Soldiers may be court martialed for sharing Christian faith

The Obama administration is not one to take their foot off the neck of Christians, but not so much the Muslims.

So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime–possibly resulting in imprisonment–for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)–whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction, or comfort.

Recall earlier Military ready to purge Catholics and Protestants and Evangelicals?

The military is getting ready for the purge of any servicemen and women who may not be ready to turn on their fellow citizens? Recall first  West Point think tank warns of dangerous conservatives?

The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right.” And just who are these “Violent Far-Right” folks?

It says anti-federalists “espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement.”

“While liberal worldviews are future- or progressive-oriented, conservative  perspectives are more past-oriented, and in general, are interested in  preserving the status quo,” the report says. “The far right represents a more  extreme version of conservatism, as its political vision is usually justified by  the aspiration to restore or preserve values and practices that are part of the  idealized historical heritage of the nation or ethnic community.”

Now we hear from and more at Breitbart

The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: “Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense…Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis…”.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

(From an earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians–including chaplains–sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.

Military ready to purge Catholics and Protestant Evangelicals?

So now Catholics and Evangelical Protestants are classified as “extremist” religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan.

The military is getting ready for the purge of any servicemen and women who may not be ready to turn on their fellow citizens? Recall first  West Point think tank warns of dangerous conservatives?

The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right.” And just who are these “Violent Far-Right” folks?

It says anti-federalists “espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement.”

Now we learn that the DOD is moving on for the purge?

The presentation identified seventeen religious organizations in a slide titled “religious extremism.” They include al Qaeda, Hamas, the Filipino separatist group Abu Sayyaf, and the Ku Klux Klan, which the slide identifies as a Christian organization..

The Defense Department came under fire Thursday for a U.S. Army Reserve presentation that classified Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as “extremist” religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan.

“Men and women of faith who have served the Army faithfully for centuries shouldn’t be likened to those who have regularly threatened the peace and security of the United States,” said Col. Ron Crews, a retired Army chaplain and the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.

“It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization,” Crews said in a news release.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services, a Catholic organization that trains and endorses military priests and chaplains, said in a release that it was “astounded that Catholics were listed alongside groups that are, by their very mission and nature, violent and extremist.”

“Religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or region of the world,” the slide explains, in language that closely resembles the text of a Wikipedia page on “extremism.”

While outfits such as al Qaeda and the KKK are explicitly violent, the presentation also lists Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism as extremist groups.

 

 The AMS called on the Pentagon “to review these materials and to ensure that tax-payer funds are never again used to present blatantly anti-religious material to the men and women in uniform.”

H/T: Free Beacon

Pastor bashes Religious Right at Obama’s Easter Service

Easter with the Obamas.

It was certainly rich hearing Obama gain attention this weekend. We had his Saturday’s remarks, and of course he had to be sure he was seen on Easter. It sounds like Obama has found his religious home again.  First the Pastor’s remark, and then let’s reflect on Obama and his own dissing of Christianity.

Weekly Standard:

President Obama and his family this morning went to Easter Sunday services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. Here are notes on the Easter service from the pool reporter, which included this part, “It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back … for blacks to be back in the back of the bus … for women to be back in the kitchen … for immigrants to be back on their side of the border”

Then we have Obama’s Saturday remarks regarding Easter that makes one cringe:

in the Easter message he issued this weekend. You can watch the video on ABC News:

….Of course, those values are at the heart not just of the Christian faith; but of all faiths. From Judaism to Islam; Hinduism to Sikhism; there echoes a powerful call to serve our brothers and sisters. To keep in our hearts a deep and abiding compassion for all. And to treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

That’s the common humanity that binds us together. And as Americans, we’re united by something else, too: faith in the ideals that lie at the heart of our founding*; and the belief that, as part of something bigger than ourselves, we have a shared responsibility to look out for our fellow citizens.

Here is Obama’s bizarre view on his personal salvation. Apparently only if we agree to becoming a Marxist nation, can the man find salvation.

 In case there are any questions left, Obama mocks the Christianity and the second amendment.

Happy Easter!

He has Risen, he has Risen indeed!

From Andre Rieu’s “Live From Radio City Music Hall” in New York City 2004, with the Johann Strauss Orchestra and the Harlem Gospel Choir.

Happy Easter to everyone.

