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West Point and Religion

Submitted by: Mike Spindell

061410-FlagA young man named Blake Page resigned from West Point this week with five months left to go until graduation. This will no doubt be a life changing event for him and could potentially have drastic consequences. His reason for resigning was his belief that there was a pervasive influence of religious proselytizing at this famed military academy. He and other non-religious cadets are retaliated against for their beliefs and for their refusal to go along with a program that makes Christian Faith the standard for success and for receiving privileges.

He wrote an article for the Huffington Post which I will discuss and link to below. First though I want to add my own thoughts on this because I think this young man is credible and because his charges regarding West Point are not the first complaint of intolerance towards non-religious cadets at a U.S. Armed forces Academy. The U.S. Air force Academy is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is said that this community of 416,000 people can be considered the nexus of Evangelical Christianity in the United States, if not the world.

“Although houses of worship of almost every major world religion can be found in the city, Colorado Springs has in particular attracted a large influx of Evangelical Christians and Christian organizations in recent years. At one time Colorado Springs was counted to be the national headquarters for 81 different religious organizations, earning the city the tongue-in-cheek nickname “the Evangelical Vatican“[57] and “The Christian Mecca”.

Religious groups with regional or international headquarters in Colorado Springs include: the Association of Christian Schools International, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Compassion International, Every Home for Christ, Focus on the Family, HCJB, the International Bible Society, The Navigators, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, WAY-FM Media Group, Andrew Wommack Ministries, and Young Life.”

In addition to the Air Force Academy there is Fort Carson and two air force bases located in the City. Twenty percent of this County’s employees work for these facilities. Besides this large military presence: “Colorado Springs is home to the United States Olympic Training Center and the headquarters of the United States Olympic Committee. In addition, a number [15] of United States national federations for individual Olympic sports have their headquarters in Colorado Springs” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs,_Colorado#Religious_institutions

Call me paranoid perhaps, but I think that it is no coincidence that this small city, but sixty miles from Denver, at the base of Pikes Peak, has drawn such a large influx of Evangelical Christians and their national organizations. I think it is potentially an ominous sign and I’ll explain my thoughts and feelings.

There has been a long and troubling history of religious proselytizing at the Air Force Academy (ACA).  In the last two decades as many Evangelical Christians flocked to this city, their efforts to make contact with both Officers, Professors and Cadets has been constant and quite successful. This outreach has also extended to the military bases and airfields in the area. I don’t believe that this interaction is coincidental and I also believe it is an attempt by the Evangelical Christian movement to increase their power by converting the military. A hall mark of the Evangelical Christian movement today is their militancy and their willingness to not only confront, but to exercise power to coerce people into accepting their beliefs. What better source of coercion than having the U.S. Armed Forces in back of you and perhaps subject to your manipulation of religious ideology. Let some of the evidence speak for itself:

“David Mullin, a former AFA economics professor, said military culture muddies the distinction between encouragement and orders, so only chaplains should speak on religious matters. “When a military commander says ‘you are encouraged to attend,’ whether it is to military officers or civilians, that is an effective order,” Mullin said. This constitutes improper proselytism, he added.

A self-described evangelical, Mullin is one of the few to openly criticize what he calls an unhealthy religious climate in the AFA. He is represented in court by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a legal watchdog. Mullin was one of five academy professors who sued unsuccessfully in January 2011 to stop a school prayer luncheon that would feature as keynote speaker a veteran who calls himself a “U.S. Marine for Christ.” He alleges his dog was poisoned after he protested about the school’s religious climate later that year.

Mullin suggests part of the problem stems from the AFA’s Colorado Springs location. The city hosts many evangelical parachurch organizations, such as James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, as well as New Life Church, an evangelical church founded by its former pastor Ted Haggard. He added that some of these groups have access to the academy, including cards that get them into dorms. “You have very strong encouragement — basically carte blanche access to cadets by the leadership of the academy by these groups,” Mullin said. “It is corruption, and there is substantial religious discrimination as part of this corruption,” he said. The AFA has long struggled with setting boundaries for religious expression.”

