Army Labels Catholics and Evangelical Christians as Extremist Groups

In a shocking example of just how high anti-Christian feelings go in the United States, the Defense Department came under fire last Thursday over a U.S. Army presentation on domestic extremism and extremist groups. Among the slides in the presentation is a list of religious extremist groups. In that list, alongside Al Quaeda and the Ku Klux Klan (which is labeled as Christian, by the way) are:

Yes my friends, our own government now considers Christians and Jews to be examples of religious extremism.

More than half of all Americans, and 40 percent of active duty military personnel, identify themselves as either Catholic or Evangelical Christians.

Col. Ron Crews, a retired Army chaplain and the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, issued the following statement condemning the presentation:

“Men and women of faith who have served the Army faithfully for centuries shouldn’t be likened to those who have regularly threatened the peace and security of the United States.”

Col. Crews also criticized the Army’s presentation for citing the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center to support its findings. The SPLC has a history of dubbing organizations “hate groups” for promoting Christian teachings on morality and sexuality.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services, a Catholic organization that trains and endorses military priests and chaplains, also released the following statement:

The Archdiocese for the Military Services and Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty recently became aware of a U.S. Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief that expressly listed “Catholicism,” “Evangelical Christianity” and other religious groups as examples of “religious extremism” alongside groups such as “Al Qaeda”, “Hamas” and the “KKK.”

The Archdiocese is astounded that Catholics were listed alongside groups that are, by their very mission and nature, violent and extremist.

According to an investigation and reply from the Army Chief of Chaplains office, the training in question appears to have been an isolated incident not condoned by the Department of the Army. The Archdiocese and the Chaplain Alliance explained that the Army can and should take steps to prevent such incidents in the future.

The Archdiocese calls upon the Department of Defense to review these materials and to ensure that tax-payer funds are never again used to present blatantly anti-religious material to the men and women in uniform.

At least a dozen members of Congress have signed a letter demanding that the Secretary of the Army rescind and apologize for the offending slide, which the U.S. Army is already distancing themselves from: According to an Army spokesman, the presentation “was produced by an individual without anyone in the chain of command’s knowledge or permission.”

You can read the U.S. Army’s presentation – with the Religious Extremist Groups slide still intact – by visiting the source.

Perhaps prevailing attitudes emanating from Washington have helped to create the tyrannical climate toward open inquiry, freedom of conscience, and free expression of religious belief--all of which are protected by "the People's" Constitution from the purview of their elected officials.

Various institutions have been influenced in their so-called "political correctness" demands of what might be called "progressive purity" of expression by Executive policies and actions over the past few years.

David Barton, on his Wallbuilders.com web site, posted an editorial documenting some actions by the President and current Administration which could possibly influence minds not trained to be vigilant about their religious liberty and freedom of expression.

Readers might benefit from other editorials in the Issues and Articles Section of Barton's "Wallbuilder" site.

On that site, Wallbuilders provides reprints of original writings and speeches from the founding period which document the intention of the Founders and Framers of our Constitution that, in accord with the scriptural quotation on the Liberty Bell, their actions were to "Proclaim liberty throughout the land." Their Declaration of Independence from a government which, like today's, seems intent on imposing its coercive will on "We, the People," and the Constitution which became the Supreme Law of the Land, were intended to protect "the People" from the government, not to impose a politically-correct limit on freedom of expression or religious belief and practice.

From Wallbuilders, come the following quotations:

George Washington
"Father of Our Country"
While just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support.
(Source: George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick, editor (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1932), Vol. XXX, p. 432 n., from his address to the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in North America, October 9, 1789.)

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?
And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
(Source: George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States . . . Preparatory to His Declination (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge), pp. 22-23. In his Farewell Address to the United States in 1796.)

It is easy to explain this away as an isolated individual but along with the Lt Col at Ft Campbell and his similar e-mail to subordinates it indicates an actual existing culture within the DOD and armed forces in general.

This culture used to be a few isolated individuals, maladjusted and always in danger of being slapped down for such anti western cultural tendencies. However, they see the (1) elevation of homosexual conduct to acceptable conduct, (2) the perversion of marriage to thwart the definition and history, and (3) the ascendancy of equivalency as the standard for all religious expression where if the most damaging is prohibited and warned against as counter to the mission, then all must be prohibited and found outside the culture of our armed forces.

This promotion of this subculture to one that now feels they have political cover is truly disheartening to those that see our overall culture in a state of attack and decline. It is hard for people to write off this as an aberration when it seems that the climbing towers are now anchored to the castle walls and the Orcs are in the keep.

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