by Jeff Sharlet
CHAPTER 5: The War
Easter in Iraq: Author’s interviews with Jeffery Humphrey and Specialist David Downing, another soldier present for the events described. Downing on “Jesus Killed Muhammad”: “I seen something written on the side of the Bradley, I don’t know what it said, me and my buddies was talking and joking around with the interpreter, and the interpreter said what it meant was ‘Jesus killed Muhammad,’ he was trying to piss off the insurgents a little more.”
“Each time I go into combat”: Author’s interview.
“Rock, sir!”: “Report of Americans United for Separation of Church and State on Religious Coercion and Endorsement of Religion at the United States Air Force Academy,” reproduced as Appendix B of Michael L. Weinstein and Davin Seay, With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2006), 222.
Red, White and Blue: Video available via the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/Media_video/carman/index.html.
seven hundred soldiers: Chuck Borough, Trip Around the Sun Blog, http://www.triparoundthesun.com/SunTrip54.htm. Borough ami-iably describes a Billy Graham revival, “Mission San Diego,” on May 9, 2003, at which Van Antwerp said more than seven hundred soldiers in his division had been baptized while in Iraq. In Graham’s Decision magazine, Bob Paulson, Amanda Knoke, and Brian Peterson write, “The second evening of the Mission had a military emphasis and featured the testimony of Maj. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp. Billy Graham announced that the evening’s program would be broadcast on the American Forces Radio and Television Service, which reaches military servicemen and women in countries throughout the world as well as on ships at sea,” July 1, 2003, http://www.billygraham.org/articlepage.asp?ArticleID=336.
was found by a Pentagon inspector general’s report: Report H06L102270308, “Alleged Misconduct by DOD Officials Concerning Christian Embassy,” July 20, 2007.
“God’s children”: Author’s interviews with five cadets, only one of whom, Steve Warner, felt comfortable putting his name to his words. That reluctance was the most disturbing part of their reports—that men and woman willing to put their lives on the line for their country were scared that they wouldn’t get a chance to do so if they were known to be critical of religious coercion.
“draw your strength”: Neela Banerjee, “Religion and Its Role Are in Dispute at the Service Academies,” New York Times, June 25, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/us/25academies.html.
“ambassadors for Christ”: Ret. Lt. Col. Ward Graham, of the air force, “On Alert,” OCFUSA.org, the website of Officers’ Christian Fellowship, http://www.ocfusa.org/articles/alert/.
fifteen thousand members: Command, a magazine of Officers’ Christian Fellowship, July 2008, 3.
“government paid missionaries”: A Campus Crusade promotional video in which air force officers are described thus can be seen at http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/video/USAF.mov. Campus Crusade has since updated its promotional materials.
“It’s a fucking clown show”: Author’s interview.
Taken as a whole: These statistics are based on Department of Defense records of “Religion of Active Duty Personnel (no Coast Guard),” September 30, 2008.
“I don’t like ‘religion’”: Author’s interview.
“How do we train our personnel”: Lt. Col. Greg E. Metzgar, of the army, “Fighting the War on Spiritual Terrorism—Part Two.” Accessed at OCFUSA.org in 2007, “Part Two” may now be viewed only at a cached Google page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JdXGrfBiKpIJ:www.ocfusa.org/articles/metzgar_spiritual_terrorism2.php+%22unconventional+spiritual+warfare+in+a+predominantly%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a.
“claim and occupy territory”: Retired Colonel Dick Kail, “Professional Perspectives for Senior Officers,” Officers’ Christian Fellowship, 1992, 3.
“adapt yourself to your husbands”: Ibid., 7. Kail writes that this directive is taken from an “amplified” version of “Epheslans [sic].”
“abuse of your authority”: Ibid., 9. Some “amplification” of my own: It’s worth noting that Kail is veering close to the line of constitutional authority here, since he’s declaring that officers face a choice between “godly influence,” according to their personal and sectarian perspective, and “the values of this darkening world”—that is, the rule of law and civilian authority in a nation defined by First Amendment freedom of religion.
OCF’s official history: Robert W. Spoede, More than Conquerors: A History of the Officers’ Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A., 1943 to 1983 (OCF Books, 1993).
“ardent supporter”: National Committee for Christian Leadership Newsletter, February 1948, periodicals, collection 459, BGCA.
“religious societies”: “Joint Committee Exhibit No. 147, Part I of Pearl Harbor Investigation Conducted by Colonel Carter W. Clarke, Pursuant to Oral Instructions of the Chief of Staff, U. S. Army,” September 20, 1944. The entire report to which this exhibit is attached has been posted online at http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/pha/clarke/clarke.html.