Professor Mullin says the problem stems from the proximity of these church groups, but my suspicions are that the proximity of these church groups is o coincidence, but the result of a concerted to make inroads into the military. The result is the kind of situation described in a column on 10/12/11 by Chris Rodda Senior Research Director, Military Religious Freedom Foundation; Author, ‘Liars For Jesus

“A little over a year ago, a cadet at the Air Force Academy emailed the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to tell us about an “underground” group of about a hundred Academy cadets who, in order to maintain good standing among their peers and superiors at the Academy, were actually pretending to be fundamentalist Christians. Their charade included leaving Bibles, Christian literature, and Christian music CDs laying around their rooms; attending fundamentalist Christian Bible studies; and feigning devoutness at the Academy’s weekly “Special Programs in Religious Education” (SPIRE) programs. This group of cadets had decided to resort to doing whatever they had to do to play the role of the “right kind” of Christian cadets, all the while living in constant fear of being “outed.”

 In the words of the cadet who wrote to MRFF last year, who described himself as “kind of the leader” of this underground group: “If any of us gave even the slightest indication that we weren’t one of their number, our lives would be even more miserable than they already are due to the fact that we are all living lies here. Despite the Cadet Honor Code we all lie about our lives. We have to.”

Who makes up this group of over a hundred cadets who feel that they must pretend to be such devoted fundamentalist Christians? Well, surprisingly, they are mostly Christians — both mainline Protestants and Catholics — who aren’t “Christian enough” or the “right kind” of Christians for the AirForceAcademy. The rest of the group is made up of other assorted heathens, which include members of non-Christian religions, agnostics, and atheists.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/air-force-academy-cadets-_b_1007411.html

Imagine if you will, a Cadet at the AFA, who is a perhaps a Presbyterian, Unitarian, Catholic, or a Jew, who feels this pressure to be seen as faithfully religious. You are already trying to adapt yourself to a hierarchal military system that emphasizes following your superior’s orders. What if your Superior hints strongly that they will think better of you if you are seen to be religiously faithful? What do you do? Obviously, as shown above some people, unable to stand up to the stress and pressures of conformity, in a system which requires it, will “fake it” to get by. What happens though to those who don’t fake it? How do we quantify that number among those who are booted out, ranked at the bottom of their class, or leave the Academy with an unfavorable notation in their permanent military record? It’s really not possible to make such a calculation and so we must infer it. Also from HuffPost and Chris Rodda on 10/29/10:

“The AirForceAcademy reversed course on Friday and released the results of a survey that showed mixed results on the school’s efforts to improve religious and racial tolerance and limit sexual harassment.

The survey, conducted in December and January, showed improvements in making minority groups feel more accepted and in reducing the number who say they feel pressured by others to participate in religious activities.

But it found that many cadets believe that some religious and racial minorities face discrimination and harassment, and an increasing percentage of the faculty and staff believe that sexual harassment occurs at the school.

The academy superintendent, Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, said the survey overall shows that many of the school’s tolerance initiatives are effective but that improvement is needed.

Gould initially declined to make the results public, saying the were a “commander’s tool” best used internally.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/29/air-force-proselytizing-christianity-evangelicals_n_775859.html

The title of the HuffPost article though is “41% of Non-Christian Air Force Cadets Cite Proselytizing” Despite Superintendent Gould’s assurances that things were improving there, more exists in this story:

“Several groups filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the data, including The Associated Press. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., also pushed Gould to go public.”

 “Coffman said Friday he’s still not convinced Gould understands his responsibility to be open with the public. “I think at the Air Force Academy, they need a remedial course in American government,” he said. Coffman said the military as a whole abuses its power to keep secrets and sometimes withholds information from the public because it’s embarrassing, not because of security concerns.

One of the groups that submitted a FOIA request for the survey, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, asked to have a representative at a briefing Gould conducted Friday but was turned down. Academy officials said the briefing was for media and that the foundation would be mailed the documents it requested. Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the foundation, accused the Air Force of reneging on an invitation it had extended to his foundation and said Gould was trying to muffle opposition. Weinstein said the religious climate at the academy is worse than Gould portrays it. He said he has heard from 172 cadets, faculty and staff at the academy who say they face religious pressure, mostly from evangelical Christians at the school, and are afraid to complain for fear of reprisals.”

