Onward Christian (Only) Soldiers: Spirituality According to Gen. "Proslytizing" Petraeus

"When Soldiers Need Spiritual Energy."

Sounds like an ad for a caffeinated power drink.

August 20, 2008

Military.com, by Bryant Jordan

Gen. David Petraeus is used to controversy surrounding the war in Iraq, but his publicized thoughts on an Army chaplain's book for Soldiers put him squarely in the middle of the ongoing conflict over religious proselytizing in the U.S. military.

The book is "Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel," by Army Chaplain (Lt. Col.) William McCoy, and according to Petraeus' published endorsement of the work, "it should be in every rucksack for those times when soldiers need spiritual energy."

Mikey Weinstein, head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said it "strains credulity" that Petraeus never knew that his private written endorsement of the book was in the public domain since last year.

This latest brouhaha over religion and the military reminded me of a more audacious incident with one Lt. General William Boykin. Remember him? "My God was better than his god."

(AP, Aug. 19, 2004)

Islamic and religious freedom groups, as well as some members of Congress, criticized Boykin when news reports surfaced last October of remarks he made in several speeches at evangelical Christian churches. Boykin said the enemy in the terrorism fight was Satan and that God had put President Bush in the White House.

General Boykin (retired) is now a "professor" at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia (just what he teaches, I don't know - yet). Hampden-Sydney College's profile is that of the last all-male "make you into men" colleges. His April 8 speech to Epicenter 2008, a conference sponsored by Israel sounded like he had never left the battlefield:

One day, we're going to stand before the gates of Heaven. Some of us want to be able to walk up there in a white robe and we want to sing Abba Father and Amazing Grace and we want to say to the Lord, "I worshiped You." But I want you to think about this: Heres the way I want to enter the gates of Heaven. I want to come skidding in there on all fours. I want to be slipping and sliding and I want to hit the gates of heaven with a bang. And when I stand up and I stand before Christ, I want there to be blood on my knees and my elbows. I want to be covered with mud. And I want to be standing there with a ragged breast plate of righteousness. And a spear in my hand. And I want to say, "Look at me, Jesus. I've been in the battle. I've been fighting for you." Ladies and gentlemen, put your armor on and get into battle. God bless you.

A "breast plate of righteousness"? "I want there to be blood on my knees and my elbows" - notice he doesn't say whose blood. Why do I think that Jesus would have rebuked him? Or a least said, "Boy, you're a schmuck!"

And as to God having put George W. "lowest-approval-rating-ever" Bush in the White House?

If there is a Satan, he's doubling over in laughter right now.

"You're a Bush!" - The "W" Trailer Makes Bush's Life Look Wasted and Irrelevant

Which It Is.

Oh, well. I guess it's SOME form of "legacy."

Josh Brolin: "This is NOT a political movie! It's a biography!"

But it looks like a made-for-TV comedy special, especially when you see who's cast in it. Com'on, Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney? Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush? And Josh Brolin as a party-hearty young (and middle-aged) George Bush?

(Red State Update)

"Who's Josh Brolin?"
"He's Barbra Streisand's stepson."

But seriously, it takes balls for someone to make a movie about a bumbling idiot of a president - while he's still alive. Remember my phrase: "Fudd's the one with the gun." Oliver Stone might think he's Bugs Bunny having a rollicking good time at GWB's (Fudd's) expense, but if McSame becomes President, Oliver might realize that Bushes have thorns.

Even the ads for the trailer are ruinously funny. Read (if you can) the "teaser" poster for the trailer, then watch the trailer.

Is This the Portrait of the Most Effective Serial Killer in History?

elizabeth-bathory-tm
Originally uploaded by yehandhow

Countess Elizabeth Bathory had a terrible effect on young women: they always seemed to wind up being tortured and/or dying. She was charged with 80 murders, but legend had the number slightly higher: 650. So very many women went missing in areas of Slovakia, Hungary and Austria that it was rumored that she bathed in blood to keep her youth and beauty. After she was charged (there was no formal trial) she was imprisoned in her bedroom - actually walled up in it with only a small door to pass food. She died mysteriously four years later (there were days of untouched food in the room).

Her legacy was to become a kind of "Countess Dracula" because of the bathing legend. Below is the ironically named "Iron Maiden" - one of Elizabeth's (supposedly) favorite toys.

Fallout From Rick Warren's Faith Forum?

And What About Other Uber Christians?
Then Again, With Friends Like Ralph Reed,
Who Needs Enemies?

Last week, news broke that Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition director and crony of Jack Abramoff, would be helping to raise money for Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) fundraiser in Atlanta. Reed “touted himself as a member of McCain’s ‘Victory 2008 Team’ in an e-mail that solicited donations on McCain’s behalf,” and public watchdog organizations called on McCain to denounce Reed. The Wall Street Journal now reports that Reed was a no-show at tonight’s Atlanta fundraiser.

