Pentagon Sued Over Mandatory Christianity
A military watchdog organization filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and a US Army major, on behalf of an Army soldier stationed in Iraq. The suit charges the Pentagon with widespread constitutional violations by allegedly trying to force the soldier to embrace evangelical Christianity and then retaliating against him when he refused.
The complaint, filed in US District Court in Kansas City, by the nonprofit Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), on behalf of Jeremy Hall, an Army specialist currently on active duty in Speicher, Iraq, alleges that Hall’s First Amendment rights were violated beginning last Thanksgiving when, because of his atheist beliefs, he declined to participate in a Christian prayer ceremony commemorating the holiday.
“Immediately after plaintiff made it known he would decline to join hands and pray, he was confronted, in the presence of other military personnel, by the senior ranking … staff sergeant who asked plaintiff why he did not want to pray, whereupon plaintiff explained because he is an atheist,” says the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to Truthout. “The staff sergeant asked plaintiff what an atheist is and plaintiff responded it meant that he (plaintiff) did not believe in God. This response caused the staff sergeant to tell plaintiff that he would have to sit elsewhere for the Thanksgiving dinner. Nonetheless, plaintiff sat at the table in silence and finished his meal.”
Moreover, the complaint alleges that on August 7, when Hall received permission by an Army chaplain to organize a meeting of other soldiers who shared his atheist beliefs, his supervisor, Army Major Paul Welborne, broke up the gathering and threatened to retaliate against the soldier by charging him with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The complaint also alleges that Welborne vowed to block Hall’s reenlistment in the Army if the atheist group continued to meet - a violation of Hall’s First Amendment rights under the Constitution. Welborne is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
“During the course of the meeting, defendant Welborne confronted the attendees, disrupted the meeting and interfered with plaintiff Hall’s and the other attendees’ rights to discuss topics of their interests,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint charges that Hall, who is based at Fort Riley, Kansas, has been forced to “submit to a religious test as a qualification to his post as a soldier in the United States Army,” a violation of Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation said Defense Secretary Robert Gates is named as a defendant in the lawsuit because he has allowed the military to engage in “a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense and the United States military.”
The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Welborne from further engaging in behavior “that has the effect of establishing compulsory religious practices” and asks that Gates prevent Welborne from interfering with Hall’s free speech rights.
Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization that seeks to enforce the law mandating the separation between church and state in the US military, said the lawsuit would be the first of many his group intends to file against the Pentagon.
“This landmark federal litigation is just the first of a galaxy of new lawsuits that will be expeditiously filed against the Pentagon in a concentrated effort to preserve the precious religious liberties guaranteed by our beautiful United States Constitution,” Weinstein said Monday. “Today, we are boldly stabbing back against an unconstitutional heart of darkness, a contagion of fundamentalist religious supremacy and triumphalism noxiously dominating the command and control of the technologically most lethal organization ever created by humankind: our honorable and noble United States armed forces.”
A Pentagon spokesman said he could not comment on the lawsuit because he has not yet seen it.
Weinstein, a former White House attorney under Ronald Reagan, general counsel H. Ross Perot and an Air Force Judge Advocate (JAG), has been waging a one-man war against the Department of Defense for its blatant disregard of the Constitution. He published a book on his fight: “With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military.” Weinstein is also an Air Force veteran and a graduate of the Air Force Academy. Three generations of his family have attended US military academies.
Since he launched his watchdog organization nearly two years ago months ago, Weinstein said he has been contacted by more than 5,000 active duty and retired soldiers, many of whom served or serve in Iraq, who told Weinstein that they were pressured by their commanding officers to convert to Christianity.
The lawsuit also includes examples of other alleged constitutional abuses by Pentagon officials.
Last month, the Pentagon’s Inspector General responded to a complaint filed last year by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation alleging that Defense Department officials violated military regulations by appearing in a video promoting a fundamental Christian organization.
The Inspector General agreed and issued a 47-page report that was highly critical of senior Army and Air Force personnel for participating in the video while in uniform and on active duty.