“mind programmed with God’s Word”: “General Harrison: A Man of ‘The Word,’ ” Military Christian Fellowship (Canada), http://www.mcf-canada.ca/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=175%3Ageneral-harrison-a-man-of-the-word-&catid=67%3Amilitary-stories-of-faith&Itemid=53.
“wars and rumors of war”: Anne C. Loveland, American Evangelicals and the U.S. Military, 1942–1993 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), 51. Loveland quotes Harrison writing in defense of the bombing of North Vietnam for Christianity Today in 1966, noting that he concluded with “a theme he had been sounding since the late 1950s: ‘The whole problem of the war in Viet Nam is complicated by the sincere but erroneous idea that mankind can in some way bring peace to the world…. Wars will continue until man’s rebellion runs its full course, terminating in the wars of the great tribulation at the end of this age. Only the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, as so often foretold in the Bible, will end the rebellion and bring an age of peace and prosperity (Matt. 24; Isa. 2:1–5).’ ” The irony of Harrison’s holy war rhetoric is that he justifies it in part with the promise of a future built around one of the great pacifist verses of scripture from Isaiah, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares.”
“Christian realism”: Ibid., 266.
“spiritual battle of the highest magnitude”: Ret. Lt. General Bruce L. Fister of the air force, “October 2005 Minutes,” OCF Council.
“continually confronting”: Ret. Col. Don Martin of the army, “Combat Readiness: Finding the True Source,” Officers’ Christian Fellowship, undated at http://www.ocfusa.org/articles/source-combat-readiness/.
“Mission Accomplished”: “Mission Accomplished: Bible Study: Nehemiah 1–6,” Officers’ Christian Fellowship, undated.
“tax collectors (aka the Jewish mafia)”: “Chaplain: Journey to the Outer Limits,”
Tropical Times, March 6, 2008.
“born again will burn”: Chaplain Capt. MeLinda Morton, “Memorandum for Ch Col Michael Whittington,” July 30, 2004. Capt. Morton’s report summarized the findings of “After Action Report: BCT II Chaplain Practicum Training: Special Program in Pastoral Care, with the Resources, Supervision and Selected Students of Yale Divinity School.” Morton’s memo, as well as a later version of the so-called Yale Report, can be downloaded at Brian McGrath Davis, “Air Force Academy Addresses ‘Challenges to Pluralism,’ ” The Pluralism Project at Harvard University, http://pluralism.org/research/reports/davis/afareport.php. The Yale Practicum, led by Dr. Kristen Leslie, was not initially a response to allegations of religious coercion but rather a study of pastoral care following media reports in 2003 that, in the ten years previous, there had been 142 alleged incidents of rape or sexual assault at the academy, none of which had resulted in an investigation.
“kill Islam”: On February 6, 2008, the academy hosted as speakers for its Annua
l Academy Assembly an act billing itself as “The 3 Ex-Terrorists”: “They don’t sing. But they speak the truth,” declares their slogan. As their name suggests, the three claim to have been terrorists for Islam, responsible for the murder of hundreds, before they converted to Christianity and found successful careers on the evangelical lecture circuit. “You want to know if I think we should kill Muslims,” declared the lead speaker, a Palestinian convert called Walid Shoebat, who’s popular on the Christian apocalypse circuit, lecturing on behalf of Left Behind author Tim LaHaye’s rapture rallies. “I would never say that, that would be a stupid thing to say. We have to kill Islam.” E-mail to Mikey Weinstein, from a member of the academy’s faculty who prefers to remain anonymous, April 3, 2008.
“It keeps me awake at night”: Weinstein and Seay, With God on Our Side, 115–16.
“Developing Purpose-Driven Airmen”: Captain Christian Biscotti, “A New Approach to Suicide Prevention: Developing Purpose-Driven Airmen,” presented at a Third Air Force Commander’s Call, Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop, Commander. Ostensibly part of a suicide prevention program, “Developing Purpose-Driven Airmen” doesn’t actually address suicide. Rather, it purports to use Warren’s evangelical principles to make troops “combat ready and effective,” offering as an example the late Arizona Cardinals football star and U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Tillman, as it happens, was an atheist. The army, meanwhile, relies on Pittsburgh Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw, who offers his Christian testimony in a disturbing video incorporated into another “suicide prevention” program emphasizing “the importance of faith.” Bradshaw dabs invisible sweat from his massive, dimpled chin and discusses a bout of depression resistant to therapy, drugs, and “books on human behavior.” The off-screen interviewer leads him to an answer, asking if his faith helped. “Oh, yeah. Well, I’m a Christian, for one thing.” In the military, he continues, “who do you talk to? I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Who do these young people talk to?’ Your sergeant? That’s a tough deal. I talked to a preacher…. My preacher was the first man I turned to.” “Suicide Awareness for Leaders, 2007” and “Suicide Awareness for Soldiers, 2008.”
