A new story on Truthout.org entitled Report:  Pentagon Facilitating Christian Evangelism details new Military Religious Freedom Foundation findings on a Campus Crusade For Christ sponsored ministry that has been given access to set up religious education programs at two leading US military basic training facilities in Texas. A page from the ministry website states explicitly the goal ; to make  US active duty service members into "government paid missionaries". The Merriman family, through their  Campus Crusade For Christ supported Military Ministry, are not promoting Christianity in general but but a very specific, sectarian, politicized interpretation of Christianity*, and that is consistent with a pattern that is emerging from research findings by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation ; the pervasive presence in, and institutional favoring by, the Department Of Defense, of a warlike, apocalyptic interpretation of Christianity. The pattern can be construed as an unofficial institutional endorsement of what is at base a Christian theology of war.

Neocon Catholic leaders nurtured by GOP and Conservative Philanthropy on their heels

In the 2004 presidential election cycle, Catholics, whose vote was considered open to both parties, were carefully courted by the Republicans. GOP organizers -- accompanied by their neoconservative Catholic brethren -- brought the "traditional family values" mantra to the table, highlighting supposed agreement between Catholics and conservative evangelical Christians on two major issues -- abortion and same-sex marriage.

In the actual election, Republican George W. Bush wound up receiving 52 percent of the Catholic vote, up from 47 percent in 2000, to John Kerry's 47 percent.

In 2006, however, Catholics, who compose a 67 million-person slice of the electorate, favored Democrats by 55 percent to 45 percent, according to National Election Pool exit polls.

It was clear that some Catholic voters had migrated back to the Democratic Party. Was it a temporary move or were they heading home for the long term?

This image, right, is from a current Fort Benning chaplains page entitled "Protestant Religious Education". See full post for full size image.

Neoconservatives selling Iraq War to 'values voters'

In the late 1960s and early '70s, then U.S. President Richard Nixon appealed to the country's "Silent Majority" to oppose growing anti-Vietnam War sentiment in the United States.

A decade later, President Ronald Reagan had the Rev. Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority" working by his side in support of Reagan's low-intensity warfare in Central America, and contra movements in Africa.

During the run-up to, and period following the 1994 Republican revolution that gave that conservative party control of Congress for the first time in decades, the high-profile Georgia legislator Newt Gingrich's band had the Rev. Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed's Christian Coalition stirring the conservative grassroots into action against the Bill Clinton administration.

Now, in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration, Gary Bauer, a former Reagan administration official and longtime conservative activist, is heading up a new organization aimed at countering liberal groups like MoveOn.org, and supporting President Bush's global "war on terror".

Erik Prince, the founder and head of Blackwater USA, has contributed mega-bucks to Republican Party candidates and Christian right organizations and causes. Why is this advocate of "traditional family values" stonewalling the families of four Blackwater contractors killed in Fallujah in March 2004?

After an incident over the weekend that resulted in the murder of eight civilians and the wounding of thirteen others by private security forces in Iraq, the ministry of interior yesterday took the decision to expel Blackwater from the country.

According to The Guardian, US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, "apologized to the Iraqi government ... in an attempt to prevent the expulsion of all" Blackwater employees from Iraq.

Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, the son of conservative multi-millionaire, the late Edgar Prince, and the brother of Betsy DeVos, the wife of Dick DeVos, the son of Amway founder Richard DeVos.

Over the paast two decades, both the Prince and DeVos families have given millions of dollars to Republican Party candidates, and conservative Christian organizations and causes.

Organizers of the upcoming `Values Voter Presidential Debate' want to know why the fab-four are ducking its debate

Mitt won't be there. Fred won't be there, Rudy won't be there and John won't be there. It will not be televised on any of the cable news networks. And it will be moderated by a buzzworthy news anchor or television talk show host.

Nevertheless, Christian conservatives are touting their "Values Voter Presidential Debate," as the place where "values voters" will get straightforward answers to straightforward questions.

The debate, set for September 17 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, in Ft. Lauderdale Florida, is being organized by such Christian conservative heavyweights as the Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schlafly, the Free Congress Foundation's Paul Weyrich, the American Family Association's Don Wildmon, Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver, Rick Scarborough, and Faith2Action's Janet Folger.  According to Christian Newswire, "All candidates from both parties were invited, but those who "cared enough about values voters to actually show up" and address the pro-family audience will include: Sam Brownback, John Cox, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, and Tom Tancredo."

