Christofascists Continue to Demand Special Rights

This blog takes the position that Christofascists feel that their rights to engage in religious fanaticism should trump the rights of all others.  A corollary is that anything that restricts their ability to inflict their beliefs on others is nothing short of persecution.  A bank teller in Kentucky who was fired for her refusal to stop proselytizing to customers is a case in point.  My News 13 has details on her firing and claims of persecution: 

A Kentucky woman claims saying the phrase "Have a blessed day" to customers got her fired from her bank teller job.

The phrase didn't appear to be an issue at first. Customers would simply thank Neace when she first began saying it.

Neace received a code of ethics violation in March 2011, claiming that several customers complained about her using the phrase.

Neace claims customers never complained, though.  But U.S. Bank said Neace took it a step further, asking customers if they accepted Jesus as their savior — an act the bank believes is unacceptable.

Neace admitted she was reprimanded and was given multiple warnings, but she continued with the phrase.

"I felt very persecuted," Neace said.

She later filed a lawsuit against U.S. Bank, claiming she was "discriminated against for exercising her religious freedoms."

"I can't back down from this," Neace said. "It's the principle behind everything."

In a statement, U.S. Bank said: "At U.S. Bank, we hold our employees to high ethical standards when interacting with customers and co-workers and take violations of these standards seriously." 

Note the mindset: Neace doesn't give a damn about the right of customers NOT to be have her beliefs rubbed in their faces.  Like most Christofascists, Neace is self-centered and wants the unrestricted freedom to trample on the rights of others.

Terry McAuliffe to Veto Bill On Religious Expression in Schools

Here in Virginia as elsewhere Republicans have been busy passing bills that seek to grant special rights to far right Christians and to empower them to trample on the civil rights of others.  A case in point is a GOP backed bill that claims to be aimed at protecting the rights of students to "express religious viewpoints" on public school grounds.  If enacted, the law would allow proselytizing on school grounds and allow denigration of gays if anti-gay slurs reflected "religious beliefs" of the bullies.  It is but another example of the Christofascists seeking exemption from the laws that govern everyone else.  Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has stated that he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk.  Here are highlights from the Roanoke Times:

Gov. Terry McAuliffe will veto a bill aimed at protecting the rights of students to express religious viewpoints on public school grounds if the legislation reaches his desk, his office said Monday.

A McAuliffe spokesman outlined the governor’s opposition to the bill after it cleared a House of Delegates committee Monday morning. The legislation, which passed the Senate last month, should come up for a vote in the full House later this week.

“He’s very concerned about the constitutionality of the bill, but he’s also concerned about the unintended consequences,” McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bill Carrico, R-Grayson County, said the veto threat is premature.  “As the Bible calls a double-minded man, if he’s going to veto a freedom of expression for students in school on religious viewpoints, yet his first executive order he signs is a freedom for sexual orientation, [for] bisexual people to express themselves, I find a little double standard there,” Carrico said.

The House Education Committee advanced Carrico’s bill (SB 236) Monday on a 12-10 vote, despite warnings from representatives of Virginia school boards and school superintendents that the measure will invite lawsuits. Three Republicans, including Joseph Yost of Pearisburg, joined the committee’s seven Democrats in opposing the bill.

The Senate passed the bill last month on a largely party-line vote of 20-18. The bill passed before special elections won by two Democratic senators were decided. The Senate, now evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, likely would sustain McAuliffe’s veto.

Carrico’s bill would require every Virginia school division to adopt a policy permitting student speakers to express religious viewpoints at any school event in which students are allowed to publicly speak. Those events would be treated as “limited public forums.” Principals would be required to provide disclaimers to underscore that school divisions don’t endorse the speakers’ religious views.

The last thing Virginia needs is religious proselytizing and the denigration of other students in its public schools.  Kudos to McAuliffe for seeing this bill for the batshitery that it is. 

"Taliban Bob" Wants to Strengthen Families - Straight Families Only Need Apply

Pat Robertson's minion who now occupies Virginia's governor's mansion wants to launch an initiative to help stabilize families. Unfortunately, it's more or less assured that only families headed by straight couples will need bothering to apply given Virginia's viciously anti-gay legal framework. Adding to this concern is Taliban Bob's Siamese twin like relationship with The Family Foundation - the Virginia affiliate of Focus on the Family - and it's hysterically anti-gay leader, Victoria Cobb. While the program might benefit some, anything that has Cobb's backing and which will involve faith based organizations will likely involve a great deal of proselytizing and likely find state funds flowing into sectarian organizations. And in terms of leaving LGBT headed families, DOMA and Virginia's own vile Marshall-Newman amendment are being conveniently pointed to as to why the state's hands are tried when it comes to same sex couples. As is seemingly always the case with the Christianists, the children of gays don't matter. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

Without much fanfare, Gov. Bob McDonnell's administration is pursuing a plan to reduce out-of-wedlock births, reunite unwed fathers with their children and encourage marriage as it looks at ways to shrink dependence on social welfare programs.

