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A few days ago, Def Agent ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lorilori hipped me to the US Army Afghanistan Crusades video.
You know: the one from Al-Jazeera that showed documentary footage from Brian Hughes in which US Army chaplains stationed in the U.S. air base at Bagram are discussing how to distribute copies of the Bible printed in Pashto and Dari to local Muslims and convert them to Jesus.
Yes, the one where Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, tells soldiers that, as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him".
Like so.
Initially I wasn’t going to post it. I mean, yes, it’s dangerously stupid behavior that will create more problems than it solves – especially when the messengers represent an organization trained to invade countries and violently kill people, and don’t always necessarily manage to limit the death-dealing to soldiers. And it’s hard to believe people who support this kind of thing don’t see the contradiction in soldiers professing love and brotherhood in the same country where they’re killing off people motivated by a different religion.
On the other hand, the notion of the Pentagon having an evangelical wing is Really Old News. Even the doc footage shown by Al-Jazeera was a year old.
However, the fallout has been fun. The Pentagon accused Al-Jazeera of taking the remarks out of context. Then Al-Jazeera released the unedited video proving that, actually, no they didn’t. Now the Army says okay, fine, but we confiscated those Bibles before anyone could distribute them, so see? We don’t proselytize.
Yes.
Hang on ... confiscating Bibles? From US soldiers?
Cue conservative howling over the liberals hating the troops and persecuting harmless Christians in 3, 2, 1 ...
Obama kowtows to Islam! New World Order!
And so on.
You better believe,
This is dF
lorilori hipped me to the US Army Afghanistan Crusades video. You know: the one from Al-Jazeera that showed documentary footage from Brian Hughes in which US Army chaplains stationed in the U.S. air base at Bagram are discussing how to distribute copies of the Bible printed in Pashto and Dari to local Muslims and convert them to Jesus.
Yes, the one where Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, tells soldiers that, as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him".
"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. Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business."
Like so.
Initially I wasn’t going to post it. I mean, yes, it’s dangerously stupid behavior that will create more problems than it solves – especially when the messengers represent an organization trained to invade countries and violently kill people, and don’t always necessarily manage to limit the death-dealing to soldiers. And it’s hard to believe people who support this kind of thing don’t see the contradiction in soldiers professing love and brotherhood in the same country where they’re killing off people motivated by a different religion.
On the other hand, the notion of the Pentagon having an evangelical wing is Really Old News. Even the doc footage shown by Al-Jazeera was a year old.
However, the fallout has been fun. The Pentagon accused Al-Jazeera of taking the remarks out of context. Then Al-Jazeera released the unedited video proving that, actually, no they didn’t. Now the Army says okay, fine, but we confiscated those Bibles before anyone could distribute them, so see? We don’t proselytize.
Yes.
Hang on ... confiscating Bibles? From US soldiers?
Cue conservative howling over the liberals hating the troops and persecuting harmless Christians in 3, 2, 1 ...
Obama kowtows to Islam! New World Order!
And so on.
You better believe,
This is dF