Moderating the debate will be WorldNetDaily's founder, Joseph Farah.

Still under fire for dirty tricks in the 2004 presidential election, Blackwell, the Republican gubernatorial loser, is under the wing 0f Tony Perkins' Family Research Council

Kenneth Blackwell, the former secretary of state of Ohio, took up ideological residence at the Family Research Council earlier this year. His repositioning was the result of having been trounced last November in that state's gubernatorial contest at the hands of the Democratic Party's Congressman Ted Strickland.    

Over the years, Blackwell has carried enough water for the GOP to fill up a good part of Lake Erie. He's done enough dirty work to pave the Interstate from Cleveland to Columbus. He is credited with being part of the team that helped double President George W. Bush's vote count among Blacks in Ohio in 2004, and is charged, by critics, of having tampered with that vote. So despite his humiliating defeat, he remains a darling of both religious and economic conservatives.

"If you are willing to lay down your life--day by day--so that innocent children will be saved from murder; if you are ready to end the holocaust of America's unborn once and for all, join us in battle. And remember: Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is doing what is right in spite of your fears."
--Randall Terry, Founder, Operation Rescue

Operation Rescue, the violent anti-abortion organization, has announced plans for "Operation Rescue XX," a "conference, rally and training," which will take place in Philadelphia on November 23-24 of this year.  

In a lengthy message posted at its website (much of which is still under construction), Operation Rescue throws down this challenge:

If you want to help bring an end to the killing, we invite you to rise up and be a hero to the unborn NOW-- and a hero for future generations. We need young Davids to confront and defeat Goliath, to make it their unalterable mission to vanquish the legalized murder of the unborn.

Conservative U.S. Evangelical Christians Meet-Up with Muslims at Egyptian embassy in Washington

That it happened at all was a major feat. That not much was resolved was not surprising. That those involved are determined to meet again is fascinating. That it was organized by a controversial faith healer has made it that much more noteworthy.

In early July, a historic meeting took place "behind closed doors" at the Egyptian embassy in Washington, the Washington Times' Julia Duin recently reported. The two-hour meeting, between mostly conservative U.S evangelical Christian leaders, and ambassadors and advisors from several Middle East countries, was "orchestrated" by the flamboyant Pentecostal evangelist Benny Hinn, founder of Benny Hinn Ministries.

Will Romney's victory and Huckabee's second place finish in this past weekend's Ames, Iowa GOP Straw Poll alter the thinkiing of Religious Right leaders that Fred Thompson is their man?

The victory in the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney -- which according to ABC News' "The Note" cost him about $800 a vote -- and the surprising second place finish by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, may be sending unpleasant signals to the braintrust over at Fred Thompson's pre-campaign campaign headquarters.

Despite Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson's well-publicized remarks a few months back questioning Fred Thompson's Christian credibility, and despite his anemic fundaising efforts -- in its first month his campaign raised only $3 million instead of a hoped for $5 million -- several religious right leaders appear to be gearing up to give the former Republican senator from Tennessee and television actor two thumbs up when he officially enters the GOP race for the presidency; expected to happen sometime shortly after Labor Day.

Might the early success of Romney and Huckabee upset Thompson's already teetering applecart?

   

Douglas L. Carver seems to believe he's been he's been chosen by God to lead in an Apocalyptic end-time war between good and evil that will last decades and began, as foreshadowed in prophecy, with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. Meet the US Army's new (apocalyptic) Head of Chaplains.

Providing entertainment for the U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq is one thing; the Pentagon's promotion of a Trojan horse tour that preaches eliminationist theology and crusades for Christ in Islamic nations is another. It is a small wonder that the Department of Defense lends its imprimatur to a conservative Christian organization that invites current as well as former military commanders to help proselytize on military bases. And given the Pentagon's policy of discrimination against gays in the military, it is ironic that the Christian missionary group that they promote sells T-shirts that display what can only be described as homoerotic art. In short, the Pentagon seems to have adopted a new missionary position for the Operation Straight Up Tour and its "Tough-Men Meetings." Basically, the OSU Tour is promoting a holy war against the alleged enemies of Christ -- not unlike, say, a jihad. But there's a difference: jihad does not come with a homoerotic T-shirt.