Pope Francis role during Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’ come back again?

To my Catholic readers, I do not in any way wish to cast aspersions on a day of celebration. There is a concern regarding the new Pope that I believe it needs to come forward. Should we have a discussion of the role the Catholic Church and its involvement in politics? None more than the so-called “Dirty war” in Argentina. The Associated Press provides details on Francis’ relationship to the regime, and one can easily read Francis’ record in two different ways:  Read here. Please leave respectable comments.

Here are some comments to the article:

Comments:

What was the Church’s alternatives ? It was either support a right-wing dictatorship or face a left-wing firing squad. You think they didn’t remember what the communists did in Spain ?

Response:

If by that you mean “What else could the hierarchy have done?”, I would say that they could have taken their collective cue from the likes of Óscar Romero and shown a little moral fibre by opposing the torture, murder and oppression of their own people.

Will Francis’s role during Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’ come back to haunt him?

From 1973 to 1979, a period that overlapped with military dictatorship lasting from 1976 to 1983, Francis served as the top Argentine Jesuit official. During that time, the Catholic Church remained silent in the face of widespread human rights violations during the country’s so-called “Dirty War,” an effort by the military government to root out dissent by torture, murder, and disappearances.

Bergoglio has been criticized by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) for his behavior during the 1976-1983 dictatorship in Argentina, with some journalists claiming that he prevented human rights groups from finding political prisoners by imprisoning them in his vacation home.

From post at Guardian UK Hugh O’Shaughnessy

•  Tuesday 4 January 2011

The sins of the Argentinian church

The Catholic church was complicit in dreadful crimes in Argentina. Now it has a chance to repent

Francis still arrives with something of a troubled history. As the head of the Jesuit Order during the country’s military dictatorship, he may be tainted by the church’s well-documented history of turning a blind eye to the regime’s practice of killing progressive priests.

To his credit, Bergoglio has in recent years spearheaded the Argentine Catholic Church’s effort to apologize for its collaboration with the military regime, and last October Argentine bishops apologized for their failure to speak out against human rights abuses.

But with his ascendance to the papacy, greater scrutiny than ever will be directed toward his record during the time of Argentina’s military regime. The information that emerges may come to define Francis’ papacy.

From 1973 to 1979, a period that overlapped with military dictatorship lasting from 1976 to 1983, Francis served as the top Argentine Jesuit official. During that time, the Catholic Church remained silent in the face of widespread human rights violations during the country’s so-called “Dirty War,” an effort by the military government to root out dissent by torture, murder, and disappearances. In several cases, Catholic priests collaborated with the government and were even in the room as prisoners were tortured. In February, an Argentine court ruled that the Catholic church hierarchy, of which Francis was arguably a member, had “closed its eyes” to the killing of progressive priests. In 2005, human rights lawyers filed a case against then-Cardinal Bergoglio alleging that he had been complicit in the kidnapping of two Jesuit priests.

The extent of the church’s complicity in the dark deeds was excellently set out by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina’s most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentinian navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship’s political prisoners. Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate. The most shaming thing for the church is that in such circumstances Bergoglio’s name was allowed to go forward in the ballot to chose the successor of John Paul II. What scandal would not have ensued if the first pope ever to be elected from the continent of America had been revealed as an accessory to murder and false imprisonment.

Muslim College opens in United States

Let’s just get to the bottom line: Here is an update courtesy of Al Jazeera. In August 2010, I posted about the Muslim college being opened in Moonbat City, Berkley, Here . What the video isn’t telling you:

Bottom Line: Zaytuna currently offers two majors, a choice of Islamic law and religion or Arabic language. Zaytuna held its first classes this summer — intensive study of Arabic to prepare for classes in the fall.

“The incoming students at Zaytuna College must pass a proficiency exam – – not in English – – but Arabic. Those who fail must enroll in the school’s “Arabic Intensive Program. … At the completion of their Islamic training, students, who specialize in Islamic theology, must pass an exit exam in tajwid – – the proper recitation of the Koran.

And behind this College? One is Zaif Shakir This is the same CAIR who said it was right for Muslims to attack Fort Bragg. Read here from Bunkerville we posted last November Cair Speaker said ok to attack Fort Bragg

Radical Islamic cleric Zaif Shakir, a frequent guest speaker at CAIR events, tells his Muslim audiences: “Jihad is physically fighting the enemies of Islam to protect and advance the religion of Islam. This is jihad.”

