Pentagon: Bible Quotes No Longer In Reports

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them, retired in August 2003, according to his biography.

For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians and the epistles of Peter. At the time, the reports focused largely on the war in Iraq.

The Bible quotes apparently aimed to support Bush at a time when soldiers' deaths in Iraq were on the rise, according to the June issue of GQ magazine. But they offended at least one Muslim analyst at the Pentagon and worried other employees that the passages were inappropriate.

On Thursday, April 10, 2003, for example, the report quoted the book of Psalms _ "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him. ... To deliver their soul from death." _ and featured pictures of the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down and celebrating crowds in Baghdad.

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand," read the cover quote two weeks earlier, on March 31, above a picture of a U.S. tank driving through the desert, according to the magazine, which obtained copies of the documents.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, on Monday said U.S. soldiers "are not Christian crusaders, and they ought not be depicted as such."

"Depicting the Iraq conflict as some sort of holy war is completely outrageous," Lynn said in a statement. "It's contrary to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and it's tremendously damaging to America's reputation in the world."

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On the Net:

GQ: http://www.gq.com

(This version CORRECTS the name of the magazine to GQ.)

Comments

[schicklett3]

12:40 PM on 05/19/2009

The republicans use the Bible to try and convince us that their war in Iraq and their torture tactics are okay, and that God approves of what they did.
Well, the republicans are WRONG!
Our country is now paying for what the republicans did - and we will continue to pay as long as the republicans get away with their wrongdoing.
The republicans hide behind their Bibles...yet they never practice what they preach.
Shame on all of them.

[entropyisfun]

12:36 PM on 05/19/2009

why do the briefings look so much like drudge?

[pmc617]

11:38 AM on 05/19/2009

Talk about playing to the base. Bush was beholding to the far right christian faction of the GOP. As long as he could justify his actions to them the rest of the party, and the rest of the country, was unwilling to engage in a real battle for the truth. Iraq was a crusade and Bush/Cheney did everything they could to mask that fact knowing that, in the light of day, they would be seen for what they are,
oil-crazed, empire builders, hiding behind a shield of christianity.

[patienceplease]

11:23 AM on 05/19/2009

Way to separate church and state!
Way to use "God" to justify your agenda!
Way to ignore "Thou Shalt Not Kill" to protect oil rights!

Mind. Boggling.

[trisha08]

10:28 AM on 05/19/2009

This is so disturbing....on so many levels.

[zest]

10:28 AM on 05/19/2009

Why is it still on the money?

[jme-SD]

10:05 AM on 05/19/2009

This is the most twisted, sick example of what the former administration is and was. They will us religion to justify anything and try to take advantage of religious people to push their twisted sick agenda. The act of using God to push an agenda not rooted in any moral thought is one of the more serious forms of blaspheming what is sacred.

[Itchybiscuit]

08:41 AM on 05/19/2009

"It is error alone which needs the support of Govt. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face and stature. Introduce the bed of Procrustes then, and as there is danger that the large men may beat the small, make us all of a size, by lopping the former and stretching the latter. Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor Morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.

Thomas Jefferson; Notes on the State of Virginia 1782.

[whitehawk]

07:42 AM on 05/19/2009

Another stupid, idiotic, inflammatory to the Arab nation that could have had disastrous results on soldiers in the theatre of war. None of these top Officials knew what in the hell they were doing. They blustered through garbage like lawless hangmen, waiting for their bait while proping up their 'resume' that truthfully is overblown by 40 years.

[tippydog11]

07:30 AM on 05/19/2009

satan appeared also as an angel, using also Holy Scripture verses, to tempt and deceive Jesus also. Satan did this to hide the crime Satan was truly committing to win Jesus over into Satans battlefield against God and to worship Satan....scary scary

[tippydog11]

07:24 AM on 05/19/2009

Oh it was worst then using religion...use who to start an unjust war?? twisting who's words in holy scripture? Not good my friend....and not serving or obeying the God I know....remember satan appeared to Jesus as an angel also quoting holy scripture also...to deceive and tempt Jesus ....Jesus knew this was no angel of God...Who was Bush talking to do...that can be clearly seen now...and it was not the God of all creation either..

[blueshield]

07:24 AM on 05/19/2009

There's an old saying - talk to vets who've been there - that there's no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.

Did our leaders, our government, believe they were out there alone in no-man's land, facing imminent death from a deadly foe?

Bin Laden must be overjoyed at his success. With just a handful of criminals and a few thousand victims he was able to turn our nation's government into his quivering dupe, and they raised him up from a cave dwelling terrorist to an international threat.

We were poorly served, and disgraced, and our strength was compromised by these people.

[dutch163]

06:57 AM on 05/19/2009

yes, totally inappropriate
trying to use religion to justify their own agenda
hypocrites
violates separation of church and state

it is offensive...to the people and to God

[NPA]

06:46 AM on 05/19/2009

People will always use religion to justify their ill causes! That's why we have a separation of church and state. History has taught us what happens when the church rules over the state and its people.

KEEP YOUR RELIGION OUT OF MY (BEING WE THE PEOPLE) GOVERNMENT!

[DrDemon]

05:04 AM on 05/19/2009

RELIGION:


--- > Caused Wars !

------ > Causes Wars !

--------- > Causing Wars !

[clearthinker2008]

07:38 AM on 05/19/2009

Unfortunately true.