=" Cofer Black "
href="http://www.alternet.org/asoldierspeaks/67385/%20http://www.nndb.com/people/615/000050465/%20"
linkindex="16"><U><FONT color=#0000ff>Cofer Black</FONT></U></A>, former
coordinator for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department and former
director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, who was quoted by the BBC as
saying "Capture Bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back in a box on dry
ice," brings his own skill set to the Blackwater team as vice chairman.
<BR><BR><BR><BR>The Christian supremacist fascism first reported at the Air
Force Academy is endemic throughout the military. From the top down, there has
been a complete repudiation of constitutional values and time-honored codes of
ethics and honor codes in favor of religious ideology. And we now have a
revolving door between Blackwater USA, which is Bush's Praetorian Guard, and
the U.S. military at every level. The citizen-soldier military dictated
by our founding fathers has been replaced with professional and mercenary
right-wing Christian crusaders in control of the world's most powerful
military. The risks to our democratic form of government cannot be
overstated. <BR><BR>This evangelical Christian supremacist fascism within
our military and government is a cancer. Officers, especially
commanders, who violate the original code of ethics, must be rooted out of the
military. The undermining of the Constitution, especially by senior
military officers, must end.<BR><BR>As I look back at my 30 years as an
active-duty officer, two combat tours in Vietnam, decorations including air
medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross, I realize that not once was my
service in support or defense of the Constitution. For the very first
time, I am upholding my oath of
office.<BR><!-- extra digg icon --><BR><EM><FONT
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