The report recommended that Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, Army Brig. Gen. Bob Caslen, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, and a colonel and lieutenant colonel whose names were redacted in the inspector general’s report, “improperly endorsed and participated with a non-Federal entity while in uniform” and the men should be disciplined for misconduct. Caslen was formerly the deputy director for political-military affairs for the war on terrorism, directorate for strategic plans and policy, joint staff. He now oversees the 4,200 cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point. Caslen told DOD investigators he agreed to appear in the video upon learning other senior Pentagon officials had been interviewed for the promotional video.
The inspector general’s report recommended the “Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Army take appropriate corrective action with respect to the military officers concerned.”
The Army generals who appeared in the video appeared to be speaking on behalf of the military, but they did not obtain prior permission to appear in the video. They defended their actions, according to the inspector general’s report, saying the “Christian Embassy had become a ‘quasi-Federal entity,’ since the DOD had endorsed the organization to General Officers for over 25 years.”
© 2007 TruthOut.org
The violation of the constitution is now so prevalent in all branches of the U. S. government, there is no reason to hope that the military will be exempt. They are, after all, a thoroughly authoritarian organization. Good luck with this lawsuit.
The American Theocracy is well underway as Christian Zionist lunatics permeate our government and contaminate our soil. There must be a fierce counter attack by all those truly concerned in restoring our freedoms.
Chilling.
Is there anything more fearful than a well-armed and trained religious zealotry?
The irony is this is from the christian faith.
I have never understood the mental gymnastics one must go through to take the message of Jesus of “love your enemies” and twist it to mean pile up munitions to be the strongest military presence ever in history and aggressively force your way of life on everyone around you - individuals and nations alike….
We humans never ever learn from history do we?
Even if I were a “Christian” I would be absolutely disgusted at the thought of bringing up GOD in the middle of a war.
I can’t believe people actually have the audacity to mention GOD, while you are in the midst of killing and maiming GOD’s creatures. GOD holds the power over life and death not us.
How can you be so bold as to even suggest that GOD is even in the same vicinity as those that kill and maim, even though GOD may be omnipotent and omnipresent.
I am sure, with out a doubt, that under no circumstances should killing and maiming be done in the name of GOD. Or should GOD in all his purity and perfection that “Christians” Claim, should even be thought about in the midst of a WAR.
Even I, a firm believer in powers greater than myself, but, equally firm denouncer of organized religion, am appalled and even mortified that, these murderers for democracy, Killers for freedom, Destroyers for resources, have the nerve to harass another individual for his lack of belief in GOD.
When, it has been circumstantially proven that they have broken more commandments and spiritual laws than I care to count.
GOD? Please don’t make me laugh. And I am sure that GOD is not laughing right now either.
~Future~
“Christian Zionist” lunatics? Why aren’t they just “Christian lunatics”? Derisive comments about “Zionists” are just as loony to me as the whack-job Christians you’re criticizing.
Apparently you are not aware of the fact that the born again crusaders we are talking about call themselves “christian zionists” and they are in fact the driving force behind the war in Iraq. The department of defense is loaded with them.
Finally, some progress against the un-American “immoral, loud minority” and their “Religious Reich.”
Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth’s rite of passage? [modified for this entry -CM]
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.
The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
We, too, are never alone. Even when we don’t know it, The Great Spirit is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes all we have to do is reach out.
It doesn’t matter if we believe in a Higher Power such as a Great Spirit or believe in Our Own Selves as a Great Spirit of rationality, compassion, kindness and draw on those qualities on a daily basis. So what if we call ourselves an atheist. What counts is who we are and what we do in manifesting peace, justice, understanding — goodness.
It is in living in such a way that those who know us well and those we encounter briefly will come to know of a Great Spirit of the Cosmic View or the Great Spirit that dwells within us as individuals who chose an ethical, moral path.
It’s really so simple. And how we do invent all these religions that really are a potpourri of many myths and legends and ancient teachings and stories written anywhere from 30 to 1,000 years after the fact and compiled in books that are wielded as weapons.
