Religious Fatigue

The Wash Post reports today that the rise of evangelical Christianity is spreading into our military, where a minority of the Christian fundamentalists are trying to impose their faith on other soldiers and even engaging in Anti-semetic slurs.

A team of observers from Yale Divinity School criticized one of the academy's ministers for urging Protestant cadets to tell their classmates that anyone who is "not born-again will burn in the fires of hell."...Among other incidents, the academy commandant had urged cadets to use the "J for Jesus" hand signal with the thumb and index finger, the head football coach had told players that he expected to see them in church, and Jewish cadets had experienced anti-Semitic slurs after students were urged to see the Mel Gibson film "The Passion of the Christ."

Mikey Weinstein, formerly of the Air Force and the Reagan White House, sums up my thoughts exactly:

"Could there possibly be a worse time for this fundamentalist Christianity to be pushed in our military, when we're in a war and the people we are fighting are recruiting their members by saying we're Christian crusaders?"

Onward Christian soldiers, you bleed for Christ first and foremost.