What's clear so far is that officials envision a system in which government agencies refer benefit recipients to family stability services provided by community and faith-based organizations and businesses. Local governments that work toward program goals may receive additional state grant funding.

Virginia's focus on fortifying families runs parallel to federal marriage and fatherhood initiatives that began with President George W. Bush and continue under the Obama administration. Federally supported research of their effectiveness in building stronger families shows mixed results.

[R]eactions to the initiative are divided along ideological lines. Virginia Family Foundation President Victoria Cobb argues that the state has a "fundamental interest in marriage" as it develops policy addressing poverty.

"I don't question the premise," said John Morgan, executive director of Voices for Virginia's Children, but "some people are nervous about the ideology behind this."
. . . . the administration should focus on stabilizing families rather than "promoting one definition" of a traditional family as a means to achieve an agenda.

When asked how gay parents seeking public services will be treated under the initiative, Brown said officials are bound by federal and state laws defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

It will likely be business as usual in Virginia as LGBT Virginians are forced to pay taxes even as they are treated as fourth class citizens by the Commonwealth.

Why Are the Number of Non-Religious Americans Growing?

I've written about the question raised in the title of this post before and, in my view, much of the ever increasing number of Americans stems from the increasingly negative connotation the term "Christian" has in society based on the toxicity of conservative Christianity which seems best defined by who is hated - i.e., almost everyone - and ties to the Tea Party which views lower class and unfortunate citizens as disposable. Because of this foul image, many who had slipped away for active church involvement do not want to be associated with religion whatsoever. I'll admit, when I encounter someone who makes a point of proclaiming that they are a Christian, the first thoughts that come to my mind are likely to be that the person must be an extremist, bigot or both. Yes, there are some exceptions, but increasingly, knowing that someone is a Christian is typically a turn off for me, especially since it seems to be only the ultra conservative intolerant ones who seem most driven to make sure they announce their religiosity to you. An article in Science & Religion Today makes the connection between the image of increasingly negative image of the Christian Right and the surge in the number of Americans disclaiming any religious affiliation. Here are some highlights:

Why Are Americans Becoming More Willing to Say They Don’t Belong to a Religious Tradition? . . . . One thing that is interesting about this is that the proportion of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has been rising for a long time. In the 1950s, only 3 percent of Americans said they had no religion affiliation. Today, it’s about 18 percent. This increase probably reflects a growing willingness among the least religious people to say that they have no religion as well as a decline in meaningful attachments to religious traditions.

But it hasn’t been going up in a straight line. The trend seems to have accelerated since 1990 ; it has gone up faster from 1990 to today than it did from 1950 to 1990. The question is: Why? What happened in the 1990s that changed the rate of increase?

I]t is part of the reaction to the religious right’s rising visibility in the 1980s. That is, before 1990, people who were raised, say, Catholic or Baptist, but were socially and politically liberal and already religiously inactive, would still be comfortable enough with their religious background to tell a pollster they were Catholic or Baptist. And then they saw all this conservative politics happening in the name of religion, in the name of their own religion maybe, and said, “You know what, I’m not that.” It pushed them across the line. They were less comfortable affiliating with the religion in which they were raised. Now, they are more likely to respond to a religious preference question by saying “none” because that is a way to say, “I’m not like them.”

Another aspect of the trend is that there’s a big generational component, meaning younger people are more likely than older people to say they have no religion. And each successive generation seems a little more likely to say that than the one before. So it’s not just people who used to say they had some religion who stopped saying it; it’s that young people today are saying they have no religion at higher rates than young people before them.

[O]ver decades, more and more people are saying “none” when asked about their religious preference. It’s still a minority. It’s still under 20 percent. But it’s increasing.