This now makes THREE prominant conservatives John McCain has had to distance himself from. Whose idea was it to invite Reed anyway? But is McCain distancing himself from Reed, or is Reed distancing himself from McCain? Maybe Reed is being paid NOT to have a relationship with John McCain. Hey, that would be pretty nifty - being paid NOT to endorse a candidate! Sort of like farmers who are paid NOT to grow things.

Who the hell would have requested the presence of Ralph Reed anyway? It shows that the McCain camp is slipping when it comes to endorsements and support. Reed's curriculum vitae is terrible:

• His religious experience was at a Washington bar when the Holy Ghost himself "demanded me to come to Jesus."
  
• His college activist group was supported by Jesse Helms
• He headed his own political consultant firm and had clients like Enron, Microsoft, eLottery and The People's Republic of China.
• He helmed The Christian Coalition and left underneath a shadow of scandal and investigating by the IRS and the Federal Election Commission.
• Then he got together with Jack Abramov.

The person who invited him to the Atlanta fundraiser obviously doesn't have a brain.

There will be other fallouts from the Faith Forum and John McCain's answers: evangelical leaders, for example.

“I don’t think it’s right for pastors to endorse [a political candidate] in the first place,” Warren said on a recent CNN interview when asked if he thinks McCain was right to disavow controversial pastors John Hagee and Rod Parsley.

From Michelle Malkin (before the Forum):

Both candidates will uh and um and blather their way incoherently with vague platitudes about religion throughout this two-hour event.

That's how important religion is to Malkin. I think she was denegrated for her wildly spectulative view.

From TIW by fringe blogger Bruce Tyson:

Rick Warren: pathetic false teacher meddling in politics

Rick Warren is no longer “hip.” In fact, he never really was. Instrumental in building a mega-super church for the express purpose of damning souls to Hell in the name of religion, Warren is again sticking his nose into politics, offering to legitimize evil men (Barack ObamaBarry Soetoro Barry Dunham and Juan McCain) through his imprimatur.

In fact, you might just call Rick Warren the “Lindsey Graham” of false religion.

I'll see what kind of fallout there was on the Obama side tomorrow.

From Hippocratic to Hypocritical: Court Orders Compassion from California's Doctors

Beware of the Oaths You Take
They May Require That You Do Something Against Your Faith
- Like Be Compassionate

(From AP)

California’s high court has ruled doctors cannot withhold care to gays or lesbians based on religious beliefs.

The case stems from a San Diego-area lesbian’s claim that a private fertility clinic refused to inseminate her because of her sexual orientation.

A unanimous state Supreme Court said that California’s civil rights law barring sexual orientation discrimination extends to medical care.

An Open Letter to the Mrs. Rick Warrens of America

While sifting through the whole Saddleback/Warren/McCain/Obama brouhaha, I came upon this page on Saddleback's sebsite. I was rather struck by it, but for reasons other than what the site wanted to project.

Why care about HIV/AIDS?
Why should we care about HIV/AIDS? Why not focus on cancer, tuberculosis, diabetes, or heart disease? For a very simple reason: HIV carries a stigma that other diseases don’t carry.

No one ever gets banished from her village because she’s infected with tuberculosis. No one loses his job simply because of malaria. Husbands don’t beat or divorce their wives for developing the flu, diabetes, or cancer. No relatives refuse to care for children whose parents were killed in an accident. But all of those things and more happen on a daily basis where HIV/AIDS is involved.

I then sent a letter to Elizabeth Styffe, R.N. M.N. who works for Kay Warren and who is listed as a principle contact. I've had no reply. (Was I so audacious as to think I would receive one?). But here it is, and I would like to consider it an open letter to the Kay Warrens of America who always seem to think that AIDS is far away in third world countries (or that we in America have enough AIDS agencies).


Dear Ms. Styffe:

Please excuse this intrusion on your time, but I was surfing the net researching some information about Saddleback Church and realized that it actually has an AIDS/HIV ministry.

Something bothers me a great deal and maybe you could help for sake of clarity. I am an older (61) gay man who has been fortunate enough to live with HIV for 28 years (yes, that's right). I was also privileged to live in one of the most compassionate communities in the country - San Francisco - and VERY privileged to be a part of the AIDS Emergency Fund (3 years as client intake - 1990-93 and 3 years on the working Board of Directors). During the time I did client intake, I believe I saw the worst of the worst: men, women, and children who were, for lack of attention, literally dying in the streets.

Oddly enough, there were also people who were dancing in the streets: the Falwells, Robertsons, Thurmonds and Helmses were thanking God that a wonderfully hideous disease had been showered down upon the people they loved (and lived) to hate.

It was at this time I had an epiphany of sorts: I saw tens of thousands, knew of hundreds of thousands of people who were giving their time, their money (!!) and their very lives to help PWAs. And I realized that those people were by far the truest "Christians" and a million times more human than all the Falwells, Robertsons, etc. combined.

Several years ago, in doing research for a book (still ongoing), I posed a question to many denominations and ministries: what/where was the first faith-based AIDS agency outside of San Francisco? Many answers came back: they didn't know. Period. Finally I received a comprehensive portrait of the Episcopal Archdiocese of Los Angeles - they had reached back into their records and told me that, to their knowledge, they were the first - in 1986.

