"Military Ministry"

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) was started by Mikey Weinstein to challenge the Pentagon's institutional promotion of Christianist activism in the armed forces. Or, as Weinstein puts it, Christian dominionism.

The MRFF has recently released a report about the Military Ministry of the Campus Crusade for Christ and its aggressive program of Christian proselytizing in the US military. Dated 10/31/07, the report is titled, Government Paid Missionaries for Christ. The title is taken from a phrase that, according to the report, is commonly used by the Military Ministry. It quotes a strategy statement from Valor Ministry, one of several branches of the Military Ministry group:

The Valor ROTC cadet and midshipman ministry reaches our future military leaders as their initial entry points on college campuses, helps them grow in their faith, then sends them to their first duty assignments throughout the world as "government-paid missionaries for Christ".

This video at the Military Ministry Web site as of this writing, "Global War on Terror", shows a long presentation by retired Gen. Bob Dees, who directs the group. He presents a highly ideological version of the "global war on terror" with generous snippets from some FOX News propaganda film. It's very clear in this talk that Dees' rightwing view of the "war on terror" as a religious war against Islam is an integral part of his version of the Christian message. It's a highly, explicitly political message, political as in a very narrow, conservative ideological view of foreign and military policy.

Dees says, "These troops that are gathering before a patrol in Baghdad, they're not worried about being politically correct, they are worried about being God-correct." And, "Our mission is to transform the nations of the world through the militaries of the world starting with the United States armed forces." And it's clear that he's not talking about converting the militaries to the sort of radical pacifism practiced by people like, say, Jesus of Nazareth. But what did he know? He was just some Jewish agitator from a long time ago who hung out with workers and whores. He didn't know anything about fighting Islamunistofascistdefeatocratists.

This video from the MRFF Web site gives some background on Weinstein's concerns about officially-sanctioned aggressive proselytizing in the military.

Tags: bob dees, christian right, christianism, global war on terror, mikey weinstein, military ministry, military religious freedom foundation, war on terror