Sunday, July 31, 2011

Bill Maher: Ft. Hood Shooter a "Muslim Terrorist," Norwegian Murderer Not a "Christian Terrorist"? & US Military Training Based On Christian Theology

Nuclear War & Christian Theology and Ethics  - Faith V War

US Military "Christian Crusaders" ???






Sunday Sermon

Fart Hood mass murderer is labeled a terrorists but Anders Beivik of Norway is not labeled a "Christian Terrorists"
Christian Dominionists infiltration of the US Military
Ex-Nazi teaches ethics to US Air Force personnel about the morality and religious justification of using nuclear weapons.

"Leave it to the United States Air Force to find a way to dictate the 'ethical' value of nuclear war and it's inevitable role in the 'natural order' of humanity's existence, to it's missile launch officer trainees by merging unadulterated, fundamentalist Christian end times Armageddon doctrines with the tortured 'people who are guided by the bible endorsements of a former, leading Nazi SS official..."  Quote by Mikey Weinstein president of Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF)

"Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons" by: Jason Leopold, Truthout July 27, 2011

To listen to the bloviators, "religious extremist" means Muslim, and too many Americans buy in without understanding that this "God is (only) on Our Side" nonsense infects elements in pretty much every belief system. But while violent fanatics are certainly dangerous and should be dealt with appropriately, it's vital that we recognize extremism wherever it appears. Because in some cases fanatical belief puts on a benevolent face and encroaches through stealth; rather than fly planes into buildings or massacre nonbelievers on a train or in gas chambers, these adherents ease into institutions and infiltrate systems with the aim of gaining legitimacy and, eventually, control.
Quote by Mike Farrell Coercive Religion Misplaced in US Armed Forces" , Truthout July 26, 2011

Bill Maher

"Religion gives license to crazies..."
"Christianity coming out of its dormant stage... returning to the Crusades"

Bill Maher: Why Is the Ft. Hood Shooter a "Muslim Terrorist," But the Norwegian Murderer Not a "Christian Terrorist"? | AlterNet




Just War Christian Ethics -St. Augustine
War & Faith


PDF FILE: ETHICS Slides Five Principles


"Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons" by: Jason Leopold, Truthout July 27, 2011

The United States Air Force has been training young missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons by citing passages from the New Testament and commentary from a former member of the Nazi Party, according to newly released documents.

The mandatory Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare session, which includes a discussion on St. Augustine's "Christian Just War Theory," is led by Air Force chaplains and takes place during a missile officer's first week in training at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

St. Augustine's "Qualifications for Just War," according to the way it is cited in a 43-page PowerPoint presentation, are: "to avenge or to avert evil; to protect the innocent and restore moral social order (just cause)" and "to restore moral order; not expand power, not for pride or revenge (just intent)."

The Air Force documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and provided to Truthout by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a civil rights organization. MRFF President Mikey Weinstein said more than 30 Air Force officers, a majority of whom describe themselves as practicing Protestants and Roman Catholics, have contacted his group over the past week in hopes of enlisting him to work with the Air Force to have the Christian-themed teachings removed from the nuclear weapons ethics training session.

One of the most disturbing slides quotes Wernher Von Braun, a former member of the Nazi Party and SS officer. Von Braun, regarded as the father of the US space program, is not being cited as a scientific expert, rather he's specifically being referenced as a moral authority, which is remarkable considering that the Nazi scientist used Jews imprisoned in concentration camps and captured French anti-Nazi partisans and civilians to help build the V-2 rocket, a weapon responsible for the death of thousands of British civilians


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Mike Farrell discusses the infiltration of the US military by Christian Dominionists ( Christian Nationalists/ Seven mountains Prophecy, The Call) who believe all institutions and facets of American culture should reflect and be controlled by Christian Fundamentalists in order that America become a True Christian Nation.

Coercive Religion Misplaced in US Armed Forces" by: Mike Farrell, Truthout July 26, 2011

...Take a look at fundamentalist, Dominionist Christianity. That's the bunch, per writer and researcher Chris Berlet, that is called not only to be "active political participants in civic society, but also seek to dominate the political process as part of a mandate from God." Or, as sociologist Sara Diamond puts it, they "alone are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns - and there is no consensus on when that might be."