“Under the rubric of free speech…”: Dr. Bill McCoy’s Amazon Blog, http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK2R98UC5LSSFMQ, accessed August 17, 2008; following an article by Chris Rodda, senior research director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (“Petraeus Endorses ‘Spiritual Handbook,’ Betrays 21% of Our Troops,” Huffington Post, August 17, 2008, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/petraeus-endorses-spiritu_b_119242.html), these comments were removed from Col. McCoy’s blog.
“bring havoc”: William McCoy, Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel, 2nd ed. (Keizer, OR: Edein Publishing, 2007), 147.
“Under Orders should be in every rucksack”: General Petraeus quoted in back matter, McCoy, Under Orders.
“If I was the bad guys”: Author’s interview.
“I knew that my God”: Richard T. Cooper, “General Casts War in Religious Terms,” Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2003.
“demonic spirit”: Rebecca Leung, “The Holy Warrior; General Called a Religious Fanatic Finally Speaks Out,” 60 Minutes, September 15, 2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/15/60II/main643650.shtml.
“Gitmo-ize”: Sidney Blumenthal, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006), 66.
“there is less and less acceptance”: Interview by research assistant Vanessa Hartmann.
“Here comes a guy”: Chuck Fager, e-mail message to Mikey Weinstein, August 25, 2009.
“defend Jewish causes”: “I find it difficult to defend Jewish causes around the world and, at the same time, have men like yourself trying to use increased government regulation to limit freedom here at home.” Ted Haggard to Mikey Weinstein, quoted in Weinstein and Seay, With God on Our Side, 91.
“We needed this fuse lit”: Author’s interview.
Jeremy Hall: Author’s interview with Jeremy Hall. Hall joined the army in 2004. “I figured if I go to Iraq, I’m doing God’s work, because it’s heathen country.” Deployed to Iraq for the first time in 2006, Hall began to question his assumptions, then his faith. Sent for a second tour in 2007, he formed a chapter of an organization called the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers. He was thrilled when an officer, Maj. Freddy Welborn, showed up at its first meeting,. When I reached Welborn, he told me, “I asked the young man, ‘What are your goals?’ And he said, you won’t believe this, ‘To take God out of country, to take God off the money.’ I said, ‘How can you do that? I thought you took an oath to defend the Constitution. How can you recruit kids to come to this, and do this with you, to do unconstitutional things? It’s wartime!’ ” Author’s interview with Maj. Freddy Welborn.
The crux of the matter for Hall was what he and another enlisted man say was Welborn’s warning: don’t bother reenlisting. Hall, a soldier with a perfect record, contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which helped him go public. That made things worse. Soon he was getting death threats. Another soldier, whom I was able to interview on background, was assigned as a bodyguard. His commanders moved him to the sergeants’ barracks, but the threats kept coming, and the army sent Hall home a month early. Before his troubles, Hall had loved the army; he’d planned on making it a career. “I was a shiner,” he recalled. But despite near-perfect ratings, he couldn’t even get himself considered for promotion. One sergeant told him that a soldier who can’t pray with his troops can’t lead them.
Eli Agee: Author’s interview.
“Sir,… this recruit’s bleeding”: David Winters’s letter to Mikey Weinstein, June 4, 2009.
“Weinstein is steamed”: Ret. Lt. Col. Hugh Morgan, e-mail message to Billy Baugham, November 2, 2005.
“a very angry Jewish man”: Billy Baugham, e-mail message to Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches et al., April 3, 2006. The Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches claims to be the endorsing agency for more than 270 military chaplains and chaplain candidates and to represent 15 million “Spirit-filled believers.” Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, “About the CFGC!” Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, http://www.chaplaincyfullgospel.org/about.aspx.
“lawyer, Jewish”: Ret. Col. Jim Ammerman, e-mail message to Chaplain Maj. Randy Wren of the army, May 26, 2006.
