This story concerns top Pentagon officials' promotion of a fundamentalist, warlike version of Christianity and the fact that those leaders of the American military, when challenged with accusations that their participation in and hence endorsement - of a promotional fund raising video by a partisan fundamentalist group called "Christian Embassy" that evangelizes in the Pentagon - violated Defense Department regulations and was unconstitutional, made up excuses, for their trampling of the First Amendment, that would have embarrassed many two year olds. But Make no mistake: this is no joke, because it concerns a radical [1] fundamentalist [2] effort to gain control of the most powerful military on Earth. Consider the implication of an address by Brigadier General Jack Catton [now a Major General] at an October 22, 2003 Pentagon Prayer Breakfast, co-sponsored by Christian Embassy and the Pentagon Chaplain: "Leadership For Christ in the Pentagon", especially in light of the "spiritual warfare" ideas laced into Christian Embassy's Bible lesson plans...
*[1],[2] : see footnotes at the end of this post.
Here's my previous installment of this breaking story, But for a quick overview, "Christian Embassy" is a fundamentalist group that evangelizes in the Pentagon, and at any given point there are as many as twenty or so high level Pentagon military officers and civilians leading regular "Christian Embassy" Bible study lessons. Christian Embassy lesson plans use terms such as "spiritual warfare", call faith a "force multiplier", have titles such as "Warfare in Christ", and include lessons on "wifely submission". Christian Embassy's website has featured a description of "grace" rendered in the tale of an adult belt-whipping a child.
NOTE: This story has nothing to do with "Christianity in general" but, rather, with a subset of Christianity that advocates 1) a "theology of war", 2) Fundamentalism (a 'literal' reading of the Bible, to be specific), 3) The subservient role of women, and is 4) entrained with the political agenda of the Bush Administration.
Most, if not all, of the Pentagon officials who appeared in the Christian Embassy video have since received career promotions. For example, Pete Geren is now Secretary of The United States Army, and Bob Caslen is Commandant of Cadets at West Point
Hi. I'm Bruce Wilson, co-founder of Talk To Action. If you value this work and want to see it continue, please make a donation to Mikey Weinstein's Military Religious Freedom Foundation. This is not a heavily endowed effort, and I'd personally like to be able to continue bringing such abuses to light.
Yesterday MRFF's research team, Liars For Jesus author Chris Rodda and I, unearthed a whole new dimension of the "Christian Embassy" video scandal, and Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein appeared on CNN several times during the day discussing new evidence to substantiate the case that the top Pentagon officials who appeared in the "Christian Embassy" video, to promote the work of that group in pushing its fundamentalist warfare theology among the leaders of the most powerful military on the planet, were brazenly lying when they claimed they didn't understand what the goal of "Christian Embassy" was.
(click on image to watch video)
Top Pentagon officials appear to think they can get away with pissing on the foundational document of American government. They apparently think Americans and the media won't notice.
Well, they seem to be largely right about the media - in fact, as I was typing this I heard a morning National Public Radio cover of the Pentagon General's Report and, although I was gratified by the fact that the otherwise rather perfunctory cover thought to mention the fact that "Christian Embassy" was co-founded by the founder of Campus Crusade For Christ, Bill Bright, NPR's coverage was typical of mainstream media coverage of this story ; it said nothing at all about the sheer absurdity of the excuses that the Pentagon officers who appeared in the Christian Embassy video made for their actions. They claimed they didn't know what the video was to be used for or even that they didn't know what Christian Embassy's organizational goals were.
But, as it turns out, most of the Pentagon military officers who appeared in the Christian Embassy were more than familiar with the group - Three of the officers have given Pentagon "Discipleship" Bible study classes using Christian Embassy's lesson plans, while two others have given "Prayer Breakfast" speeches co-sponsored by Christian Embassy.
So, apparently neither the Pentagon's Inspector General or the mainstream media has bothered to dig very far into this scandal. Maybe they'll be inspired now to have another look. We'll see.
*******
Last Friday, the Christian Embassy video scandal broke open again in the form of a Pentagon Inspector General's report [see Truthout story linked for full PDF of report] which concluded that Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, Army Brig. Gen. Bob Caslen, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, and two other officers whose names were redacted "improperly endorsed and participated with a non-Federal entity while in uniform".
The Pentagon officials who participated in the Christian Embassy video told the Pentagon Inspector General that they were confused about the status of "Christian Embassy" because the organization had been given free reign in the Pentagon for 25 years. Christian Embassy members had badges to enter the Pentagon unescorted, with guests, and one Pentagon official who appeared in Christian Embassy's video claimed he was under the impression that Christian Embassy was a "quasi governmental"agency.
'Quasi governmental' ? My ass.
Here's Christian Embassy's description of its mission, straight from the slick fundraising video infommercial our government paid Pentagon employees starred in :
"There are over 25,000 Department of Defense leaders working in the rings and corridors of the Pentagon. Through Bible studies, discipleship, prayer breakfasts, and outreach evens, Christian Embassy is mustering these men and women into an intentional relationship with Jesus Christ."
