Military Entangled in 'Extreme Missionary' Christian Reality TV Show

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http://www.pubrecord.org/religion/565-military-entangled-in-extreme-missionary-christian-reality-tv-show.html


The Pentagon has once again come under fire by a military watchdog organization for its involvement in the production of two cable programs, one that featured two so-called “extreme” missionaries embedded with a U.S. Army unit in Afghanistan trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

The popular reality series, "Travel the Road," aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and featured Will Decker and Tim Scott, two so-called "extreme" missionaries who travel the globe to “preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth and encourage the church to be active in the Great Commission.”

The other cable program green-lit by the Pentagon is “God’s Soldier,” which aired in September on the Military Channel, and was filmed at Forward Operating Base McHenry in Hawijah, Iraq. It features an Army chaplain openly promoting fundamentalist Christianity to active-duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq in violation of the U.S. Constitution.


The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog organization, first disclosed details about the cable programs in the group’s weekly newsletter on Friday. The group plans to amend a federal lawsuit it filed against the Department of Defense earlier this year, currently in federal District Court in Kansas City, Kansas to “include these despicable unconstitutional promotions of fundamentalist Christianity in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan,” said MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein.

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In sanctioning Decker and Scott’s work, the Pentagon appears to have committed numerous constitutional violations as well as breached military regulations such as United States Central Command's General Order 1-A, which strictly prohibits any proselytization in the Middle Eastern theater of operations.

Earlier this year, U.S. military personnel launched a major initiative to convert thousands of Iraqi citizens to Christianity also by distributing Bibles and other fundamentalist Christian literature translated into Arabic to Iraqi Muslims.

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"Our division is also getting ready to head toward Afghanistan, so there will be copies heading out with the soldiers," Llanos said. “We need to pray for protection for our soldiers as they patrol and pray that God would continue to open doors. The soldiers are being placed in strategic places with a purpose. They're continuing to spread the Word.”

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“These unconscionable efforts by the leadership of our American armed forces to portray our United States military as the avenging Army of Jesus must stop here and now,” Weinstein said. “It is directly leading to the emboldening of our enemy which, in turn, is maiming and killing brave American service men and women.
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just what the US needs - a holy military - throw up!

aacckk

[BrklynLiberal]

1. So now the US Army is going to become the Crusaders of the 21st Century...

This is beyond nauseating. This is payback to the fundies for backing prez shit-for-brains. They are being given free reign to harvest as many souls as they can get their grubby, hypocritical little hands on.

[Zuni]

6. The Fourth Crusade was Christians vs. Christians

The Latin speaking western Christians attacked Constantinople, which was controlled by Greek speaking eastern Chriatians.

This was after the Catholic Church split in 1054 between the Greek (modern day Eastern Orthodox) and the Latin (modern day Roman Catholic) factions.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Thanks. I will have to amend the visual....

[Fumesucker]

2. Our US military as the avenging angel of Jesus..

Isn't that pretty much what they've been for the last seven years?

Bush even used the word "Crusade" in relation to the Muslim world.

[patrice]

3. Convert or Die -> the very definition of Crusade. nt

[BrklynLiberal]

8. or in some cases... Just DIE.

[Fumesucker]

10. Kill them all, God will know his own..

Papal legate Arnaud-Amaury, when asked by a Crusader how to distinguish the Cathars from the Catholics

[InternalDialogue]

4. What we need here is a little smilie of Jesus rolling his eyes.

Cause I don't think he's down with this plan.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Personally, I find it repugnant

Knowing Muslims, they will take the Bibles, as the Bible is part of The Book (as is the Torah and Qur'an). Many Muslims know more about the Bible and Jesus than many Christians--these fundamentalists may be in for a surprise.

The worst thing about this is that it gives ammunition to our foes---extremist Muslims have often said the point of our invasion of Iraq was to force Muslims to become Christians. The work of these "missionaries" bears out the claim.

[HillWilliam]

9. The whistles have been blowing and alarm-bells have been clanging

for years now on this issue. Neither Congress nor the Pentagon have done fuckall while the problem has steadily gotten worse. Compound this with klan, neonazis, and all sorts of other unsavory hate-groups using the military to get training to come home and start their longed-for race wars. The military, purposefully broken and weakened under the neoKKKon rule, is fast becoming a cesspool on wackjobbery, incapable of defending the homeland and absolutely untrustworthy to do so if we need it.

[ColbertWatcher]

11. HOLY CRAP! (Opps, no pun intended) k+r, n/t

[Mari333]

12. someone tell me this will change with Obama in charge

well,i can hope.