Another article also references the situation that exists at the AFA:

“An underground group of cadets says yes, and they say they have to pretend to be fundamentalists so they will be considered cadets in good standing. Mainline Protestant and Catholics, they say, are not considered “Christian enough.” A survery of the climate at the U.S. Air Force Academy, based in Colorado Springs, showed need for improvement. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says that nearly one in 5 of the cadets questioned reported being the target of unwanted proselytizing, and 23 cadets — 13 of whom are self-identified Christians — say they feared for their physical safety, given their religious beliefs. You can read more here.” http://blogs.courant.com/susan_campbell/2010/09/is-the-air-force-academy-under.html

There is frankly too much material on the religious problems at the AFA for me to present more than all the links listed above. In the interests of fairness I will list some more links below that shows that many Evangelicals have a different viewpoint. If you would like that viewpoint then please click the following links: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=36782 and: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/air-force-academy-caves-anti-christian-activist and: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2011/11/air_force_acade.html.

The title of this piece is “West Point and Religion” and my opening paragraph dealt with the resignation of Blake Page from West Point five months before he was due to graduate. I’ll let him explain why:

“As the President of the West Point Secular Student Alliance (SSA), a Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF) affiliate, and first Director of Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) Affairs at West Point, I have been in a position to hear countless cadets recount their personal stories of frustration in dealing with the ongoing oppressive and unconstitutional bigotry they face for being non-religious. Cadets often come to me to seek assistance, guidance and reassurance in response to instances of debasing harassment. Many here are regularly told they do not deserve a place in the military. They are shown through policy that the Constitution guarantees their freedom of, but not from religion. Many are publically chastised for seeking out a community of likeminded people because it is such a common belief that Humanism and other non-religious philosophies are inherently immoral and worse. “

“The title West Point Graduate carries a great deal of weight in this world. Those who earn it are given a “golden ticket” and wear a “ring of power” which will certainly carry them to successful careers with doors flung open in the military, in business, even in personal relationships; as so many are seduced by the historic prestige of the United States Military Academy. All of these things seem enticing, but for me personally they are not worth it. As I write this, I am five months from graduation. After nearly three and a half years here, there is no reason to suspect that I would be in any way incapable of completing the final requirements and walking across the stage in Michie Stadium with diploma in hand in another 174 days. Choosing to resign at this point also carries significant risk. The Army may seek recoupment in the form of about $200-300k which I will personally owe, or an additional term of up to 5 years of enlisted service. What could possibly compel me to pass over this incredible opportunity in exchange for such harsh penalties?”

“While there are certainly numerous problems with the developmental program at West Point and all service academies, the tipping point of my decision to resign was the realization that countless officers here and throughout the military are guilty of blatantly violating the oaths they swore to defend the Constitution. These men and women are criminals, complicit in light of day defiance of the Uniform Code of Military Justice through unconstitutional proselytism, discrimination against the non-religious and establishing formal policies to reward, encourage and even at times require sectarian religious participation. These transgressions are nearly always committed in the name of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity. The sparse leaders who object to these egregious violations are relegated to the position of silent bystanders, because they understand all too well the potential ramifications of publically expressing their loyalty to the laws of our country. These are strong words that I do not use lightly, but after years of clear personal observation I am certain that they are true.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-page/west-point-religious-freedom_b_2232279.html

Considering the pressures, possible dangers and the sacrifice this young man is making by resigning from West Point I find his story credible and at the same time by linking it to what is occurring at the Air Force Academy, chilling from a Constitutional perspective. My belief is that many, but not all, of those who are in what is deemed “The Evangelical Christian Movement” are radicals cut from the same cloth as the “Islamic Fanatics” that many in this country fear and despise. This includes the James Dobson’s, Ralph Reeds, Franklin Grahams and Pat Robertson’s. They espouse a form of Christianity that is militant, intolerant and thirsting for power over all. The have amassed great wealth and have supported some of the most regressively radical politicians in this country. As we now see they are trying to extend their tentacles into the Military. If they succeed to any large degree we will indeed be at risk of this country turning into an oppressive theocracy. Will they succeed? Will we let them overturn our Constitution and substitute a Christian simulacrum of “Sharia Law”. What do you think? Am I indeed paranoid?

Submitted by: Michael Spindell, guest blogger.