“I feel safer”: Quoted in Martha C. Nussbaum, Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America’s Tradition of Religious Equality (New York: Perseus, 2007), 47. These comments are drawn from my review, in The Nation, of Nussbaum’s important book, a “careful reconstruction of Williams as a thinker at least as important to the tradition of liberty of conscience—the term she prefers to religion—as Locke and all the founders who followed. ‘We should not focus only on the eighteenth-century arguments of the framers,’ she writes, ‘ignoring this prior, and distinctly American, tradition, quintessentially embodied in Williams’s The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution,’ a 1644 text that was remarkable for the empathy it extended to persecutors and persecuted alike and its call for government to refrain from enforcing orthodoxy. Recognition of good-faith differences of conviction, he believed, revealed a surer path to civil peace and liberty of conscience. The two values, so often seen as pitted against each other, were in Williams’s account intertwined.” Sharlet, “Beyond Belief,” The Nation, June 9, 2008.
“I am come to send fire”: “LBJ, Billy Graham Eloquent at Breakfasts,” Washington Post, February 18, 1966.
“This is a mission field”: Author’s interview.
“I refused”: Weinstein and Seay, With God on Our Side, 102–3.
“it made Christians look like Nazis”: Ibid., 82.
“I was fired”: Ibid., 112.
“‘Afghans say “this is a sign from God”’”: Kevin Dougherty, “Rainfall May Signal Beginning of the End to Three-Year Drought in Afghanistan,” Stars and Stripes, January 16, 2005, http://www.stripes.com/news/rainfall-may-signal-beginning-of-the-end-to-thre
e-year-drought-in-afghanistan-1.28144.
“the unsaved”: Brig. Gen. Donald C. Wurster, “Centurions in the Conflict,” Officers’ Christian Fellowship, http://www.ocfusa.org/articles/centurions-conflict/.
CHAPTER 6: The Now
“The Wilberforce Republican”: “The Wilberforce Republican: Sam Brownback Is Redefining the Christian Right,” Economist, March 11, 2006.
A fight… to roll back… gun laws: John Ensign, “Gun Rights on the Line,” Washington Post, March 13, 2009.
concealed weapons into churches: Brian Montopoli, “Guns in Church? Jindal Signs Louisiana Bill into Law,” CBS News, July 8, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20009977-503544.html; “Bill Would Allow Concealed Guns in Church,” Arkansas News, January 27, 2009.
2010 Utah law: Carl Wimmer, House Bill 12, Criminal Homicide and Abortion Amendments, 2010, available at http://le.utah.gov/~2010/bills/hbillenr/hb0012.htm. See also Pamela M. Prah, “States Try New Tactics to Restrict Abortion,” Stateline, July 15, 2010, http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=498491.
it can be drowned in a bathtub: Thomas Frank, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008), 45.
“the first time… nonviolent activity”: “Supreme Court Ruling Criminalizes Speech in Material Sport Law Case,” Center for Constitutional Rights, June 21, 2010, http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/supreme-court-ruling-criminalizes-speech-material-support-law-case.
“Kind of a yin to the yang”: Author’s interview.
Dennis Bakke: See D. Michael Lindsay, “Is the National Prayer Breakfast Surrounded by a ‘Christian Mafia’? Religious Publicity and Secrecy Within the Corridors of Power,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 14, no. 2 (June 2006): 390–419. Bakke is also a friend of Uganda, or, at least, its ruling elite. I wrote about Bakke’s involvement with what became one of the biggest corruption scandals of the Museveni regime—a project he describes as “God’s work”—in The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (New York: Harper, 2008), 23. On Bakke’s educational theories, see his book Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job (PVG, 2005), distributed free in at least one of the publicly funded charter schools run by Bakke’s Imagine Schools, the biggest commercial manager of such institutions in the United States. “The movement to keep God out of the schools, government, and companies is contrary to the biblical mandate to steward all parts of the Creation, including the public institutions we call secular,” writes Bakke (252). Proposing the churches subsidize teachers in public schools, he says, instructors “would be marked by the church as God’s ambassadors to the children in the neighborhood schools.” For perspectives on Imagine School’s less than transparent approach, see also Stephanie Strom, “For School Company, Issues of Money and Control,” New York Times, April 23, 2010, and Greg Richmond, “Who’s in Charge at Charter Schools?,” Education Week, July 14, 2010. Richmond, the president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, argues that companies like Imagine give charter schools a bad name, taking advantage of and sometimes even getting ahead of laws that turn “the concept of accountability on its head.” Bakke, writes Richmond, “urged his staff to get undated letters of resignation from all board members and to remove members who didn’t behave to Imagine’s liking. ‘It is our school, our money, and our risk, not theirs.’… He’s wrong. It is a public school, it is the public’s money, and the risk is being borne by thousands of parents and students who enroll at an Imagine school.”