A mandate from God that the adherents of this particular "One True Faith" should take over our nation's institutions? Yup. And I'm afraid it's easy to dismiss the idea as arrogant posturing and just laugh. O.K., maybe wince when that clown in Florida burns the Koran, or shake our heads when a Christian organizer says gays are Nazis, or, per another more recent source, "barbarians." Maybe you scoffed when a Christian leader said 9/11 was God's punishment for creeping secularism, but these folks are serious.

For example, one of the secular institutions on which this bunch is working its wiles is our armed forces. Hard to imagine, isn't it; that a cult-like extremist group could quietly weave its way into control of the command structure of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines? But think about it; did the "Jesus Rifles" just happen by accident? Remember the 800,000 high-powered rifle sights engraved with Bible codes proclaiming, "Jesus as the light of the world" and other quotes that our troops unwittingly carried into battle in two primarily Muslim countries? Just a fluke? Ya' think? Just an innocent mistake, the unfortunate mix of a zealous Christian manufacturer and a sleepy Pentagon acquisitions officer?

...Aside from dealing with the everyday verbal and written assaults like "Kike," leader of "the forces of Satan," "devoted servant of Satan," "... are all Jews just money-grubbing busy-bodies," "... grind yourself into dust against the wave of Christianity that is sweeping this nation," "... you and your atheist comrades' days are running out," "jew lawyer crybaby who sucks moslems (sic) c**k..." and other such homilies from his Christian detractors, Weinstein and the MRFF (now including a security staff to deal with death threats and assassination attempts) work to safeguard the right to religious freedom of thousands of marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen and women of all faiths (96 percent of them Christian - Catholics and mainline Protestants), Academy staff, cadets, midshipmen, military personnel, and others whose education, jobs and careers are in jeopardy if they fail to toe the line dictated by military superiors who claim to be the only true followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

The article below suggests by its title that this controversial Christian based ethics course on the use of Nuclear Weapons has been removed but in actual fact it has been suspended while undergoing a review. So it is possible that this is merely a Public Relations move on the part of the military and that once attention is diverted away from it; the course may be reintroduced with the rhetoric and tone lowered and yet contain the same basic quasi-religious message ie God approves of the use of nuclear weapons under certain conditions.


Air Force Pulls Christian-Themed Ethics Training for Nuclear Missile Officers After Publication of Truthout Report" by: Jason Leopold, Truthout July 30, 2011


The Air Force, in response to an exclusive report published by Truthout earlier this week, has withdrawn materials used in a training session that relied upon passages from the New and Old Testament and a quote from an ex-Nazi SS officer to teach missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons.

The Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare training "has been taken out of the curriculum and is being reviewed," said David Smith, chief of public affairs of Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. "The commander reviewed it and decided we needed to have a good hard look at it and make sure it reflected views of modern society."

Smith said the ethics training has been in place for "20-plus years" and the decision to remove it was made on Wednesday after Truthout's report was published. He added that it will now be "given thorough scrutiny" and "folks will be appointed to look at what we have and determine its utility and if they think its useful to continue having an ethics course they will develop a new course."

and as Mikey Weinstein of MRFF concludes that this training course should never have been permitted as Air Force training to begin with so the Military does not deserve praise for submitting this Christian based course to an indepth review. The top brass as it were should have been more diligent about such a training course to begin with.

MRFF President Mikey Weinstein said more than 30 missile officers contacted his organization over the past week to complain about the Christian imagery and biblical passages in the ethics training. He said the decision by the Air Force to pull the ethics course material is a "great victory for the constitution." [Full disclosure: Weinstein is a member of Truthout's Board of Advisers.]

"We are not going to commend the Air Force for doing something they should have done a quarter-century ago," Weinstein said. "It's an outrage and a deliberate attempt to torture and distort our constitution when the US Air Force mandatorily teaches its nuclear missile launch officers that fundamentalist Christian theology is inextricably intertwined with the 'correct' decision to launch nukes."

and so it goes,
GORD.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, there is a broken link in this article, under the anchor text - War & Faith
Here is the working link so you can replace it - https://selectra.co.uk/sites/selectra.co.uk/files/pdf/nuclear_ethics.pdf