121 thoughts on “West Point and Religion”

  1. I applaud you posting this article. I have for several years followed the news on this formidable effort by Evangelical Christian leaders in the US Armed Forces in newsletters I receive from Mike Weinstein’s organization. I have often thought, as a result of reading about the illegality of proselytizing, that the US military contains a scary resemblance to Muslim jihadist groups. I encourage everyone to sign up for the newsletters put out by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. I think that the founder, Mr. Weinstein, is a bit of a ‘crusader’ (no pun intended) himself, but his cause is a most needed one.
    What really galls me is that the Evangelical US Air Force Academy students have no qualms harassing women. There was a report on this just recently which detailed the pervasive use of pornographic material by the students in their daily lives and quarters which female cadets feel very much is a form of harassment. Will try to find a link to this story and send it.
    I most certainly believe there is a direct relationship between the abundance of religious organizations in Colorado Springs and the American military bases.
    This past summer, my husband and I traveled through Colorado and we were stunned by the prevalence of road signs which included warnings about Pres. Obama winning the elections and equating this possibility to evil.

  3. Well the videos that I just watched were the scariest thing I think I have heard since… since the last scariest thing I heard. I don’t know, my mind is like a sieve but that scared the bejeebers out of me. Not that I ever really thought we were a country full of saints with a military full of supersaints, but that I never realized the extent to which the danger of our vicious faked-up mythology has gained technological and military control of the whole world.

    This morning’s experience leaves me actually glad to realize that my position on the actuarial charts will probably keep me from seeing the “natural endpoint” of this fearsome journey into the world of antihumanity. I’m so glad my kid is not planning to have children. I want to put these genes to rest and not be a witness.

    If Jesus were, if he had a grave, if he spiritually persisted into some kind of “afterlife” in any way, shape or form, he would, I believe, be so appalled by all this that he would cancel the second coming. :follow:

  4. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

    “From where come wars and fights among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” (James 4:1)

    Warmongers let lust create hate within them, then hate produces vile violence.

    They kill, rape, maim and destroy even the orphans and widows, after they become polluted by the warmongering doctrines of Mithraism.

    Make love not war. Give peace a chance.

  5. Blouise,

    I think it’s the perversion of religion by evil people who have their own beliefs and interests at heart that is at the root of the problem. I know many good people of conscience who are religious.

  6. Evangelicals Implicated When Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Was Beaten to Death
    By Frank Schaeffer
    1/27/11
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/evangelicals-implicated-w_b_814683.html

    Excerpt:
    There is an attending level of smarmy hypocrisy expressed as “we hate the sin, but love the sinner” that is as ludicrous as it is two-faced. For instance, in 2010 top Evangelical leaders participated (as they have clamored to do each year for decades) in a Washington schmooze-fest “prayer breakfast” organized by none other than the Family. At that very moment the Family was also hock deep in yet another scandal, this time in Uganda.

    The story of the Ugandan legislation to kill gays for being gay was intertwined with the Family and also with representatives of the wider “respectable” American Evangelical community. According to many press reports, the genesis of the antihomosexual Ugandan bill may be traced to a three-day seminar in Kampala in March 2009 called “Exposing the Truth Behind Homosexuality and the Homosexual Agenda.” This seminar was led by Evangelical leader and hero to the Religious Right Scott Lively. He is best known for his Holocaust revisionist book The Pink Swastika, which claims homosexuals founded the Nazi party and were responsible for death camp atrocities.

    According to sources who attended the conference (and who were later widely quoted in the press), Lively told his Kampala audience, “I know more about this [homosexuality] than almost anyone in the world. The gay movement is an evil institution. The goal of the gay movement is to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.” The results of the seminar were dramatic. “The community has become very hostile now,” Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, said in an interview. “We have to watch our backs very much more than before because the community thinks if the Ugandan government is not passing the law, they will deal with [gay] people on their own.”

    For years Evangelical leaders have jockeyed for good tables at the Family-run “prayer breakfast.” (My late father — evangelical leader Francis Schaeffer — to his credit, always called the Family a “fascist cult” and “evil,” long before its bizarre actions came to anyone else’s attention. He refused all the many invitations to attend the prayer breakfast, let alone speak at it, as he was asked to do several times. Moreover, Dad said that his interest in meeting political leaders was “personal and spiritual,” and he never went in for public displays of sucking up.)

    After the Family was reported to be hock deep in the Uganda scandal, Evangelical leaders still turned up in droves anyway!

    They did this even though David Bahati, the man behind the kill-the-gays legislation, was deeply involved in the Family’s work in Uganda at that time, and a minister in the government of Uganda and was also helping to organize the Family’s National Prayer Breakfast.

