Comments on: Todd Starnes and the Pentagon Still Not Together on the Facts

By: Tom Van Dyke

Tom Van Dyke — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:22:35 +0000

The essential point is that military leaders want religious programming to come from the chaplains and not from superior officers.
To which the evangelical replies, as reported by Adm. William Lee:
“As one general so aptly put it – they expect us to check our religion in at the door – don’t bring that here,” Lee told the audience. “Leaders like myself are feeling the constraints of rules and regulations and guidance issued by lawyers that put us in a tighter and tighter box regarding our constitutional rights to express our religious faith.”
Protestantism, specifically of the evangelical stripe, is not as clergy-driven as say, Roman Catholicism. The very conception of religion is at issue here–for the evangelical, The Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
means that each believer is an evangelist, that when it comes to spreading the Good News: there is no distinction between chaplains and soldiers in the Army of God.
And that’s the name of this tune.
Weinstein called for the military to enforce a regulation that he believes calls for the court martial of any service member who proselytizes.
“Someone needs to be punished for this,” Weinstein told Fox News. “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.”
Weinstein compared the act of proselytizing to rape.
“It is a version of being spiritually raped and you are being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian religious predators,” he said.
Oh, Jesus.

By: ken

ken — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:22:35 +0000

Starnes appears to be trying to prove that christians are being persecuted in this country. Mostly by misrepresenting stories involving christians. He also appears to be trying to use the language that minority groups that have been persecuted in the past (jews, muslims, gays etc) used to describe what happened to them.
Several of Starnes’ recent articles have done that.

By: Les

Les — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:22:35 +0000

A military commanding officer may have men and women of half a dozen faiths under his legal control. It is absolutely unacceptable for any commander to push his or her religious convictions on legal subordinates. Do that off-duty time away from the unit. An officer lacking that level of self-discipline needs a civilian job.
Gen. Washington understood that so banned anti-Catholic Guy Fawkes-type demonstrations in the Continental Army. As with many of Washington’s actions, that established the precedence for the U.S. military to this day.
Such outrageous abuse of command authority was rare or non-existent during WWII and the Viet Nam War eras. It has popped up only since the 1980s. Surely there were many Evangelical Protestant commanders in the earlier generations, but they had the discipline to know the boundaries and not abuse their subordinates.
I’m aware of a Battalion Commander in the 10th Mountain Division about a decade ago who required all his subordinate company commanders to join him in Protestant prayer sessions during routine Officers calls to coordinate activities. He seemed unaware that every company commander by chance was Catholic who did not appreciate the activity.

By: Les

Les — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:50:44 +0000

By: Tom Van Dyke

Tom Van Dyke — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:32:07 +0000