So, maybe the Pentagon officials who appeared in Christian Embassy's video to proclaim their exuberance about the group's mission of spreading a Biblical fundamentalist "warfare theology" version of Christianity didn't actually ever watch the video they starred in ?
They can tell that to the Pentagon Inspector General but new evidence blows that mealy mouthed mendacity out of the water...
Here's why.
Today, Chris Rodda and I have determined the following, from schedules that were advertised on Christian Embassy's own website:
Bob Caslen, Lucius Morton, Cynthia Islin, along with dozens of other high ranking Pentagon officials, have led Christian Embassy’s "Weekly Discipleship Study Groups", teaching out of Christian Embassy’s lesson plans that have printed right at the top "Our Mission: To win, build, and send Department of Defense leaders to live for Jesus Christ."
Jack Catton and Pete Sutton have both given Prayer Breakfast talks co-sponsored by Christian Embassy and the Pentagon Chaplain, and Catton’s October 22, 2003 talk was entitled "Leadership For Christ in the Pentagon".
Meet your new Christian theocratic military leadership...
The Turkish military wasn't at all confused about the goals of Christian Embassy :
Turkish Military Alarmed Over Erosion Of Church State Separation in United States
Turkey has long been a solid ally of the United States, and Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, has had a tradition, since the founding of the modern Turkish nation by Kamil Attaturk, of strong church state separation. Here's how much Turks value secular government:
[ABC News, Sunday April 29, 2007] Police said more than 1 million people rallied in Istanbul on Sunday in defence of Turkey's secular system and against the military's threat of intervention amid a political crisis over presidential elections.
"Turkey is secular and will stay that way," chanted the protestors, who carried Turkish flags and portraits of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
"We want neither Sharia, nor a coup, but a fully democratic Turkey," they said.
It appears that Turks now have a better understand of church state separation than do Americans, who invented the concept. American Democratic Party politicians have recently taken up the GOP's longstanding habit of bashing secularists and secularism, in apparent ignorance that the historic innovation of secular government, by America's Founders, may well be responsible for the extraordinary continuity of the governmental system they designed. Religious strife tends to undermine governmental systems.
So, how do Turks view the "Christian Embassy" video ?
On page 14 of the Pentagon Inspector General's report, written up from the investigation of the Christian Embassy video scandal, we find the following :
"Maj Gen Sutton testified that while in Turkey in his current position, his Turkish driver approached him with an article in the Turkish newspaper "Sabah". That article featured a photograph of Major General Sutton in uniform and described him as a member of a radical fundamentalist sect. The article in the online edition of Sabeh also included still photographs taken from the Christian Embassy video. Major Gen Sutton's duties in Ankara included establishing good relations with his counterparts on the Turkish General Staff. Maj Gen Sutton testified that Turkey is a predominantly Muslim nation, with religious matters being kept strictly separate from matters of state. He said that when the article was published in Sabeh, it caused his Turkish counterparts concern and a number of Turkish general officers asked him to explain his participation in the video." [emphasis mine]
How much damage has the Christian Embassy video done, in convincing Islamic countries in the Middle East that the United States is truly bent on a bloody religious crusade in the region ?
Postscript:
In the 1970's, when MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein was a cadet, along with Jack Catton, in the United States Air Force Academy, both took a course called "Law For Commmanders" and studied the First Amendment. Teaching the First Amendment in that key USAF course is now optional for USAF instructors.
Since they graduated, both Jack Catton and Mikey Weinstein have enjoyed considerable career success, but there is a key distinction to be made between the two men :
While Catton now appears to be promoting the spread of a warlike form of Christian fundamentalism within the US military and the US government, Weinstein has taken a radically different route and spent a large part of his personal fortune in the defense of the United States Constitution and the protection of religious liberty not just for fundamentalist Christians but for all Americans, of every religious and philosophical belief.
If you like this work and want to see it continue, please consider making a donation to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
FOOTNOTES :
[1] Christian Embassy is fundamentalist. From the current Christian Embassy "Statement of Faith" :
Christian Embassy is a part of Campus Crusade for Christ International. The following is the organization's statement of faith.
The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God's infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.
[2] Christian Embassy has a radical agenda:
Writing for the Village Voice in 1999, Claire Barliant summarized the political roots of Bill Bright's "Campus Crusade For Christ" and its offshoot, Christian Embassy:
Campus Crusade was founded in 1951 at UCLA by Bill Bright, a businessman who experienced a call to preach in 1948. At its inception, Bright imitated communist recruitment tactics, and promoted his ministry as a revolutionary movement. In the '70s, Bright described his group as a "conspiracy to overthrow the world." Sara Diamond, an authority on right-wing movements, asserts that "Bright's goal was to recruit young people away from the Left and into a conservative brand of Christianity." In 1975, Bright fronted a group of businessmen in the purchase of a mansion in Washington, D.C. Calling it the "Christian Embassy," he staffed it with Campus Crusaders who offered religious guidance to pols.
As described in Jeff Sharlet's story Inside Christian Embassy -- an exclusive interview, Christian Embassy promotes a heavily politicized, right wing version of Christianity and seems to hold that there was Biblical justification for the US invasion of Iraq.