Given the trend lines, one has to again wonder why the GOP is on a long term basis putting all of its eggs in the baskets of a demographic group - i.e., aging white far right Christians - when (a) the Hispanic population is mushrooming and (b) the percentage of voters who identify with no organized religion is surging. Long term, it seems a form of political suicide. But given the present insanity of the GOP, perhaps the ultimate death of the party as its base literally dies off would be a significant positive for the USA.

Bible and Nukes Don't Mix

I have written a number of times about the Christianists within the U. S. Military on issues ranging from Christianist intimidation and proselytizing at the U. S. Air Force Academy to mandatory attendance at Christianist themed events at nearby Fort Eustis in Newport News. The Air Force has gotten itself once more in the news over a story about what could best be described as Christianist indoctrination in the context of training for for new missile launch officers - a frightening concept inasmuch, as noted yesterday, Christians have the least qualms about military actions that kill civilians. Here are highlights from CNN:

The Air Force has suspended an ethics briefing for new missile launch officers after concerns were raised about the briefing's heavy focus on religion.
The briefing, taught for nearly 20 years by military chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, is intended to train Air Force personnel to consider the ethics and morality of launching nuclear weapons - the ultimate doomsday machine.

Many of the slides in the 43 page presentation use a Christian justification for war, displaying pictures of saints like Saint Augustine and using biblical references.

"Abraham organized an Army to rescue Lot," one slide read, referring to the story of the Hebrew patriarch and his nephew found in the book of Genesis. "Revelation 19:11 Jesus Christ is the mighty warrior," another slide read.

The Air Force halted the class last week after 31 missile launch officers reported the religious nature of the briefing to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group which tries to ensure religious freedom among the troops.

"There were several things that they found disgusting," Mikey Weinstein founder of the foundation said. "The first was the fact that there is actually a slide that makes it clear that they're trying to teach that, under fundamentalist Christian doctrine, war is a good thing."

Weinstein said his group had to act. "We were literally blown away by what we saw on the slide presentation. And one of the first things I did was to contact some of the most senior leadership for the Air Force in the Pentagon and made it very clear that this has to stop immediately," Weinstein said.

The Air Force said headquarters officials were not aware of the religious component of the ethics course, despite it being taught for nearly two decades by chaplains. . . . A review is underway at the base to see if an ethics briefing is needed at all.

The Christianists can rail all they want about Islamic fundamentalists and extremists, but in truth they are just as serious a menace as their Islamic counterparts. They have truly turned Christianity into something very evil.

Army: Fort Eustis Soldiers "Erroneously" Punished Skipping Christian Concert

Back in August, 2010, we looked at the situation of U.S. Army troops who were punished for their refusal to attend the so-called "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts." Huffington Post also looked at the outrage here. This Christian rock concert series was paid for with U.S. Army funds at the orders of Christianist wingnut commanding general, Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers (pictured at right), who has said he "was reborn as a Christian" at the age of sixteen." Sadly, the Army has decided to slap the wrist of a junior officer who has been made the scapegoat rather than address the impropriety of the forced concert series itself and to take disciplinary action against General Chambers. The efforts of Christianists in the military to force their religious beliefs on others is wrong and, indeed, a violation of the U. S. Constitution. Officers like General Chambers need to be removed from the military or reduced in rank to t a level where they cannot pull these kinds of outrages. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot on the Army's effort to sweep the matter under the rug:

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A staff sergeant erred when he banished dozens of soldiers to their barracks and ordered them to clean up after they refused to attend a Christian concert on a Virginia Army base last year, an investigation concluded.
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The actions of the staff sergeant, who was not named, were referred back to his battalion commander for nonjudicial action, according to Col. Daniel T. Williams, a spokesman for the Army's Document and Training Command, who detailed the findings of the investigation in a telephone interview. He said any punishment, if it occurred, would be kept confidential.
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"The command did not find sufficient evidence to indicate there was any malicious intent and therefore deferred any discipline down to the battalion command," Williams said.
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Mike Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which first reported complaints by the soldiers, described the investigation's conclusion as typical for the military. "Blame some lower-ranking enlisted guy who didn't know any better," he said in an interview. "That is just a completely inappropriate and disgraceful statement." Weinstein called the Christian concerts "an absolute attempt to establish fundamental Christianity in the military."
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About 20 [soldiers] including several Muslims, refused to attend based on religious beliefs, the solder said. Since then, the Army has reinforced the volunteer nature of the concerts through e-mails and training, Williams said.
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Let's be blunt. The concert series needs to end and those who implemented it in the first place need to be disciplined. This resolution is a farce and all too typical of the U.S. military.

