"Theology Of War" - taught at US basic training

[donsu]

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/12/29/112325/12/Dominionism_in_the_military/Fundamentalist_Ministries_At_US_Basic_Training_Facilities_Promote_quot_Theology_Of_War_quot_


Fundamentalist Ministries At US Basic Training Facilities Promote "Theology Of War"


As detailed in recent reportsfrom the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a 501c(3) nonprofit organization which fights for freedom of religious and philosophical belief in the US military, fundamentalist Christian ministries promoting what can be described as a "theology of war" have increasingly been invited onto US military basic training facilities such as Fort Jackson in South Carolina, and Fort Sam Houston and Lackland Air Force Base (both based in Texas), with the apparent endorsement of commanders at those bases.

The most prominent of these ministries is the `Military Ministry' of the immense, 1/2 billion dollar a year Campus Crusade For Christ, a global nonprofit evangelical organization founded in 1951 with the financial help of key John Birch Society funder Nelson Bunker Hunt. In the 1970s Campus Crusade's founder evangelist Bill Bright, whose political views have almost totally escaped media scrutiny called his group a "conspiracy to overthrow the world", and a 1998 book Bright co-authored declared the Theory Of Evolution to be a fraud. Bright was one of the signatories of an October 2002 letter sent to President George W. Bush, along with Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Chuck Colson, D James Kennedy, and others, asserting that the Bush Administration's intended war with Iraq would fall under traditional Christian "just war" theory.
Materials discovered by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, on the web site of Campus Crusade's Military Ministry at Fort Jackson, include pictures of US soldiers-in-training holding both assault rifles and Bibles (provided by Campus Crusade), and a promotional flier for the Ft. Jackson ministry's Bible study course, entitled "God's Basic Training", features a drawing of a Roman Legionnaire holding a sword and a shield emblazoned with a Christian cross. Frank Bussey, director of Military Ministry at Fort Jackson, has reportedly told soldiers at the base that "government authorities, police and the military = God's Ministers."
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militaries are bad enough, but religious militaries are the worst.


the worst of times are with us

[liberal N proud]

1. I just don't get it, how can religious people be for war?

War goes against all of Jesus teachings and makes no sense in the biblical sense of doing good.

The neocons have twisted faith to their advantage.

[Lerkfish]

6. because people switch to old testament when its convenient

if you are a christian, you're supposed to realize that christ came to fulfill and change the old laws -- hence the "new" testament.

[liberal N proud]

8. Yeah, but they all do this while proclaiming to follow Jesus

Jesus teachings changed the old testament. I don't understand how they can quantify it in their brains. But then that would require them to think and they have not done that for so long they are no capable.

[Lerkfish]

9. FWIW, I think their leaders have spent a great deal of time distracting

them from Jesus and focusing them on the contribution plates. I don't put all the blame on the congregation, they've been distracted by pointless things for so long they've forgotten to actually read Jesus's teachings.

I hold greater blame on the leaders, but regardless of whose fault it is, we're still at this bad place where christians think war and killing and torture is okeydoke

[liberal N proud]

10. True

The large Church leaders and the televangelist are most guilty of distraction. The smaller Church leaders just follow the lead of those big names. Dobson is one of the worst.

[Lerkfish]

12. any sort of groupthink snowballs into a worse and worse situation

I'm a liberal christian, but I don't assume that any of my leaders hold the absolute truth on anything. That's the difference, I think. Once you cede your judgement to another, you cease to exercise rational discernment, and once that happens, once you put that ring in your nose, anyone who comes along with a rope can lead you.

[MindPilot]

2. "government authorities, police and the military = God's Ministers."

THAT is really fucking scary.

Maybe the next time a CHP officer pulls me over for speeding, I can say that as an Atheist his god-given rules about vehicular velocity just don't apply to me.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. Isn't it nice that this crusade is not about Christians v Muslims

Excuse me, I misspoke when I called this a "crusade." Silly me. :eyes:

[shadowknows69]

3. Just like the First Amendment requires that religion stays out of government

It should definitely stay the hell out of our military. Nothing worse than a bunch of warriors that think they have God on their side.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. The ways the Iraq occupation VIOLATE the Just War doctrine are well documented

The doctrine is based on a diverse base of thinkers, including Cicero, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and Hugo Grotius. Basically, for a war to be just, it must meet these standards:

• The cause itself must be just. It is legitimate to conduct war to correct an injustice or to right a wrong. It is not legitimate to conduct war for greed, power or vengeance on some past real or perceived wrong. The mountain of evidence is that the Iraq invasion and occupation was vengeance on Iraq's "humiliation" of the United States during the Gulf War and to satisfy the greed of Big Oil, Haliburton and others who currently own the White House.
• 
  
  
• The injustices caused by the war itself must outweigh the injustices of there being no war at all. A war is not just if it makes perpetrates existing injustices or replaces existing injustices with new injustices which are just as injust or worse. By all accounts, daily life for millions of Iraqis is far worse now under US occupation than it ever was under Saddam Hussein. We must also factor in the more than a decade of bombings and embargoes for which the US was responsible between the end of the Gulf War and the invasion in 2003. Then there is the matter of torture, violations of recognized human rights and breaking of treaties with regards to the civil and human rights of prisoners of war and other non-combattants.



• The war may only be declared and fought by those who can legitimately authorize war. Just wars can not be fought by rebels, opposition groups or rouge nations. The United States not only never received authorization from the United Nations, it used its veto power in the UN Security Council to bury strong General Assembly opposition to the invasion. This makes the United States a rogue nation with regards to the Iraq occupation.



• War must be fought with the right intention. Even if the initial cause of going to war is just, it can still become an injust war if material gain, revenge and other injustices become considerations during the war.



• War must have a reasonable probability of success. If it is very unlikely that an armed conflict will resolve successfully, ie if it is too unlikely that the purpose of the "Just Cause" principle can be achieved, then it will be almost impossible to meet the "outweigh injustice" principle. To gauge the probability of success, it is first necessary to define what that success is. Failure to define success can therefore be seen as a violation of this principle. The White House has consistently refused to define success for the Iraq occupation and, in fact, has fought very hard against any kind of definition of success.



• War must be a last resort. Armed conflict represents the total failure of other means. If there are any viable, peaceful ways that have not been honestly and fully pursued before the declaration of war, then the war is by definition not just. There is strong evidence that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was planned months in advance of the supposed causus belli of the 9/11 attacks. The United States ignored considerable evidence that strongly linked Saudi Arabia rather than Iraq to the attacks and never seriously considered peaceful, non-violent resolutions with regards to Iraq.

[Richard Steele]

7. "God is with us"- nothing like the old classics!

[Bongo Prophet]

11. "Got Mittens?" WTF does Romney have to do with a warrior religion? Oh right.

Never mind. ;)