    A day before this “prayer” schmooze-farce, I participated in a press conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign. I did so to call attention to the antigay activities of the Family. “Prayer is a good thing, and Americans ought to gather to pray, but we better be careful what we pray for,” said one of our presenters, Gene Robinson (the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church). “I call upon our president to make himself known to be in opposition to this violation of human rights for all of God’s children in Uganda and beyond,” Robinson concluded.

    A gay Ugandan who was seeking asylum in the United States gave a detailed account of the harassment he withstood “from my fellow Christians in Uganda.” Given the multiplying death threats he was receiving for speaking out, Moses (not his real name) addressed reporters with a paper bag over his head to conceal his identity. He described in detail how “one would rather die than come out of the closet” in religiously conservative Uganda. He also spoke about how American Evangelicals had egged on the Ugandan authorities with the Evangelical-propagated pseudoscientific myth that homosexuality is a “chosen lifestyle” that can be “cured” by Jesus and/or therapy and that therefore people who remain gay do so out of choice.

  7. I remember when Jeff Sharlet’s first guest appearance on Maddow and got the book shortly thereafter.

    It really is a must read.

    Religion really appeals to sociopaths for it provides a great place to hide as they cloak themselves in ritual and piety.

    It is my opinion that all religions are, at their core, sociopathic in that they all preach a form of “set aside that which you believe and follow me”.

    Perhaps, in order to be a truly effective killing machine, one must have the mantle of religion around one’s shoulders?

  8. Elaine M. 1, December 9, 2012 at 11:10 am

    Dredd,

    The effort to “fundamentalize” the military is only part of the story. Have you read Jeff Sharlet’s book “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power?”

    Watch this video:
    =========================================
    I did not read the book but I read reviews of it and have cited to it.

    Thanks for another great video.

    AY wrote up-thread “Isn’t power a religion all in of itself …..” and James in LA thanked Mike S for exposing “this mental illness” …

    Our forefathers and foremothers were prescient on this. They felt that power in the social context of civilization was a mental illness that masqueraded as a religion, with priests, laity, rituals, and the whole shebang.

    The “Father of the Constitution” said war is our greatest threat, meaning a warmongering government structure. It was also the belief at that time that power corrupts.

    Illness has a cause, because it is an effect.

    I have been studying it for a long time and sharing my findings from time to time as food for thought to bloggers here and there.

    Just like we all do to benefit each other.

    Peace and season’s greetings.

  9. This is so dam disheartening. How could West Point and the Air force Academy allow such cultism and ignorance to overwhelm their institutions of higher learning?

    This brings the entire military’s decision making ability and process into question destroying any confidence the population may have in the Generals and Colonels and certainly in the Commander in Chief.

    Is Annapolis also infected?

  10. The Family is a chilling book. Sanford of SC and the Apalatian Trail was and may still be a member. (his wife wrote about these guys in her book.) They have a tax free house in DC where they stay. It’s a religious organization, don’t you know. So we not only pay these jokers their salary we also subsidize their housing and their meetings where they tell each other that no matter what they do, no matter how heinous it is its ok because they are chosen by god to lead the people.

    Religion will be the end of our freedom or at least the perversion of religions ill be.

  11. “However, to characterize this man as an “Islamofascist”, a Muslim, a communist, a NAZI, a traitor and the most “Leftist” of U.S. President is a hyperbole far beyond the pale of political discourse. Much of this hyperbole has come from those intertwined with “Right Wing Fundamentalist” belief. ”

    Mike Spindell, These enormous lies are being spread on Fox news (still) 24/7 . They are being spread by numerous politicians, pro right PACs and sermons in churches. They are a faux clarion call to wake up, join our ranks of blind faith in Jesus** and spread his truth, glorify his name, and become a most worthy human being ensconced in gods grace.

    How can this happen in the 21st century. ??? …. Because the right wing Plutocrats needs tools to support their maintenance covetness of wealth and power. Some “left” wing plutocrats conveniently ignore this dichotomy.