Pentagon to Probe Born-Again Christian Military Commander's Spending Taxpayer Dollars on Christian Proselytizing Events

Over the weekend I wrote about an incident at nearby Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia where service members reportedly were punish and confined to barracks when they refused to attend a Christian proselytizing event under the guise of a "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert." It turns out that this event - and apparently others - was the brain child of born-again Christian Gen. James E. Chambers (pictured at right). Headlining such events are acts like BarlowGirl - which charge tens of thousands of dollars - and researchers with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation ("MRFF") have discovered that the Department of Defense has awarded multi-million dollar contracts for consultants behind spiritual fitness events, the vast majority of which are evangelical Christian-based. Belatedly, the Pentagon is reported to be investigation these outrages. With Defense Secretary Gates proposing the elimination of commands - and often many civilian jobs associated with them, it is unconscionable that Christianists like General Chambers are squandering tax dollars on Christian proselytizing. Such event clearly are improper and forced attendance tramples the religious freedom of service members. Chambers needs to be relieved from his command and hopefully subjected to a court martial and forced resignation. Here are highlights from Truthout on the disturbing situation and supposed Pentagon investigation:
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The Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert that Smith and others were told to attend was headlined by BarlowGirl, a "band of tender-hearted, beautiful young women who aren't afraid to take an aggressive, almost warrior-like stance when it comes to spreading the gospel and serving God," according to the group's web site.
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The group Smith marched with included at least two Muslim soldiers who fell out of rank and stopped marching on their own, according to a first-hand account published by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).
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The concert was part of a series of "spiritual fitness" music events at Fort Eustis and nearby Fort Lee instituted by born-again Christian Gen. James E. Chambers, according to an article on the Army's web site. "They call them 'spiritual' events, but the vast majority of spiritual events are Christian-based," Smith said. Smith said that the events often involve Bible readings and testimonies from evangelicals.
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The Military Reigious Freedom Foundation and TruthOut have confirmed that $23,000 was paid to the BarlowGirls for the Fort Eustis concert. It also confirms that General Chambers is behind the proselytizing effort and that efforts were made to silence the complaining servicemembers. Of course, the obvious question is what in the Hell is the U.S. military doing funding events like this one? Here are highlights of these details:
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There's evidence to support that accusation. According to USASpending.gov, the Department of Defense (DoD) paid the BarlowGirl's talent agency, Greg Oliver Agency, $23,000 to perform. Vince Barlow, the band's manager and father, confirmed his daughters were paid that amount for two shows, one at Fort Eustis and the other at nearby Fort Lee.
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The brainchild of Maj. Gen. Chambers, the Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert series was created at Fort Eustis when he was the commanding general there. In June 2008, Chambers brought the Christian concert series to Fort Lee, when he became its commanding general.
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There isn't much doubt that the concert series promotes religious belief. Chambers admitted as much to Fort Lee Public Affairs. "The idea is not to be a proponent for any one religion," he said. "It's to have a mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds."
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But Smith says he hasn't heard of any act performing who wasn't Christian. "I never once heard of a Muslim event or an atheist event," he said. "The vast majority of them have to be Christian events."
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According to MRFF, the DoD has spent at least $300,000 on Christian musical acts for these events. For instance, since 2008, the DoD has paid $125,000 to the Street Level Artists Agency, which describes its mission as "Christian radicals ... bringing the Gospel into the rock 'n roll vernacular of the common man," for performances at Forts Eustis and Lee since 2008, according to records on USASpending.gov. The agency represents Christian performers like David Phelps and Phil Keaggy, both of whom have played the concert series.
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On the morning before a concert performance at Fort Lee, Congressman J. Randy Forbes (R-Virginia) joined Chambers at a national prayer breakfast. Forbes addressed the attendees and was effusive in his praise for Chambers. "General, you have thanked a lot of people today, and I just want to thank you," he said according to the Fort Lee Traveler. "I want to thank you because in a world where it is so easy to back away from one's faith you have shown not only the courage to train and equip our Army to fight and defend freedom but to stand for faith across America."
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"MRFF has one simple message to our Commander in Chief and the Pentagon he controls," Weinstein said. "Show the world that we still have the noble capacity to be the Good Guys; subject Ft. Eustis Commander, Maj Gen Chambers to immediate trial by general courts martial for his blatant violations of the most foundational rubrics of the oath he swore to the United States Constitution."

