This is the fourth in a series of posts about U.S. Army Lt. General Brian Eifler, the Pentagon general who the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has been exposing over the last few months as being involved in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and having disturbingly close personal ties to high-profile election deniers and Jan. 6 supporters.
I also reported back in September that, in response to MRFF’s demand, the Army IG had opened an investigative inquiry into this 3-star Christian dominionist general and his active support of people and movements that seek to end democracy as we know it and transform our country into a fundamentalist Christian theocracy.
In this post we’re going to look at some of the schemes initiated by Lt. General Eifler, as Commanding General, 11th Airborne Division/Deputy Commander, United States Alaskan Command, to bring the soldiers under his command to Jesus.
In my last post I wrote about Lt. General Eifler getting his evangelist buddy Victor Marx — a man who said “I truly believe Charlie Kirk is the most important man in America for the future of our nation” — a DoD contract to come to Alaska as part of his “Targeted Soul Care” campaign and made it mandatory for all personnel under his command to go listen to him.
That was just the tip of the iceberg.
During his three-year command in Alaska, from July 2021 to June 2024, Lt. General Eifler imposed a literal religious test on the troops, collecting detailed religious data on all in-processing soldiers as well as other soldiers at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) and Fort Wainwright (FWA) via a Spiritual Readiness Assessment (SRA).
The collection of this detailed religious data began in July 2022. The following February 2023 e-mail from the 11th Airborne Division’s Spiritual Readiness Operations Chaplain shows not only what data they were collecting, but that no matter how many times they call it Spiritual Readiness and insist that spiritual doesn’t necessarily mean religious, it absolutely does mean religious, especially when the commander is a religious zealot
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL: 2/11 SRA Results (8 DEC-31 JAN) (UNCLASSIFIED)
We started collecting SRA data toward the end of July. That means that we have just surpassed 6 months of collecting data. We have over 970 completed surveys over that time. Approximately 200 were from an event that 1-25 AB conducted in August, which means that we have had about 770 inprocessing Soldiers complete the SRA.
Today, I am providing a review of the SRA Results from 8 DEC to 31 JAN.
We had 220 SRAS completed since 8 DEC (6.5 weeks) -- 42 in JBER and 178 in FWA.
OVERALL DATA:
Average SRA score is 8.1 (8.2 in AUG, 8.1 in SEP, 8.3 in OCT, 8.1 in NOV/DEC)
57% scored High (above 8) -- (compare: 61% in AUG, 58% in SEP, 66% in OCT, 60% in NOV/DEC)
32% scored Medium (between 6-8) -- (compare: 30% in AUG, 36% in SEP, 27% in OCT, 32% in NOV/DEC) 11% scored Low (below 6) -- (compare: 9% in AUG, 7% in SEP, 6% in OCT, 8% in NOV/DEC)
82% believe in God or Higher Power (compare: 76% in AUG, 75% in SEP, 81% in OCT, 81% in NOV/DEC)
40% are VERY open to speaking with a Chaplain (9 or 10) -- (compare: 40% in AUG, 38% in SEP, 43% in OCT, 44% in NOV/DEC)
63% are MOSTLY open to speaking with a Chaplain (above 6) – (compare: 60% in AUG, 76% in SEP, 75% in OCT, 65% in NOV/DEC)
Lowest Scored Question in first section:
"I often think about a 'grand plan' or process that human beings are a part of" (7.5) - Same as NOV/DEC Lowest Scored Question in second section:
"Religious beliefs are what really lie behind my whole approach to life" (7.0) - Same as NOV/DEC
Highest Scored Question in first section:
"Human value and respect should be the greatest social value" (9.1) - Same as NOV/DEC
Highest Scored Question in second section:
"I am grateful for all God has done for me" (8.7) – Same as NOV/DEC
Do you see yourself as Spiritual/Religious/Both/Neither?
14% Spiritual (24% in AUG, 22% in SEP,
26% in OCT, 22% in NOV/DEC) - Lowest Spiritual % since start of SRA
26% Religious (16% in AUG, 15% in SEP, 14% in OCT. 20% in NOV/DEC) - Highest Religious % since start of SRA
34% Both (31% in AUG, 38% in SEP, 33% in OCT. 33% in NOV/DEC)
26% Neither (29% in AUG, 25% in SEP, 27% in OCT, 25% in NOV/DEC)
Blessings,
(Chaplain’s name withheld, although he probably doesn’t deserve that courtesy)
Just like the Army’s failed Spiritual Fitness Test back in 2011, which MRFF fought tooth and nail to put an end to, told non-religious soldiers they weren’t fit to serve and led to incidents such as soldiers being forced against their will to see a chaplain if they failed this religious test, Lt. General Eifler’s Spiritual Readiness Assessment religious data collection imposed (and continues to impose) an unconstitutional religious test on Alaska’s soldiers.
