Monday, May 6, 2013

Pentagon to Court Martial Christians

Well, not really.  But then again, that is pretty much a what a huge number of the "News" websites are stating this last week.  I know, I said I would not do another post here about religion, but now, I just HAVE to.  I often wonder what is wrong with AmeriKa today, and it is things like this that show me.  When I first read the headline that the US military would court martial any soldier for expressing their Christian beliefs, I was astounded.  (I read it from HealthNews.com) Doing a quick search for that headline brought up, well, several hundred thousand restatements on differing highly highly right wing Christian "NEWS" websites.  There are HUNDREDS, if not thousands of these websites, and if you glance at them and just look at the crazy crap they are promoting as news, it is frightening.

So anyway, I went to the Fox News website and tried to search for the initial article from them that all of these crazy "News" sites refer to as the ones that began the story that the US military would court martial any soldier caught proselytizing their Christian faith to other military members.  The little video clip shows this former retired General Boykin of the Family Research Council ranting about the godless commie pinko Mikey Weinstein who is an activist and did in fact raise a stink about what should be done if military personnel begin to attempt to coerce other members of the military into the Christian faith.  Proselytizing.  Coercion.  Which, in my book, is wrong.  And certainly all of this comes about in the wake of two radical Muslims bombing the Boston Marathon.  As far as I am concerned, Mr. Weinstein is looking out for the rights of non-Christians to observe their own faith in the military and not have to worry about being pressured into becoming Christian, as might just be happening.   Former General Boykin talked about how proselytizing is preaching, and talked at length and with fervent furor that the backbone of the military is based on the religious right to practice your faith and it will be impossible to recruit new soldiers if they are unable to practice freedom of religion.  And he also made a big deal about the definition of the word proselytizing to him meant to believe and practice your faith.  Hmmmm. when I look up the word proselytizing in the dictionary, the definition is "convert, or attempt to convert".  How does that measure up to retired General Boykin's belief that the First Amendment gives everyone the freedom to believe in the religion of their choosing? (clip)

I know some military people, and let's face it, right now, with the terrorist feelings the way they are, the anti any religion other than Christianity thought processes are pretty tight.  Everywhere.  Not all Muslims are terrorists, let's try to remember that, just like not all Christians are KKK members that bomb abortion clinics and bomb federal buildings or stockpile thousands of military style weapons in preparation for who knows what, or starts crazy wildly off kilter religious websites that report unbelievably jaded views of the "NEWS" as they see it and as fit into their off kilter view of the world.  Okay, I'm not a Christian.  I don't care if other people are, my own brother is right wing born again fanatic Christian.  And let's face it, I can't join the military, there are age limits, and broken down old men like me are not what they are looking for.  But if I was to join the military right now, I sure as hell would not want individuals or groups of my fellow military to tell me that my faith is not allowed and I need to become a Christian.  I understand their reasoning, Christian people are needed to fight the scourge of terrorism falling on not just AmeriKa, but the world.  It isn't true of course, but those on the front lines want to be assured of those fighting next to them.  Hmmmmm, sounds a lot like the thinking behind displacing all those Japanese Americans back in World War II now doesn't it.  It is hard NOT to think that way, especially those that are doing the real fighting over in the homeland of those terrorists intent on destroying themselves, their own country, and to a lesser extent, our country.  I would want to trust implicitly the guy holding a big gun next to me.  But the fact is, they are fighting for the right for that guy next to them to believe what ever he wants to.

Anyway, the Pentagon has gone on to announce that contrary to the belief of former Generals heading up crazy assed fundamentalist Christian right wing groups, they have no intention of removing religion from the military, just that anyone caught forcing their beliefs on others will be dealt with.  Sounds like rational and religiously correct thinking to me.  Why can't others see that.  And you know, just for fun, do a search for this topic on google, and see how many crazy websites there are.  And some of the headlines, wow!

Sheeesh, already, 15 minutes, and an email about how I am a fanatic.  Yeah, that's true.  I am a fanatic about food, and the rights of AmeriKans to be able to have wholesome healthy food available to them and that the criminals that head up the FDA, USDA, Monsanto and other big agribusinesses that allow and in fact do use toxic chemicals in the making of food in AmeriKa today should be jailed.  And all of their money stripped from them and used to clean up the mess we are in.  And you know, I am not the only person with these beliefs, scientific evidence is mounting about just how terrible our food situation is.  Why don't those crazed Christian "News" websites report on all that instead of how Obama laughed about becoming Mexican for a day.

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