It’s a User-Friendly Universe or not by our choices. If we would only wake-up and appreciate the gifts of an incredibly diverse, magnificently beautiful planet and act accordingly and see ourselves as part of the Whole and the Whole Process instead of being such comic-book juveniles and strutting martinets filled with cruel self-righteousness and twisted, egotistic belief systems who are more interested in slaying or taming the conjured-up imaginery dragons [you and me and Nature] that they see in their way than taking their blindfolds off and seeing the light of day and the opportunites for love and friendship and abundant possibilties for everyone to live in peace and harmony.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lady Liberty has been blindfolded against her will. She doesn’t seem to be able to take it off. So, we — male and female — must rise from the stump we sit on now and untie the knots of her blindfold and take it off so she … we … all can see the sun for another day.
“I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.” –Thomas Jefferson to Edward Dowse, 1803.
The staff sergeant deserves a good boot in the ass — then should apologize to Spec Jeremy Hall for denying him the constitutional rights that the sergeant took an oath to uphold when he joined the military service.
Cee Miracles: I am an athiest — your story above brought tears to my eyes. Well said — if only people would remove their blindfolds and open their eyes to what is truly important.
Christian Zionists are identified with the Israeli Lobby. I could care less one-way-or-another about Judaism, but Isreal really pisses me off. Just read something about the Israeli Lobby.
And I guess it’s easier to battle muslim fundementalists with christian fundamentalists. And that’s easier to do when you replace all your generals who disagree with you, with gung-ho lackey christian fundamentalist types. I mean, if you can do it in the Justice Department, why not the DoD? …so which # Crusade is this?
You folks are Beautiful!
Live in Harmony,
Jim
Wait a second, so God is on the side of Christians, but then the Muslims believe God is on their side. The Jews believe God is on their side.
Who is right?
God! Yoohoo!
I know you are busy keeping atoms from colliding and all that stuff, but do you think you could write a big message in the sky, preferably in standard american english, like a sharpy marker with little sprinklies, and tell us who is right? it would save alot of your precious creation from being killed–which is what the Devil likes.
Wait a sec…but the devil was a fallen angel…created by, God.
Uh oh we’re f*cked.
Yes indeed, the “mental Gymnastics” one must go through to call oneself a Christian and yet kill other people. I know I don’t need to mention this, but I will anyway. Organized religion has been the number one cause of death and destruction throughout history. Buddhism might be an exception, but then I’ve heard it argued that Buddhism isn’t really a religion in the sense the Western World defines religion. Just look at the Shiite and Sunnis: the’re still at it after almost 1,500 years! (We aren’t helping much, by the way)
The first pilgrims who left the Old World for the New World didn’t cross the Atlantic for a vacation cruise. They left because of religious intolerence. That didn’t last very long over here either.
If I’m not mistaken, the word God doesn’t appear anywhere in the US constitution. That’s because the founders of this nation knew that religion and politics just don’t mix in any positive way. The same should apply to our armed forces. That’s why some people can avoid war by claiming to be a conscientious objector.
If you read the Old Testament, it’s filled with killing people on an enormous scale. In the New Testament, we begin to read about good Samaritans and turning the other cheek. About loving your enemy, and helping those in need.
We are largely a Christion Nation and references to God have become a part of our songs and other National customs, but the USA is by no means a nation of one religion.
I hope that our judicial system hasn’t become completely compromised during the Presidency of George Bush because this lawsuit should be won by the plaintiff and not the defendent. As it is, we aren’t even one nation under God but more one nation under the boot of corporations.
Let’s keep our Gods off the battle fields and out of government and leave our Gods in our places of worship.
the DoD with a penchant for fundamentalism,
right-wing paramilitary groups (which are not pursued like other terrorists),
and ‘Jesus Camp’ brainwashing …
good luck getting to sleep at night
Evangelical Christianity as it currently exists in America does little or no justice to its stated core beliefs. Some individual evangelicals have a broad perspective of their faith, but it seems that too many of the organized forms are content with basing their entire belief structure on just a handful of verses from scripture. This organized belief system do not seem to have enough context to germinate the level of genuine humility needed to moderate mankind’s tendency to lash out wildly at whatever appears to oppose us.
In John 16:2 we read of other people whose worldview was also too barren to produce humility: “Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” The contextual barren have always been among the most dangerous of all people, dangerous enough to destroy even the Source of Good. Honest evangelicals would do well to guide their faith toward more fertile ground beginning with helping other evangelicals lose their fear of saying, “I could be wrong.”