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Frankly, I am not surprised to see that my law school classmate, Congressman Randy Forbes, was kissing Gen. Chambers' ass. I'm not sure where or when it happened, but I'd swear someone abducted Forbes and subjected him to a "Stepford Wife" like treatment that turned him into a religious extremist nut case.

Fort Eustis Troops Punished For Refusing to Attend Christian Concert

I have written a number of times about something that I believe to be a serious threat to the U.S. military and constitutional freedoms: the presence of Christo-fascists in leadership ranks of the U.S. military. These individuals seek to force their Christianist beliefs on those serving under them and at times punish troops who rightfully refuse to participate in Christian ceremonies and events. The Air Force Academy has experience major problems in this regard as have other units throughout the military. Now, the phenomenon has raised its ugly head at nearby Fort Eustis. To me the solution to the problem is simple: Members of the military have sworn to uphold and protect the United States Constitution which GUARANTEES freedom of religion to all, not just far right Christians. Therefore, when anyone in a command position in the military intimidates and/or punishes those who do abide by or participate in that officer's religious beliefs, that officer needs to be subject to court martial and hopefully dishonorably discharged from the military immediately, losing all retirement benefits. Were that to happen a few times, I suspect the religious fanatics in the ranks would start to get the message - they do NOT have the special rights to inflict their religious beliefs on others serving under them. Period. Here are highlights from the Virginian Plot on this travesty(NOTE: The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has more information here):
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The Army said Friday it was investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band's concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up. Fort Eustis spokesman Rick Haverinen told The Associated Press he couldn't comment on the specifics of the investigation. At the Pentagon, Army spokesman Col. Thomas Collins said the military shouldn't impose religious views on soldiers.
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Pvt. Anthony Smith said he and other soldiers felt pressured to attend the May concert while stationed at the Newport News base, home of the Army's Transportation Corps. "My whole issue was I don't need to be preached at," Smith said in a phone interview from Phoenix, where he is stationed with the National Guard. "That's not what I signed up for."
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Smith, 21, was stationed in Virginia for nearly seven months for helicopter electrician training when the Christian rock group BarlowGirl played as part of the "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts." Smith said a staff sergeant told 200 men in their barracks they could either attend or remain in their barracks. Eighty to 100 decided not to attend, he said. "Instead of being released to our personal time, we were locked down," Smith said. "It seemed very much like a punishment."
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The Military Religious Freedom Foundation first reported on the Christian concert. . . The group's president, Mikey Weinstein, claims Christian-themed events are "ubiquitous" throughout the military, and he credited the soldiers for stepping forward. "Whenever we see this egregious, unconstitutional religious tyranny our job is to fight it," he said.
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About 20 of the men, including several Muslims, refused to attend the concert based on their religious beliefs, he said. Smith said he went up the chain of command and traced the concert edict to a captain, who said he simply wanted to "show support for those kind of events that bring soldiers together."
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While not accepting blame, the officer apologized to the soldiers who refused to attend the concert and said it was not his intent to proselytize, he said. "But once you get in there, you realize it's evangelization," Smith said.
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WTF is with "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts" in the first place? Why are taxpayers underwriting these types of events? Obviously, some heads need to roll at Fort Eustis and elsewhere throughout the U.S. Military. This behavior is wrong and insults the Constitution that the U.S. military is supposed to be supporting.

Evangelical Proselytizing in The Military

Lost in the current coverage of the fray between LGBT Americans and the DNC/Obama is a serious story in Newsweek that in some ways may explain some of the opposition to repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell ("DADT") within the military: the growing influence of far right evangelical Christians within the armed forces. I have written about this problem before because (a) it threatens the right to freedom of religion for our service members and (ii) it has the potential to seriously alienate citizens of countries with non-Christian populations. Now, Newsweek looks more in depth at this growing problem which is intensifying as evangelical chaplains increasing infiltrate the military. Combined with the far right lunacy of some of the senior officer corps and it is a recipe for trouble. Here are some story highlights:

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The growing controversy over military chaplains using the armed forces to spread the Word. . . Ever since former president George W. Bushreferred to the war on terror as a “crusade” in the days after the September 11 attacks, many have charged that the United States was conducting a holy war, pitting a Christian America against the Muslim world. That perception grew as prominent military leaders such as Lt. Gen. William Boykin described the wars in evangelical terms, casting the U.S. military as the "army of God."