By 1986, 65,000 people had died.

I've researched, in particular, the Southern Baptist Convention and their members. To this day, they have no AIDS agencies/ministries outside of Africa.

That begs the question: WHY?

Look at it this way: what could have been Christianity's finest hour was passed by. "But we all thought it was communicable!" So? Did Father Damian live on Molakai for his health? Besides, scientists proved fairly early on that toilet seats were not dangerous. More dangerous were the people who believed they were.
And the people who taught them to believe that way were even more...

So now I see that Kay Warren has an intense interest in AIDS in Africa. How old is she? Perhaps she was too young in the 80's and 90's to care about other people as she now does.

Again, I'm so very sorry to have taken up your kind attention and time. It's just that people do not know how it rankles me to know that people in foreign countries have garnered more "Christian charity" sooner - and with more compassion - than my neighbors.

Sincerely,


Dan Vojir
Proudly,
from San Francisco
http://thedevilanddanvojir.blogspot.com

Well, Who Won: Obama, McCain or...Warren?

Where God and political candidates meet.

For a portrait on Rick Warren and how he's affected politics without being political (rather hard to do, but after all, he IS a "man of God"), read the article by Alan Wolfe of The New Republic. What I'd like to do at this time is to comment on certain points of the article. Keep in mind that it was written BEFORE the forum. Sounds ass backwards of me, but please bear it and read on.

But since the Republicans have had something of a lock on the votes of white evangelicals, McCain's appearance at Saddleback is not big news. That Rick Warren has invited Obama, and for the second time no less, is.

Warren, I think, is priming himself for much bigger things. I don't know what or how to frame it just yet, but I have the feeling that Warren is not merely going to play this out. He intends to be around (meaning, in the public consciousness) for a long, long time.

Warren is America's anti-Falwell. If he has little interest in removing evangelicals from politics, he has taken the lead in removing them from automatic identification with Republicans.

That, however, is NOT anti-Falwell. It may be shifting voters around a little bit, but Falwell's goal was political and he wanted the same thing as Warren: TOTAL conversion of everyone on the planet. Falwell wanted desperately to de-secularize schools. He didn't just want prayer in schools, he wanted public schools to be replaced with religious/parochial schools - everywhere. Falwell knew that total conversion meant theocracy. He prayed for it. Warren must surely realize that total conversion means total control of the educational system of a country, or else there are apostates.

Regardless of which candidate benefits the most from this joint appearance, however, the biggest winner is Warren himself. A wildly successful author and church planter, Warren is leading an effort to focus the attention of Christian conservatives on questions of social justice.

I agree. Of course, Warren's the winner. But leading conservative Christians to issues of social justice is a pipe dream. Warren certainly knows that. As long as there are people in this world who need to hate someone else for their own enrichment, there will always be James Dobsons, Tony Perkins and Rod Parsleys galore. They enjoy duality and hypocrisy and they won't go away - at least without a fight. And they'll say that God's on their side. Social justice is not the reason Pat Robertson's Regent University churns out lawyers to (in effect) infiltrate the government. If they wanted social justice, it would have been doled out long ago to Americans who needed better AIDS research and faith-based agencies back in the 80's and 90's. The people of Africa need a great deal of education and compassionate commitment - not hypocrites who will demand a quid pro quo: "If you say Jesus saves, we'll give you the anti-viral drugs."

There is no doubt something of a missionary aspect to Warren's work in the region, but once California exurbanites see the devastating effects of AIDS and poverty, they are unlikely to ignore the same problems in West Central Los Angeles.

Don't bet on it. The reason that any compassion is reserved for Africa is because it is far enough and foreign enough to disassociate it with AIDS in America. In America, AIDS carries an even deeper stigma than in Africa, and the "Compassionate Conservatives" wouldn't give up that stigma for anything. To them, the stigma needs to be in front at all times. One of the (erroneous) statistics agencies like Family Research Council love to site is "the gay lifestyle condemns a man to a very short life span." Give everything you have to the poor people in Africa, but never ever condone someone's behavior by helping the gay man next door. Not a cent!

The Christian right was more right than Christian. Its poisonous influence on American politics is well-documented. But it also had negative consequences for American religion. Faith is, and ought to be, about more than your position on late-term abortions.

Yes, Alan, you are definitely on the mark about the Christian Right. But you underestimate the power of the anti-abortion movement and the anti-gay rights movement: many of these people have a commitment to their form of "faith" that borders on fanatical.

The joint appearance of McCain and Obama at Saddleback is only one event in a long political campaign. But it is also a significant antidote to the poison that the religious right injected into American politics.

Right again, Alan. And very well written. However, it's still debatable as to whether or not there is any significant antidote. The Christofascists aim to go deep into American politics - perhaps they already are too deep for politics to be cured at all.

Just a thought.

Kay Warren - where were the likes of her in the 80's and 90's when Americans needed her?