Join http://ffrf.org/ Freedom From Religion Foundation. If you don’t believe in their gods then you need to belong. Great new paper with some really good articles.
The trouble is you can never convince them they are wrong. Almost all religions want to kill off the OTHERS. Can not figure that. If there is a hell it is going to be filled with religious fundies that are so filled with hated and have killed for their religion in either thought word or deed. Not that will really be a hell. Man I never want to be there, I’m going to be good from now on :-)..
hybridoma2001
“The first pilgrims who left the Old World for the New World didn’t cross the Atlantic for a vacation cruise. They left because of religious intolerance.” This bit of history always gets misconstrued, the religious intolerance that they were fleeing was based on the fact that they “the puritans” were so intolerant. The puritans didn’t think the church of england was puritanical enough! The crown and the church wouldn’t allow them to be as intolerant as they wanted! They wanted a protestant puritan theocracy, it wasn’t that they weren’t allowed to practice their faith. Of course this was just a bunch of infighting amongst different christian sects who were all intolerant of jews, muslums and pagans.
Interesting note, when I type christians, jews, and muslums the spell check tells me that they need to be capitalized but pagans gets by, things that make you go hmmm?
Cee Miracles, I wish every self proclaimed christian on the planet could not just read, but fully comprehend your words. May your inner peace be contagious, and thanks for the post…
But the root of this story and the underlying problem is our society’s fundamental fear of people thinking for themselves. For the DoD to hear that a soldier is an athiest only ignites the greater fear that this soldier is capable and apparently willing to think for himself, as opposed to simply accepting what is being or has been told. The implications are huge if one considers the attrocities being carried out in the name of God, the United States, freedom, democracy or whatever other justification de jour this mis-administration and the entertainers at the supposed news networks happen to be selling. There’s a damned good chance that if a soldier is comfortable enough to admit he is an athiest he is also willing to not only consider the military’s means and ends, but to express the truth within the ranks.
This problem is about hiding the truth of right and wrong, about questioning moral and ethical behavior, about doing the right thing.
As usual, God is being used to accomplish the exact opposite of his word, as it is written and supposedly taken literally, in King James’ version of an ancient assortment of fables…
If what the christians say is true, they are in for an awfully long day at the pearly gates…And true or not, all humans are in for some awfully long days here on Earth.
peace
this story is SO perfect, it would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous.
Bush says he’s fighting “Religious extremists” in the Middle East.
What the hell are the Christian zealots that run the US government and the Military if not “Religious Extremists” ?
““Christian Zionist” lunatics? Why aren’t they just “Christian lunatics”? Derisive comments about “Zionists” are just as loony to me as the whack-job Christians you’re criticizing.”
Christian Zionism is the form which apocalyptic protestant fundamentalism has taken in the last two decades — the Second Coming of Christ is predicated, not only the return of Jews to traditional Israel, but the possession of “Greater Israel” by a Jewish state which is comprised solely of Jews, many or all of whom will be converted to fundamentalist Christianity. For a hoot, try tuning into a fundie station where the pastor asks for donations to help return Jews from Russia & elsewhere to return to live in Israel. Certain Catholic neocons have married this absurdity to their “clash of civiliations” nonsense. Basically they’re all collaborating on the same land-scam and using each other & worshipping with each other in a twisted sort of militaristic ecumenism.
You think the military would want Buddhists instead of Christians in the ranks. Christians just die once and go to heave (or hell), but Buddhists just keep getting reincarnated..its like a built in perpetual surge.
Onward Christian soldiers with God on its side the USA can’t go wrong can it?
General Haig in WWI thought he was talking to God and that if Britain lost 100,000 soldiers and the enemey 120,000 this represented a victory. I guess that kind of victory is what the Christian Pentagon plans for Iran.
Their is a peculiar rendition of Love Thy Neighbour or has that been censored in the daily service?
www.peacesource.net
So, this is what the white man is up to? Nothing has changed in over 500 years. I am appaled at the use of God in this context. What makes anyone think God is on America’s side? With all America is doing in the name of God, I would be afraid lightning would strike. And you ask why people don’t want to be called “Christian”? The entire Bush administration and the military are reeking with satenism. I guess we no longer have a Constitution.
