Rethinking warmongering for Jesus? (Updated)

Yesterday, I discussed a verbally belligerent post by the Rev. Wade Burleson from a couple of weeks ago attacking President Obama for apologizing over the Qur'an-burning blowup in Afghanistan and demanding much greater military harshness by American troops against the Afghans.

And I quoted a comment I had submitted there at that blog post relating his Christians sentiments demanding that the US military bring its "sword of vengeance" down on the Afghans to last weekend's Kandahar massacre, in which at least one US soldier killed 16 or more Afghan men, women and children by busting into their homes in the middle of the night and shooting them. The good Reverend Burleson had comment management enabled, and I wondered whether he would even allow my comment to appear.

Checking to see if it had, I discovered that, lo and behold, not only was my comment not there. The entire post had also vanished! [Update from later in the day: it's now back up.] (Update 10/29/2012: The Rev. Burleson has changed the name and graphics on his blog to Istoria Ministries Blog; he seems to have kept many of the posts from his previous blog but not the one quoted here. As of this update, the post is cached here.)

Now, it's not doubt a tiny improvement to the blogosphere to have one less mindless post calling for more violence against them thar Muslims. Not that there's any shortage of them anyway.

But instead of addressing whatever his intent may have been in removing his Christian sentiments expressed there - sentiments like, "You don't apologize when at war. If you have to apologize, you shouldn't be at war. The United States is at war. NO MORE APOLOGIES. The more you apologize, the weaker you look. The weaker you are perceived, the more your people are murdered." - he just took it down.

His readers might be wondering what a minister of the Gospels who two weeks ago was calling for the "sword of vengeance" to be applied to the uppity Muslim natives in Afghanistan thinks of last weekend's massacre. And what he thinks of the President's expressions of regret over those murders. Why it was just the end of last month when the good Reverend was declaring in holy outrage: "When dealing with religious fanatics who believe murder is an appropriate response for the burning of their religious material--ONE SHOULD NEVER APOLOGIZE."

Here in the real world, of course, outrages like last weekend's Kandahar massacre of civilians has a tremendous amount to do with the people the Reverend regards as bizarre barbarians react to some perceived symbolic insult like Qur'an burnings.

But we're unlikely to ever hear that from the Rev. Wade Burleson.

Tags: afghanistan war, kandahar massacre, wade burleson