    Religious fundies can deliver 30 million votes each election cycle. They can be counted on to come through. The strategy is simple, sophomoric, and successful.
    One unforseen offshoot is some of the pols being elected by this strategy, do not know it is a strategy. They are self righteous deluded fanatics whose goal is a Dominionist society. (thanks Gene H.) …… Ohhh not to worry though, the plutocrats have a strategy for this. See the Saud family and the Wahhabis. The problem with this is it won’t work in a secular democracy.
    Mike, this is what scares the crap out of me. Control of the military is the #1 need for coups in non secular societies. In a Democratic secular society the military exists as a protector of secular Democracy. Gather the Loons in the military hierarchy, gather the Loons in our representative Congress, and we will be soon “ungathering” the enlightenment and achievements of the last 230 years progressive American Democracy.

  12. Dredd,

    The effort to “fundamentalize” the military is only part of the story. Have you read Jeff Sharlet’s book “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power?”

    Watch this video:
    Jeff Sharlet talks about “The Family” on Rachel Maddow

  14. James in LA,

    On a semi-ironic note let me say: “From your mouth to God’s ear”.

  15. bettykath,

    LOL :mrgreen: Ummmmmm. Nope. It was late, I had a head full of NyQuil, I was tired and thinking of Blake Lively (who I had also just read something about) when I typed “lady” and “her”. I linked to it b/c he wrote it.

    Apologies to both Mr. Page and Mrs. Lively.

  16. In the midst of writing this piece I knew with a certainty that some people here would actually add substantially to the evidence I was presenting. As I expected Gene, Elaine, SwM and David have done much more than supplement what I presented, they actually made my job much easier with the links they’ve provided.
    Being an acolyte of studying mythology and its influence on today’s world, Dredd’s contribution on Mithraism took the discussion to another level, which though I was aware of the background, didn’t think to connect to this story.

  17. Elaine M has provided a must-see video.

    It is in two parts.

    Please watch it.

    It proves that the fear of what threatens us is real and reasonable.

    Paranoia is unreasonable or unwarranted fear.

    Therefore, Mike S is not paranoid, he is reasonably fearful as we all are who see where this is going.

  18. “Mithraism was quite often noted by many historians for its many “astonishing similarities to Christianity.”

    Dredd as you can already guess I’m on the same page as you regarding those “similarities”. A tangential point I find interesting and which you have touched upon is how the extremely brutal Roman conquests have been treated lightly in general public education. Gibbon is of course an exception and I’ve read his complete works. However, I well remember my Elementary and High School education regarding the Romans was biased to leave one with a relatively positive view of that Empire. “Pax Romana” was seen as a good thing for the the “savages” of the world bringing them a positive society. Carthage was made into an implacable, brutal entity that had to be completely destroyed.

    The truth of Roman society is that while they produce some individuals of note, the Romans greatest “civilizing” talents were in War and Engineering. They copied much mythology and philosophy. They treated people horribly, save for their nobility and soldiers and many of the “savage” cultures they subdued represented civilizations of far greater age, wiser philosophy and greater learning.

    We see, as you state, a similar situation and drive today. The U.S. has been trying to impose a “Pax Americana” since WWII. We have ongoing military bases all over the world that act as deterrents to those who would thwart our aims. We have deposed governments that would dare to oppose us, even in philosophical terms. We have deemed “Barbarian” cultures that represent some of the oldest civilizations among humanity. We are already behaving badly as a world power. I think you and I both cringe at the thought that like the warlike, male-centered cult of Mithraism drove the Roman Legions, so to does the warlike, male-centered cult of “Right-Wing Fundamentalism” want to control our military, if it already doesn’t.

  19. Mike, thank you for exposing this mental illness. We absolutely cannot have it in our military. If good old fashioned “christian” persecution is needed to clean out the swamp, so be it. Zealots need to be glad we don’t tax your churches as you pump your non-christian poison into the heads of those you have controlled with fear of bullies, namely the biggest one of all: jehova, such that you permit yourselves to kill in the name of ghosts.

    Because there is absolutely nothing related to unconditional love through service to one another in our military, or any military. This sick fantasy is not an American proposition, sorry, and those who push it are going to be bitterly disappointed by the future, because those who are coming up do not buy it. Not for a second. There was no “huffington post” 10 years ago. In the harsh light of now, the roach problem we have is revealed in total.

    The time when we just silently and quaintly accept the clearly demonstrably dangerous behavior of religious zealots simply because they are religious is OVER. Call them by their real names: Dumb and Dumber, and tell them to their faces the damage they cause. Take away the ridiculous tax protection to drive it home.

    Enough of the kiddie wet-dreams. We really do not have the time for it.

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