Thanks for the correction, greenman. I don’t know if that is how it was taught to me in a Catholic grade school, or just a mistake on my part. However, it does explain how things like the Salem Witch Trials got underway so rapidly.
I wonder if the military puts the bumpersticker “Jesus loves me” on the Humvees and tanks?
Canachuck: I sorta get the point of your commnents about the Buddhist aaproach. Buddhists, though, don’t expect to be rewarded by a future reincarnation. They only expect to reap the benefits of, and hopefully learn the lessons of, the life they’ve lived. If we live like a bug, we’ll die like a bug. If we choose to take life, like GW Bush has chosen, so shall our lives be taken. George has a hard road ahead of him, and I doubt anything in his past has given him the guts to measure up to what’s ahead of him. Good luck, Georgie Boy, and, when you fall, may it be face down in the mud you and your ilk have created. And, if I might say it in this polite company, you and yo mama and poppa deserve to drown in the pool of shit you’ve left in this world as your legacy. Legacy?????…..Really!!! You gotta be kidding!!! How about a condemnation? How about an examination of history that shows you were among the worst of the worst???
Tell you what, Georgie Boy: I’ll meet you in the central square of Austin any time you feel up to it, and I think…no, I know… I can beat your sorry ass into the ground in less than a minute. No offence Georgie, and nothing personal, but this is just something you deserve. You been livin’ above your raisin”, boy, for longer than nature ought to allow. It’s about time to slap an impudent little shit like you back to where he belongs, wouldn’t you say?
Canachuck…I’ve seen and appreciated your comments on the insanity that’s happening south of your border. I think, in the near future, there are going to be a lot of folks trying to sneak across your border, much as our Mexican brothers and sisters are trying to get to the US.
Ah, well, I see I’ve said enough to get me into prison for a few years. Just hope I can have Georgie Boy as a cell mate. D’ya reckon he’s got a mind that allows any other input, let alone another viewpoint??
“GOTT MIT UNS”?
#
canuckchuck September 19th, 2007 6:48 pm
“You think the military would want Buddhists instead of Christians in the ranks. Christians just die once and go to heave (or hell), but Buddhists just keep getting reincarnated..its like a built in perpetual surge.”
I LOVE THAT LAST … chuckle materal I will memorize …
“freedom from religion”
Having your cake and eating it, too!
“Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization that seeks to enforce the law mandating the separation between church and state in the US military, said the lawsuit would be the first of many his group intends to file against the Pentagon.”
Truly bizarre considering that “religion” be it of the Jewish, Muslim or Christian “brand” nowhere endorses the slaughter that is the hallmark of amerika’s militarist tradition. But that Mr Weinstein seeks to patrol the Pentagon to ensure the separation of church and state as the Pentagon goes about its Muslim (at present) slaughter without even mentioning that the rabid neo con chicken hawk propagandists driving amerika’s Goy war machine happen to be in the main of Mr Weinstein’s persuasion.
The “Protocol of the Elders of American Neoconservatism” and the Blood of American Soldiers
by Walter Uhler
http://www.walter-c-uhler.com/Reviews/protocol.html
August 2007
As virtually every literate citizen on our planet knows, since the nineteenth century anti-Semites have been extolling the crackpot and wicked Protocols of the Elders of Zion in order to prove a conspiracy by Jews to rule the world. Even today, alas, the Protocols remain popular and believable throughout the world, especially the Middle East.