Lt. General Eifler’s religious test didn’t stop when he left Alaska. This is from an order issued in September, three months after Lt. General Eifler left for his new job at the Pentagon (emphasis added):
(9) All UMTs will utilize the 11th ABN Spiritual Readiness Assessment (SRA) as a tool to assess the spiritual readiness of all assigned Soldiers. BDE UMTs will ensure 100% completion by 01 Sep 25. Every assigned Soldier will take the SRA a minimum of once year in order to be considered current. UMTs will utilize the spreadsheet found in the Division Reporting SOP to record Soldier scores and unit averages.
And lest anybody think that this religious tracking of soldiers was the brainchild of the chaplains and not Lt. General Eifler himself, these next two e-mails will dispel that thought.
This first one is a November 2022 e-mail from the command chaplain to the other chaplains four months after starting the collection of religious data on the troops. As you can see, the chaplain’s e-mail begins by saying that it was the “CG” (commanding general) who wanted chaplains intruding on the soldiers’ free time and weekends by praying through the barracks:
Subject: Initiating Praying through the Barracks
All,
The CG wants chaplains praying through the barracks. We have another weekend quickly upon us and I would like to have chaplains and religious affairs volunteer to pray through the barracks starting this Friday and through the weekend.
Please reach out to your UMTs to compile a list and send to me tomorrow.
Partial list is fine to start and we can incorporate others for coordination. We must build teams of two.
CH (name withheld) and CH (name withheld), I want to coordinate this with you (or your rep) also since these are mostly your Soldiers and barracks.
Thanks.
CH Nakazono
And there’s this one saying that “MG Eifler will have a sit down discussion” with the chaplains so they understand the “intent” of his barracks proselytizing:
Subject: WARNO: M100 Huddle with the MG Eifler concerning Ministry of Presence in Barracks
FYSA,
WARNO:
MG Eifler will have a sit down discussion in the main VTC @ 1600 on THURS (12 Jan 23) to make sure all involved understand intent of Ministry of presence in barracks both at FWA and JBER.
Attendance requested for all those on To/Cc lines:
Both 2/11 and 1/11 IBCT Chaplains and M100 involved in Barracks ministry.
(As of 6 Jan 23 only chaplains are required).
FWA personnel will need to arrange with appropriate VTC location for size of personnel. JBER personnel will need to meet in main VTC room in Bldg 1.
And, as if forcing soldiers to listen to chaplains praying in the barracks wasn’t enough, Lt. General Eifler also initiated the “High Achievement Project,” a series of mandatory training videos using the climb to the summit of Mt. Denali by group of soldiers, including a chaplain, as a metaphor.
There are four videos in this mandatory training: “High Achieving Leaders, “High Achieving Families,” ”High Achieving Squads,” and “High Achieving Souls.”
The first three videos are pretty innocuous, but the fourth of these mandatory videos, “High Achieving Souls,” features three chaplains — all Christian, of course — proselytizing away.
These are clips from the beginning and the end of Lt. General Eifler’s mandatory “High Achieving Souls” training video:
And last but certainly not least, Lt. General Eifler had Robert Roehl, one of the leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation’s “Alaska’s War Council” cell (an NAR group that counts Lt. General Eifler wife Sherry among its members), bless the 11th Airborne Division Division during its activation ceremony in June 2022, after which Roehl’s wife Eleanor, the Alaskan representative on NAR Apostle Cindy Jacobs’s Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, danced … and danced … and danced.
Those of you who read my first post about Lt. General Eifler might remember Robert and Eleanor Roehl from the following video clip from one of the “Alaska’s War Council” Zoom calls, which also features Lt. General Eifler’s wife Sherry:
I ended my last post about Lt. General Eifler with this sentence:
As I reported on September 25 the Army IG has opened an investigative inquiry into Lt. General Eifler in response to MRFF’s demand, but to end on a frightening note, if the unthinkable happens on election day and Trump gets into power and makes good on his vow to rid the military of “woke” generals, what we’ll be left with to lead our military will be generals of Eifler’s ilk.
Well, the unthinkable has, of course, now happened, and in the dark days to come Lt. General Eifler is unfortunately more likely to be promoted than punished as Donald J. Trump embarks on another four years of kissing the Christian nationalists’ asses to keep the Christian nationalists kissing the ass of Donald J. Trump.
It’s going to be a long four years.