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A May article in Harper’s by Jeff Sharlet illustrated a military engaged in an internal battle over religious practice. Then came news about former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Scripture-themed briefings to President Bush that paired war scenes with Bible verses. . . . Later in May, Al-Jazeera broadcast clips filmed in 2008 showing stacks of Bibles translated into Pashto and Dari at the U.S. air base in Bagram and featuring the chief of U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, telling soldiers to “hunt people for Jesus.”

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In the aftermath of that report, the Pentagon responded that it had confiscated and destroyed the Bibles and said there was no effort to convert Afghans. But while the military dismissed the Bagram Bibles as an isolated incident, a civil-rights watchdog group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), says this is not the case.

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According to the group's president, Mikey Weinstein, a cadre of 40 U.S. chaplains took part in a 2003 project to distribute 2.4 million Arabic-language Bibles in Iraq. This would be a serious violation of U.S. military Central Command's General Order Number One forbidding active-duty troops from trying to convert people to any religion.

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The effort is an example of what critics call a growing culture of militarized Christianity in the armed forces. It is influenced in part by changes in outlook among the various branches' 2,900 chaplains, who are sworn to serve all soldiers, regardless of religion, with a respectful, religiously pluralistic approach. However, with an estimated two thirds of all current chaplains affiliated with evangelical and Pentecostal denominations, which often prioritize conversion and evangelizing, . . . This imbalance was exacerbated by regulation revisions in the 1980s that helped create hundreds of new "endorsing agencies" that brought a flood of evangelical chaplains into the military

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Among the "endorsing agencies" is CFGC, which represents a conglomeration of independent Pentecostal churches outside established denominations. The group was accepted as a chaplain-endorsing agency by the Department of Defense in 1984, two years after it first applied. Since 1984, MRFF charges, Ammerman's agency has violated numerous codes that govern chaplaincies, including a constant denigration of other religions, particularly Islam, Judaism, mainline Protestantism and Catholicism, but also non-Pentecostal evangelical churches.

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Weinstein, an Air Force veteran who founded MRFF in 2005 after both he and his sons say they encountered anti-Semitic harassment and proselytizing in the service, has waged legal battles against what he sees as an improper mingling of church and state in the military, including a current lawsuit against the Department of Defense alleging service members' compulsory attendance at military functions that include sectarian Christian prayers and a broader "pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense and the United States Army."

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MRFF is calling, in a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, to strip the CFGC of its endorsing authority and to investigate its chaplains for various code violations. But they fear the Obama administration will not press this issue given the announced replacement of Army Secretary Pete Geren with Rep. John McHugh, a New York Republican with a conservative record on church-state separation issues.

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I believe that this is a very serious issue and I have little faith in the Obama administration's ability to reign in the out of control evangelical and pentecostal chaplains.

U.S. Denies Letting Military Troops Proselytizing Afghans

I have written before about the problem of Christianists infiltrating the U.S. military, particularly the Air Force Academy. Now the efforts to convert others by religious zealots in the military has spread overseas and are creating controversy and resentment in Afghanistan, not to mention helping to foster the image that the USA is an a contest against Islam, not just terrorist regimes. Sadly, too many in the senior command positions in the military lack the guts to crack down on the Christian extremists or worse yet, agree with the efforts to convert Muslims. All of this shows how crucial it is that secular government and a secular military be reestablished to protect not only civil and religious liberties for US citizens, but also to avoid religious controversies overseas. One cannot depend on the Christian fanatics to discipline themselves, so others must do so. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

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KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military denied Monday it has allowed soldiers to try to convert Afghans to Christianity, after a television network showed pictures of soldiers with bibles translated into local languages. General Order Number 1 from the U.S. military's Central Command forbids active duty troops -- including all those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to their religion, considered a crime in many Muslim countries.

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Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed footage of a church service at Bagram, the main U.S. base north of the Afghan capital Kabul, in which soldiers had a stack of bibles in the local languages, Pashtu and Dari. A military chaplain was shown delivering a sermon to other soldiers, saying: "The special forces guys -- they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down."
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But a U.S. military spokeswoman, Major Jennifer Willis, said the comments from the sermon were taken out of context and chaplains were told to make clear to soldiers that they could not proselytize while serving. . . . . Trying to convert Muslims to any other faith is a crime in Afghanistan. An Afghan man who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2006 but was allowed to leave the country after an international uproar.

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Perhaps I am too cynical as a result of living in an area with a large military presence, but I seriously doubt the military would confess even if active proselytizing had been occurring on a widespread basis.