Yet, since the end of the Cold War there has been little in the political behavior of the Jews among America’s neoconservatives to refute such beliefs. After all, it was people with the names Paul Wolfowitz, Irv Lewis Libby and Eric Edelman, who “in 1992…co-authored a security doctrine for the United States that aimed at perpetual hegemony and implied perpetual aggression to prevent the emergence of ‘peer’ powers.” [Juan Cole, “Informed Comment,” July 21, 2007]
Moreover, throughout the 1990s many Jews among America’s neoconservatives demonstrated an alacrity to play fast and loose with the lives of America’s soldiers. For example, in 1995 Charles Krauthammer urged the United States to “unashamedly” lay down “the rules of world order” and be “prepared to enforce them.” In 1996 Robert Kagan wrote “Military strength alone will not avail if we do not use it actively to maintain a world order which both supports and rest upon American hegemony.” [Quotes from Andrew J. Bacevich, The New American Militarism, pp. 84-85]
Granted, America’s neocons were not the only people eager to expend American military blood on the battlefield during the 1990s, witness the now infamous question by Madeleine Albirght to Colin Powell in 1993: “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” [Ibid, p. 24] But the neocons established a stranglehold on warmongering, especially when it came to attacking Iraq.
Simply recall the three chicken hawk American neoconservative Jews, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser, who signed on in 1996 to write a policy paper — “A Clean Break: A Strategy for Securing the Realm”– for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Perle, Feith and Wurmser recommended that Israel find pretexts for waging wars of aggression that would roll back its Arab neighbors. Moreover, “The centerpiece of their recommendations was the removal of Saddam Hussein as the first step into remaking the Middle East into a region friendly, instead of hostile, to Israel.” [James Bamford, A Pretext for War, p. 262]
Arguably, such behavior constituted treason. According to James Bamford: “It was rather extraordinary for a trio of former, and potentially future, high-ranking American government officials to become advisers to a foreign government. More unsettling still was the fact that they were recommending acts of war in which Americans could be killed, and also ways to masquerade the true purpose of the attacks from the American public.” [Ibid, p. 263]
A year later, as Scott McConnell has written, William Kristol and Robert Kagan wrote an article, “Saddam Must Go,” in which they asserted: “We know it seems unthinkable to propose another ground attack to take Baghdad. But it’s time to start thinking the unthinkable.” [Scott McConnell, “The Weekly Standard’s War,”The American Conservative, September 21, 2005]
Explicitly willing to shed the blood of America’s servicemen and women, in January 1998, Kristol and Kagan also wrote an Op Ed titled, “Bombing Iraq isn’t Enough,” which the New York Times was reckless enough to publish. (At this point, it’s worth noting the observation made by Robert Parry: “Under principles of international law applied from Nuremberg to Rwanda, propagandists who contribute to war crimes or encourage crimes against humanity can be put in the dock alongside the actual killers.” [Consortium News, Posted August 21, 2006])
Nevertheless, on January 26, 1998, Kristol and Kagan “along with more than a dozen other neoconservative luminaries sent a letter to President Bill Clinton denouncing the policy of containing Iraq as a failure and calling for the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein.” [Bacevich, p. 90] Subsequently both houses of the Republican-controlled congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, which the impeachment-threatened Clinton signed into law - notwithstanding the fact that it violated U.S. treaty obligations under the Charter of United Nations.
In 2001, months before the attacks on 9/11, neocon Michael Ledeen wrote that Mao was correct when he asserted that revolution sprang “from the barrel of a gun.” It was America’s “inescapable mission to fight for the spread of democracy.” [Bacevich, p. 88]
After 9/11, the neocons’ drumbeat for shedding American military blood became deafening. Krauthammer asserted: “the way to tame the Arab street is not with appeasement and sweet sensitivity but with raw power and victory…. The elementary truth that seems to elude the experts again and again…is that power is its own reward.” [Ibid, p. 93] (In light of the fact that the reckless spilling of American military - and innocent Iraqi - blood has produced a proliferation of terrorists and terrorist attacks around the world, it’s surprising that jingoist Krauthammer still has his job at the Washington Post.)”
