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"We're
Dealing with a Christian Taliban"
Interview with Mikey Weinstein
09/07/07 - --- WASHINGTON, Sep 7 (IPS) - Last month, the Pentagon pulled
the plug on a plan to dispatch so-called "freedom packages" to
U.S. troops in Iraq that included Bibles, proselytising
materials in English and Arabic, and an apocalyptic computer
game in which "soldiers for Christ" battle satanic "Global
Community Peacekeepers".
The scheme was derailed in part because of the efforts of Mikey
Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation, which seeks to protect the wall separating
church and state in the United States armed forces.
Weinstein, in his own words, is no "bleeding-heart liberal". He
is a 1977 honor graduate of the United States Air Force Academy,
and spent 10 years in the Air Force as a "JAG" or military
attorney serving as both a federal prosecutor and criminal
defence attorney.
A registered Republican, he also spent over three years in the
Ronald Reagan administration as legal counsel in the White
House, where he helped investigate the Iran-Contra scandal.
St. Martins Press in New York recently released Weinstein's new
book, "With God On Our Side," an expose on the systemic problem
of religious intolerance throughout the United States armed
forces.
Eli Clifton recently spoke with Weinstein about Operation
Straight Up, which designed the "freedom packages", and the
Pentagon's growing coziness with fundamentalist evangelical
religious groups.
IPS: What is it about the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs
that has made it a breeding ground for Christian Dominionists?
MW: Well, first we thought it was that there was this nexus of
what I refer to as the "Protestant Vatican" -- in fact many
people refer to it as that. Colorado Springs has over 100 of
this nation's largest evangelical fundamentalist Christian
organisations centred right there for some reason. Just like a
moth to a flame these organisations have been attracted there.
That was our initial theory before we found out that this
imperious contagion of constitutional triumphalism, this
fanatical
Dominionist Christianity had swept like a tsunami all
the way through all 737 US military installations that the
Pentagon admits that we have -- but it's really closer to a
thousand -- in 132 countries around the world. Seventy of those
are in Europe of and 11 of those house nuclear weapons.
Let me make this clear. I'm doing this Q&A with you guys today
as a man at war with the gun smoke in my face. We are not at war
with Christianity or evangelical Christianity. We have many
evangelical or non-evangelical Christians who massively support
what our organisation, the Military Religious Freedom Centre, is
doing. We are at war with a small subset of evangelical
Christianity [known as] "Dominionist Christianity" and it
represents about 12.6 percent of the American public or about 38
million people.
And at every one of those 737 US military installations that are
scattered in 132 countries around the world -- as we garrison
the globe -- we have one or more of those organisations. They're
called the "Officers Christian Fellowship" for the officers and
"The Christian Military Fellowship" for the enlisted folks and
these organisations have a tripartite, or three level goal,
which they view as much more important than the oath that they
all swear to protect and preserve, support and defend the
constitution of the United States.
The first goal -- and they're unabashed about it, it's right on
their website -- is they want to see a "spiritually transformed
U.S. military..."
Second, "...with ambassadors for Christ in uniform..." which,
parenthetically, hasn't worked out too well for the world for
the past 2,000 years.
And then thirdly, "...empowered by the Holy Spirit."
IPS: Could you talk a bit about Operation Straight Up and the
Christian Ministry? How do they gain access to soldiers in Iraq
or film promotional videos in the halls of the Pentagon?
MW: Well we hope to have the full answers to these questions
shortly as we are nearing the filing of our massive lawsuit
against the Pentagon for these very reasons.
The Christian Embassy was a little known, under the radar,
extreme right-wing fundamentalist organisation that was
operating in Washington DC and ministering, if you will, only to
the glitterati and cognoscenti -- that is to say the senior
people at the State Department, members of Congress, and
political appointees, specifically in the Pentagon.
If you go MilitaryReligiousFreedom.org you'll see their slick,
11-minute video. It opens up with the Christian Embassy stating
that there are 25,000 men and women in the corridors and rings
of the Pentagon and through the use of daily prayer breakfast
and bible studies and outreach events the Christian Embassy is
"mustering all of them into an intentional relationship with
Jesus Christ." It's really astonishing to see. To see senior
members of the U.S. military and political appointees
prostituting themselves with regard to the oath they took to the
constitution and supporting the biblical worldview of just this
one particular group.
IPS: What steps has the Defence Department taken to limit
proselytising within the ranks? Where has the DoD fallen short?
MW: They are encouraging this. They aren't stopping it. The
report that the DoD IG (Inspector General) came out with was
ludicrous. It immediately exempted itself from something called
DoD directive 1300.17 which is entitled "Accommodation of
Religious Practices within the Military Services". They say that
anyone who appeared in that video was not really trying to
proselytise or express their religious views. They say that the
directive is just dictating when you may or may not wear your
uniform.
This is a complete lie. If you look at that video again you'll
see that if the people at the Pentagon had been doing a video
like that for the Ford Mustang there'd be no doubt in your mind
that these people were pushing Ford Mustangs as the best cars
around. So the IG report is terrible. It doesn't provide any
remedial action.
Let me make it clear. We are dealing with a Christian Taliban.
They hate when I say that but that's too bad. If you look at
Chris Hedges Book "American Fascists: The Christian Right and
the War on America" you'll see that the Christian Right is a
fascistic organisation. And remember, I'm not a bleeding heart
liberal -- not that there's anything wrong with that. I know the
Christian Right would love it if I were a tree-hugging,
Chardonnay-sipping, Northern California Democrat. I'm not. I
come from a conservative military family. My youngest son just
graduated three months ago from the Air Force Academy. He's the
sixth member of my family to go there including myself. We have
three consecutive generations of military academy graduates and
over 128 years of combined active duty military service in my
immediate family. I spent three and half years in the West Wing
of the Reagan White House as one of his lawyers. I've been Ross
Perot's general counsel. I didn't want to have to get into this
fight. But when I say the Christian Taliban I frickin mean the
Christian Taliban.
IPS: What consequences do whistleblowers within the armed forces
face?
MW: They're terrified. Look, in many aspects the military
controls their lives. We are closing in on having our 6,000th
active member of the U.S. military contact us not as claimants
but as tormentees. And the amazing thing is that it stays
remarkably constant that roughly 96 percent of these tormentees
coming to us are Christian themselves.
Roughly three-fourths of that group are going to be traditional
Protestant -- that is to say Presbyterians, Lutherans,
Methodists and Episcopalians. We even get Assemblies of God,
Church of Christ, Baptists and sometimes Southern Baptists. The
other one-fourth of that 96 percent are generally Roman
Catholic. And that leaves four percent who are Muslim, Jewish,
Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Shinto, Jain, Wickan and atheists
and agnostics.
Basically what we're facing are Fundamentalist, Dominionist
Christians that are preying --- P-R-A-Y and P-R-E-Y -- on
non-Fundamentalist Christians including in many respects other
evangelical Christians that are just not fundamentalist
Christians, telling them that, "you may think you were Christian
enough for us but you're not. And as a result, you will burn
eternally in the fires of Hell along with the Jews."
And that's why I've got to be here to take the calls around the
clock from our troops. Many times they will not give me their
name, sometimes they will. Often times they will give me the
contact information for their supervisors or their commanders
and what unit they're in. Then my job is I go call these people
and make it clear that this is happening and suggest they make
it stop or make them the next star on CNN.
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