Why Is the Military Spending Millions on Christian Contractors Bent on Evangelizing US Soldiers?

[ensho]

http://www.alternet.org/story/152120/why_is_the_military_spending_millions_on_christian_contractors_bent_on_evangelizing_us_soldiers?akid=7442.20699.kgHiza&rd=1&t=5


Why do Christian contractors play such a prominent role in our military?


When the average American thinks of military spending on religion, they probably think only of the money spent on chaplains and chapels. And, yes, the Department of Defense (DoD) does spend a hell of a lot of money on these basic religious accommodations to provide our troops with the opportunity to exercise their religion while serving our country. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the DoD's funding of religion. Also paid for with taxpayer dollars are a plethora of events, programs, and schemes that violate not only the Constitution, but, in many cases, the regulations on federal government contractors, specifically the regulation prohibiting federal government contractors receiving over $10,000 in contracts a year from discriminating based on religion in their hiring practices.

-snip-

Although it was clear from the start of MRFF's investigation that determining the total dollar figure for the DoD's rampant promotion of religion (which is always evangelical and/or fundamentalist Christianity) would be next to impossible, as this would require FOIA requests to every one of over 700 military installations to find out how much each is spending out of various funds at the installation level, one thing we could look at was DoD contracts, so that's where we started. What we've found so far is astounding.

-snip-

As mentioned above, what MRFF is looking at does not include chaplains or chapels -- not even the excessive spending on extravagant "chapels" like the $30,000,000 mega-church at Fort Hood, or the "Spiritual Fitness" centers being built on many military bases as part of what are called Resiliency Campuses. The examples below are all strictly from DoD contracts, with the funding coming out of the appropriations for things like "Operations and Maintenance" and, somehow, "Research and Development." (Summaries of all contracts referenced below are publicly available atusaspending.gov)

Evangelical Christian Concerts Under the Guise of "Spiritual Fitness"

One of the most direct expenditures of money on religious proselytizing, under the guise of "Spiritual Fitness" spending, is the funding of concerts with the top evangelical Christian performers. These concerts are most prevalent on Army posts, although they also occur on installations of other branches of the military. One concert series that stands out, both because soldiers were punished last year for not attending one of the concerts and because of the cost of hiring the musical acts, is the "Commanding Generals' Spiritual Fitness Concert Series" at Fort Eustis and Fort Lee in Virginia. This is not a chapel concert series, but a command sponsored "Spiritual Fitness" program, paid for with DoD contracts.

-long snip-
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spiritual fitness centers - what a bunch of crap our tax dollars are going to

talk about a corrupt military!

[Harmony Blue]

1. They use it as a form of control

Not surprising to say the least.

[ensho]

3. kick

nt

[valerief]

12. Absolutely. nt

[dmallind]

2. We have a presidential race debate exclusively devoted to how Christian candidates are and you ask?

[WinkyDink]

4. God is on our side---->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raI25N-OoMQ&feature=related


"With God On Our Side"

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And the land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

The Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns on their hands
And God on their side.

The First World War, boys
It came and it went
The reason for fighting
I never did get
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And then we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

[RC]

5. The simple answer -

If you believe you don't really die when you die, but will live forever in some paradise, you will be more likely to sacrifice yourself for the greater good - oil your comrades.

[gratuitous]

6. It's not like there's anything else to spend it on

And the High Church of Redemptive Violence requires a heavy cloak of religiosity to operate properly. If military personnel start to get the idea that shooting and bombing and nuking other human beings is somehow wrong, not just strategically but morally, the High Church starts to look about as rickety as Burnham Wood. And that simply must not happen.

[valerief]

13. High Church of Redemptive Violence! Perfect.

:rofl:

[Overseas]

7. K&R. Thanks to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation for keeping track

of all of the attempts to Christianize our military. www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org

And an article by Jeff Sharlet from 2009 on the crusade for a Christian military:

http://harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488

[lunasun]

8. Because they can ---on MY dime!!$!! of course............blech

[Lex1775]

9. Honestly, I want to know where in the hell all of this stuff is happening...

I spent six years in the AF (98-04) did a couple tours over in the desert, another one in East Asia, and was TDY at a lot of AF and Army bases and NEVER saw any of this. Honestly, I doubt most of the people on those bases even realize any of that stuff is there/or going on. The only time I was ever inside a chapel in my six years in was 1 time in Basic and 1 time for a wedding at my 1st active duty post.

I was never approached by anyone in (or out) of uniform trying to push any religion or religious tracts and none of the guys that I served with can ever remember anyone doing it to them either. The only time I ever SAW a chaplain (outside of the two instances above) was on the flightline in Iraq and he wasn't doing anything other than driving around in a golf cart handing out Gatorades and checking to make sure everyone was doing ok.

[Ezlivin]

10. You weren't required to take the GAT

If you are in the Army you must take a Global Assessment Tool that measures, among other things, your spiritual fitness.

Here's information from the American Humanist Association:

The American Humanist Association is disappointed to learn that the United States Army has been engaging in discriminatory practices with the utilization of their Global Assessment Tool (GAT) within the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program. The tool, which is meant to measure various levels of each soldier’s daily functionality, unfairly targets humanists, atheists and other nontheists as dysfunctional in regard to their assessment scores.

Soldiers are assessed in the areas of emotional, social, family, and spiritual strength. Nontheists naturally score low in the “spirituality” portion of the exam and are subsequently offered training, which is presented to them as mandatory, to improve their scores in this area.

The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers has visited the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness office and corresponded with staff up to Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum to provide clear suggestions to attempt to mend this broken program. BG Cornum and staff were unwilling to consider any changes or to recognize our concerns with the existing content on the GAT questions or training modules.

The American Humanist Association has worked closely in the past with The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, American Atheists, and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to end similar forms of discrimination. The Air Force has been very collaborative and involved in efforts to include nontheists in their cadet religious respect training and 2010 Religious Respect Conference. We’d like to see the Army take similar steps in respecting the rights of humanist and nontheist soldiers.

[Lex1775]

19. Very true, I did not

I will have to ask my little brother about that, he is with the 82nd Airborne and has only been in for a year now.

Besides that, though, I haven't seen or spoken to anyone who can relate to any of this. And I know the AF has been the subject of a lot of these threads.

[valerief]

11. Faither crap. We can't escape it. nt

[AndyTiedye]

14. Because The Dominionists Intend to Take Over and Force Their Relligion on Everyone

It seems they have already taken over the Army and the Air Force. :hide:

[Brother Buzz]

15. Dial in Terry Gross' "Fresh Air" tomorrow

She will be examining the Dominionists, and I believe connections between the Rick Perry camp and the New Apostolic Reformation nuts, and their preparations for the 'End times'.

Scary subject, for sure.

[AndyTiedye]

17. If the Repigs Nominate Perry or Bachman (or Both) LOOK OUT

They would lose by more than 2:1 in an honest election, and the Repiglickins know that.
They do control enough states to steal it, or even to brazenly award the electoral votes
by legislative action, regardless of the popular vote. To do so in the face of such
broad popular disapproval would likely lead to civil war, but with the Army and the
Air Force under Dominionist control it would be a very short one.
:nuke:

[Bragi]

16. Why? Because they can /nt

[Initech]

18. I often wonder what this country would be like without the far-right evangelicals.

[hack89]

20. Here is the Chaplain home page for Fort Hood. Incredible range of religions represented

http://www.hood.army.mil/CHAPLAIN/ (Click on Religious Services)

Here are the Protestant services alone:

General Protestant

Contemporary

Gospel Services

Evangelical

Traditional

Samoan Traditional

Episcopal \ Lutheran

Messianic Jewish