The Bible is directly responsible for this ancient world-wrecking mindset—just read The Old Testament and you find hundreds of pages of literal holy boasting about massacres of “heathen” including women and children. (Sometimes they spared women who were virgins: God knows how the holy men determined that.) The Bible is an infectious psychosis—kill anybody who does not believe as you do because they represent an alternative to what you believe—for you, narcissist supreme, are chosen by God from all existence to rule all existence. (Reality after all contradicts most psychotics.) Thomas Paine, one of the bravest American writers we ever had, despised The Bible—”as I despise everything that is cruel.” I just shut off the early-morning TV which is loaded with ignorant, frothing preachers from Texas (where else) full of glee about the glory of “King David” chopping off the heads of non-Hebrews. And we get this 24/7, while the media ridicule “peace types.” Kill your TV and burn your Bible with it! And then we can begin to go back to Earth as a garden, where anybody who wants to live in peace can have a place…..How long, O Lord, how long?
thanks to you all. i can add no more. peace. terry
Cee Miracles:
Yours is a truly beautiful post, and like other posters, has moved me deeply. Thank you. May you carry this simple beauty to all around you.
How easy it is to get along with everyone else on this planet, if we only make that little extra effort. Underneath it all, we are all the same: we love, we hope, we pray and we all long for Peace.
“Buddhists, though, don’t expect to be rewarded by a future reincarnation…”
Actually, not only is reincarnation not a reward, it is a punishment. It is a remanant of the Hindu and Indian origins of Buddhism and Gautama the original Buddha who founded it - and not formally in Buddhist teaching.
But, reincarnation is not considered reward - actually it is punishment - a recycling into the world of consciousness, duality grasping and suffering. The reward is nirvana - ending the cycle of rebirth into consiousness and suffering by achieving a state of harmony with the universe, where neither consiousness nor unconsciousness, nor ego nor other, and all other dualities no longer exist.
Irecommand nearly all of Alan Watts’ stuff…
Or at least Google “four noble truths” and “eightfold path”.
The wonderful aspect of Buddhism is that you are free to treat it’s teaching and practice any way you want and in accordance with your tempermant - from a simple practical path for mental health to a deeply spiritual pursuit. For me, it provides the same sense of awe and wonder as the more pure scientific pursuits do.
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition”!
Hmmmm….I wonder if the BLACKWATER group also pray to their Christian God before they feast?
Give us strength!
Just another shining example of the double standard in which an atheist or agnostic who simply does not want to participate in a religious ceremony or a prayer is branded as un-American and even subhuman, wheras christians are portrayed as a persecuted minority when their aggressiveness is merely called into question.
“Whenever a man believes that he has the exact truth from God, there is in that man no spirit of compromise. He has not the modesty born of the imperfections of human nature; he has the arrogance of theological certainty and the tyranny born of ignorant assurance. Believing himself to be the slave of God, he imitates his master, and of all tyrants, the worst is a slave in power.”–Robert G. Ingersoll
You want to tip toe around this one, folks. It is very likely that Bush has placed people whose understanding of the teachings of Jesus is, as is Bush’s, incomplete, on the secret service detail that follows him around with the “football”.
Likely, these people have yet to be truly touched by Christ.
I ask, O Lord, if it be Thy Will, open, now, their hearts to Love.
God is Love.
Love conquers all.
Truth is One. Paths are many.
Fear not.
when you are touched by HUMANITY, there is where you find true love. it is not necesary to believe in a god to find that. paths are many. fear not.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution clearly states; “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Therefore, it is unconstitutional for the staff sergeant and supervisor to prevent Jeremy Hall from practicing Atheism, and organizing a meeting of other soldiers who shared Atheist beliefs. Article VI of the Constitution states that, “All executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath of Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” This proves that it was unconstitutional for any officer to ask Jeremy Hall, or any other member of the Army to conform to a certain religious denomination. Hall was “forced to submit to a religious test as a qualification to his post as a soldier in the United States Army,” because he was told that if he didn’t stop the Atheist group from meeting, Army Major Paul Welborne would charge him with “violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” and would “block Hall’s reenlistment in the Army.” These actions are clearly a violation of the Constitution, and since unconstitutional actions are punishable by law, these Army majors and other violators should be punished accordingly, if found guilty by a court of law of these alleged allegations.
I especially appreciate the excellent scholarship demonstarted by many on this blog. A true story: a friend, a Marine, lost his best friend in Iraq, a tragic accident. A military chaplain made his obligatory visit and told my friend, “It’s a shame your friend was a Catholic because now he’s in hell.” This may not be the norm. I hope it isn’t, but I only know one person in the military and that’s his story.