Generals Promote Christianity Inside the Pentagon
    By Thomas D. Williams
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Tuesday 26 December 2006

    It's a delicate and controversial question. Where does freedom to practice religion inside Pentagon offices with high-ranking Defense Department officers, congressmen and other ranking federal officials stop?

    Can Army generals in uniform gather with congressmen and federal agency officials to promote the Christian faith in uniform inside the Pentagon while being videotaped by a high-powered religious organization? Can the easily accessible tape, as well as military Christian web sites, be misconstrued by Islamic extremists during wartime?

    The videotape was pulled off the internet recently, after a complaint that it violated federal regulations and the US Constitution by using governmental officials to promote Christianity. It is not the only web site heralding Christians in the military.

    The complaint against the video is in the hands of Thomas F. Gimble, acting Department of Defense inspector general. Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, in Albuquerque, NM, made the accusations December 11 against the Christian Embassy in Washington, DC. Simultaneously, Weinstein filed a detailed freedom of information request, asking the Pentagon for any documents or other material related to the origins of the video.

    Department of Defense regulations say: "Community relations activities shall not support, or appear to support, any event that provides a selective benefit to any individual, group, or organization, including any religious or sectarian organization, ideological movement, political campaign or organization or commercial enterprise. When DOD support is provided to one non-federal entity, the DOD component commands or organizations providing such support must be able and willing to provide similar support to comparable events sponsored by similar non-federal entities."

    The Embassy's web site says it, as a non-denominational Christian ministry, has sought for three decades "to help diplomats, government leaders and military officers find real and lasting purpose through faith and encouragement." On the other hand, Weinstein's more recently created foundation says it has become a "national movement to restore the obliterated wall separating church and state in the most technologically lethal organization ever created by humankind: the United States armed forces." He charges that widespread military promotions of Christianity risk claims by Iraqi insurgents and Islamic terrorists that the US is, in part, conducting violent crusades against them.

    The Department of Defense's own web site contains references to a DOD conference with senators three years ago, in which a high-ranking general, who is still active, is quoted as suggesting the Iraq War is a religious war. Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and majority whip, is quoted as saying: "[The general] speaks of Muslims. He says, quote, 'They're after us because we are a Christian nation.' He speaks about his conversations with other ... with Muslims, and he speaks of one where he says, quote, 'I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.' And he also says, quote, 'God, not the voters, chose President Bush.'"

    Weinstein claims military organizations have become highly promotional of Christianity, with military arm patches suggesting crusades, a biblical quotation posted over the door of a military classroom, evangelical organizations pushing members to propagandize service members, and the wholesale use of military e-mail to send religious messages.

    Despite his complaints against the military, Weinstein is no military outsider. He describes his and his family's background this way: As a 1977 honor graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Weinstein spent 10 years in the Air force as a "JAG" or military attorney serving, as both a federal prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney. His oldest son and daughter-in-law are 2004 Air Force Academy graduates, and Weinstein's youngest son is currently a first classman (senior) at the Academy and is the sixth member of the Weinstein family to attend the institution. Weinstein's father is a distinguished graduate of the United States Naval Academy.

    In the video, Weinstein attacks - as a blatant example of an illegal Pentagon religious promotion - the statement of an unidentified narrator: "The Christian Embassy comes alongside presidential appointees serving in the White House and federal agencies to help direct their focus on Jesus Christ." The session was held originally inside the Pentagon in February 2004, and it included brief interviews with seven high-ranking military officers dressed in uniform, five congressmen, two foreign ambassadors, and four ranking federal officials.

    President Bush, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, who styles himself as a man of deep Christian faith, has warned the public and officials about promoting a particular religious faith on government time. On the White House web site, discussing religious funding, he sets out this rule: "If someone asks you about your personal faith while you are providing a government-funded service, you may answer briefly. But if you wish to have a longer discussion on matters of faith, you should set up a time to speak with that person later. In this way, you avoid using government funds for what might be taken to be an inherently religious activity, and the program is kept on track. But you also have an opportunity later to share your faith and explain why you do what you do."

    One of the video's participants, Judy Guenther, a Pentagon senior executive, gives an emotional description of her participation in the Christian group, according to a transcription of her remarks. She says: "Through my relationship with the Christian Embassy, my eyes were opened to the fact that even though I was a sinner, Jesus Christ is a very forgiving God, and all I have to do is accept him as my savior, and he died on the cross for me, personally, ... he paid my debt in full, and it, um, makes me cry."

    Earlier this month, Dr. Robert Varney, executive director of the Christian Embassy, said he pulled the video off the Internet "out of respect for the people in the video because of the (IG) investigation. We expect they need to check out the facts and prove the innocence of the people involved in the allegations."

    "I am not a lawyer," he explained when asked about military regulations on religious gatherings in government offices. "I am not equipped to interpret the regulations. But we got permission from the Pentagon, so I don't believe people there would violate the regulations. The people in the video were speaking personally for themselves about how the Christian Embassy has helped them. We do live in a world of religious freedom. The Pentagon is helping us, as it does help people of different faiths, [to] worship as they choose."

    A spokeswoman for the Pentagon chaplaincy office, Cynthia Smith, said: "The Department of Defense does not endorse any one religion or religious organization. The DOD provides free access of religion for all members of the military services." The department has received the complaint, she added, but will not speculate on its outcome, and doesn't confirm ongoing investigations.

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    Thomas "Dennie" Williams is a former state and federal court reporter, specializing in investigations, for the Hartford Courant for over three decades. Since the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he has written hundreds of articles on wartime hazardous exposures such as depleted-uranium munitions; the controversial anthrax vaccine, and the consistent failures of the federal government to assist sick veterans of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.