Acceptable targets of jihad, he says, include U.S. military aircraft. Shakir once told a Muslim audience.

Zaytuna College is a new four-year college in Berkeley, California. Zaytuna is seeking to become the first accredited Muslim college in the United States. The name comes from the Arabic word for olives. (Like I care.)

The process of full accreditation could take several years. That will make it easier for students to get financial aid, and to have their education recognized by employers and other schools. Right, we will be supporting terrorists.

 

Script from the video:

A Muslim college in the United States is the first of its kind, its mission is to join Islamic scholarship with the Western academic emphasis on free inquiry and developing critical intellectual capacities. Zaytuna College in Berkeley Californi is a fledgling institution with only 31 students, operating out space rented from a Baptist seminary. Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reports from California.

H/T: Weasel Zippers

Christian boys in Egypt being tried for showing ‘contempt’ to Islam

Courtesy of Hillary Clinton, Obama and the Arab Spring.  As the Arab Spring descends into chaos, very little reporting of the Christian intolerance going down. But then again, as Obama said, “Just a bump in the road”. Video below. And Obama’s approval rating is close to 60 percent.

JERUSALEM – Among files on arrested converts from Islam, kidnapped Christian girls and beaten monks piling up on the desk of a noted lawyer in Egypt, on top is the case of two boys about to be tried for allegedly showing contempt of Islam.

Attorney Karam Gabriel said anti-Christian hostilities in the restive country are getting worse as the two boys are to be tried in a court in Beni Suef – the same city where a mother and her seven children were convicted last month for reconverting to Christianity – for showing “contempt to Islamic religion and insulting the Koran.”

The accusation against Nabil Naji Rizq and Mina Atallah (identified in some press reports as Mina Nadi Faraj), who were 10 and 9 years old respectively at the time of their arrest in late September, of insulting the Koran made headlines throughout the country after a man saw them playing in rubbish that he claimed included pages from the Koran. Accusing them of tearing pages of Islam’s holy book – a later version of the story had them allegedly urinating on it – he filed a report that led to the arrest of the two children. They were released in early October.

Angry protestors from Beni Suef reportedly intimidated Christian residents of the nearby village of Ezbat Marco at that time and prevented them from going to work.

Keep reading

Obama demonstrates in the video below his keen insight into what is going on with the terrorist’s attacks and the “democratic” future and  “Universal rights” of these poor souls. Meanwhile Egypt is in flames.

This may be the first time in history that a President of the United States has called a terrorist attack against the country a “bump in the road.” (September 23, 2012).

Christianity ‘close to extinction’ in places: An Islamic Victory?

Christianity faces being wiped out of the “biblical heartlands” in the Middle East because of mounting persecution of worshippers, according to a new report.

As we wind down this year and the season of holiday cheer comes to and end, it is easy to pass by one of the biggest stories that was under reported. That being the attack on Christianity throughout much of the world. Let us keep our brothers and sisters in our prayers. Here we go:

The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group.

And it claims politicians have been “blind” to the extent of violence faced by Christians in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam, it says, claiming that oppression in Muslim countries is often ignored because of a fear that criticism will be seen as “racism”.

The report, entitled Christianophobia, highlights a fear among oppressive regimes that Christianity is a “Western creed” which can be used to undermine them.

The “lion’s share” of persecution faced by Christians arises in countries where Islam is the dominant faith, the report says, quoting estimates that between a half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left the region or been killed in the past century.

“There is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” it claims.

The report shows that “Muslim-majority” states make up 12 of the 20 countries judged to be “unfree” on the grounds of religious tolerance by Freedom House, the human rights think tank.

It catalogues hundreds of attacks on Christians by religious fanatics over recent years, focusing on seven countries: Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Burma and China.

State hostility towards Christianity is particularly rife in China, where more Christians are imprisoned than in any other country in the world, according to the report.

READ THE REST HERE

H/T: THEFLYINGCAMELDOTORG

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! One of my favorite pieces.

“For to us a child is born,
to us a Son is given,
and the government will be on His shoulders.
And He will be called
Wonderful, Counselor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6

 

Our Nation mourns for our loss

Saleh- I Will Carry You With Lyrics. With much sadness, our hearts and prayers go out to those who grieve.