GI's Told To Bring Afghans To Jesus

[Mr. Ected]

U.S. soldiers have been encouraged to spread the message of their Christian faith among Afghanistan's predominantly Muslim population, video footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to show.

Military chaplains stationed in the U.S. air base at Bagram were also filmed with Bibles printed in the country's main Pashto and Dari languages.

In one recorded sermon, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, the chief of the U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling 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," he says.

"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business."

http://www.theglobalreport.org/?section=news&news_section=19#GIstoldtobringAfghanstoJesus

[jobycom]

1. Why would Jesus need anyone to bring him a blanket?

:shrug:

[leftstreet]

2. omg

:spray: :spray: :spray:

[LynneSin]

5. Perhaps Jesus just wanted a 4-legged friend for a pet....

[jobycom]

7. Maybe. But couldn't he just make one?

[Mr. Ected]

10. So Much For the War On Terriers. n/t

[ashling]

15. He would probably appreciate a Snuggie

one of you get on that right away :)

Snuggies For Jesus

:rofl:

[JitterbugPerfume]

3. and we wonder why they hate us?

[bif]

4. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?

That's just wrong. Period.To them it must be like the Crusades all over again. Killing in the name of Christ. That's fucked up.

[jobycom]

6. Kill their leaders, convert them to Christianity.

Ann Coulter, after 9-11: "We should invade Arab countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Looks like she was writing national policy more than just a disgusting column.

[malaise]

9. So what has changed in 500 plus years?

Same shit different day

[jobycom]

11. Even less than you'd think.

I did a lot of research on the Crusades back in grad school. The normal way undergrads are taught the Crusades is as a religious war with territorial overtones, but that's as simplistic as saying we invaded Iraq to liberate its people. The Pope used religious outrage and promises of land to incite the crowds, but his desire to invade was incited by the Byzantines, and their goal seems to have been more to control the trade routes to China. There were three main routes, and they all wound up at the east end of the Mediterranean, thus they all passed through Muslim lands. Even the history of the occupation reveals an obsession with the trade routes. The priests who kept chronicles only saw the religious side of it, but the actions of the leaders in Byzantium, Rome, the Italian trade states like Venice and Genoa, and even the Christian lords in conquered territories, show that it was all about control of the world trade routes. All about money.

Now we want their oil, back then we wanted their gold and spices and silks. Religion is just the way the leaders divide and incite the people.

[malaise]

19. There's only one line that matters

Follow the money.

[LynneSin]

14. 500? Tried 2000. That was Paul's philosphy too - he was the First Christian Fundamentalist

Remember Jesus wasn't even a Christian - he was a Jew.

[malaise]

18. Good point n/t

[peace frog]

8. Seems the "winning of hearts and minds" of old

has taken on a new and disturbingly evangelical turn. "Praise the lord and convert the heathen", yeah that's the ticket. :eyes:

[Ilsa]

12. So, it's either convert them or kill them? That's what Special Forces

does now? My FIL was in SF. He had fun rapelling from helocopters and stuff like that. If they told him he'd have to witness to foreigners, he would have quit.

[Jim__]

13. The May issue of Harpers has a good article on the Christianization fo the American military.

Unfortunately, only a blurb is available online:

Jesus killed Mohammed:
The crusade for a Christian military

By Jeff Sharlet

When Sergeant Jeffery Humphrey and his squad of nine men, part of the 1/26 Infantry of the 1st Infantry Division, were assigned to a Special Forces compound in Samarra, he thought they had drawn a dream duty. “Guarding Special Forces, it was like Christmas,” he says. In fact, it was spring, 2004; and although Humphrey was a combat veteran of Kosovo and Iraq, the men to whom he was detailed, the 10th Special Forces Group, were not interested in grunts like him. They would not say what they were doing, and they used code names. They called themselves “the Faith element.” But they did not talk religion, which was fine with Humphrey.

[peace frog]

17. "Onward Christian Soldiers"

takes on a whole new, creepy dimension from the beloved hymn of my childhood memories. On the other hand, I shouldn't be so taken aback by this, it's the world Dubya the Jeezus Freak set out to make 9 years ago. Still it's just,,,,,UGH.

[sarcasmo]

16. Wrong on so many levels.

[LWolf]

20. The Crusades. Again.

Our tax money, our national budget, so many lives squandered on spreading xtianity from a nation that is expressly forbidden to "make laws respecting an establishment of religion."

So, we can't legislate religion, but we can make war to establish it elsewhere.

[Vidar]

21. Lt. Col. Gary Hensley needs to go on human mine sweeper duty.