This diary is still running on the Recommended list here, STOP! READ! LOOK AT SHOCKING PHOTO! U.S. Army Officially Recruits for ‘Mission for God’ Several readers have been concerned that this was a photoshop of the offensive words, "On a Mission for Both God and Country" so I contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation in New Mexico.
I just got off the phone with Mikey Weinstein, who asked me to convey his response which were words to this effect:
"It's an actual poster that has been around for several months, We hired a photographer to shoot the pictures (there are several) and chose to copyright it. It is legitimate. I wanted to show the picture to get the public's attention, so didn't go into all of these details."
When I asked if it was authorized above the local recruiting level he assured me that it was, as he has close friends in the department responsible for such material, and he felt certain it would have been approved by someone with a rank of at least a colonel.
My take on this is after the break:
I hope that this message goes beyond those of us on this website, who are mostly secular and opposed to any religious dominionism of any kind. Even if this recruiting sign were more subtle, at this time more than ever it is more starkly contrary to what our country is founded on. With current atrocities by ISIS in the Middle East , and Boko Haram in Africa, we have descended into a world war against an enemy that is not defined by any national boundaries. Rather it is against those who in their own loss of purpose seek one that is beyond rational discourse, fueled by the delusion that they are following the edicts of a God with instructions for humanity that all must obey.
For most of the last century the national enemy of this country, and much of the West happened to be atheistic communism, where a recruiting message "for God and Country" sharpened the distinction with this ideology. Now those who embrace an all powerful God are our most savage enemies, who unite in blind obedience to such an imaginary force, and are willing to slaughter those who do not succumb to his will.
It is at this moment in history that the message of that recruiting sign takes on a new level of perniciousness. Now more than ever is the time for us to return to the secular roots of our national Constitution. "If conquer we must," it must be for a world of rationality that refutes any Caliphate, any country, or any distortion of a tradition that dares to go to war under the banner of "For Both God and Country."
Al Rodbell