Lazy Media & Christian Soldiers
I posted this story on my Examiner page yesterday, but I think it is a pretty important story (or two) that needs to be talked about in more detail. This story is really two stories in one and both seem equally shocking to me. The first is that the United States Military seems to be doing religious proselytizing in Afghanistan. Apparently, the Religious Right are on military bases telling our soldiers that they need to convert the people of Afghanistan to Christians in the name of Jesus. Fundamentalist churches have even been funding the printing of Bibles translated into the local Afghani languages native to the region. Not only are those Bibles are being distributed by American soldiers, but the Bibles themselves are in a small way being translated and printed using our money. Churches are tax-exempt and so church money, which would normally go to taxes is going to translate and print these Bibles. Then American soldiers on the taxpayer’s dime are going hut-to-hut handing them out. We are actually paying the chaplains to preach this message of “hunting for Jesus.”
The second shocking story is that this story wasn’t even reported on CNN, Fox News, or even MSNBC. No, it wasn’t on ABC, NBC, or CBS either. It wasn’t even on NPR. Instead, Al-Jazirah News reported this story. Where is the American journalistic spirit, which should be investigating these accusations, which make all of America look like lunatic fundamentalist Christians to the very people who hate us because they think we are all lunatic fundamentalist Christians. Not long ago, President Obama went before the people of Turkey and told them that America is not a Christian Nation and yet here we are, American military personnel giving out Bibles in an Arab land. This not only is a violation of the Military Code of Conduct but also makes America less safe.
Personally, I would advocate distributing pamphlets, which might encourage Muslims to think critically about their religion, because I think critical thinking is useful no matter what someone believes. I also think that critical thinking might make Muslims less of a threat to America and the world. Legally, I am not sure if US soldiers would be allowed to do that, but at this point I am starting to think that maybe I had the wrong target for my critical thinking pamphlet idea. Maybe we should be giving critical thinking pamphlets and lessons to our soldiers.
Flipping through the major news networks today I saw story after story about the pig flu, which has killed less people so far than the actual flu has in the same amount of time. I keep hearing how Republican Arlen Specter is now a Democrat and how Obama has to pick someone to replace Justice Souter. While I have talked about all these stories on the Examiner site, the major news networks are still reporting these stories over and over again. There is nothing new with any of these stories and yet not one of these news networks is talking about US Soldiers handing out specially translated Bibles to the Arab people while we are trying to gain their support in hunting down terrorist camps. Here is the video from Al-Jazirah News:
Filed under: Preaching, Religion, Uncategorized