When Evangelicals Attack... Me

When the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call labels your latest novel "a Christian Jihad," angry emails are sure to follow.

My new novel entitled, The Apocalypse Directive, is out this week. Unfortunately, long before the book came out, I started to get emails from self-proclaimed Evangelicals who had seen the cover or a description of the book online, and based solely on that, decided to condemn me to the fires of Hell. Once the two-page Roll Call article came out, the hate emails increased in volume and creativity.

In a previous career, I spent three years working in a Joint Command at the Pentagon. I had gone there after a stint at the White House. About two years ago, two former colleagues of mine from the Pentagon called to warn me about a "right-wing Christian organization that was operating out of the Pentagon." Both of the people who called me would describe themselves as "conservative Christians." Knowing that, if this group scared these two individuals, then I felt a little more research was in order.
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While doing some digging, I found out that The Washington Post had done two major editorials on this "right-wing Christian organization." The first editorial, entitled, "Questionable Mission," said in part:

"THERE ARE over 25,000 Department of Defense leaders working in the rings and corridors of the Pentagon. Through Bible study, discipleship, prayer breakfasts, and outreach events, Christian Embassy is mustering these men and women into an intentional relationship with Jesus Christ," a narrator explains toward the start of a promotional video for Christian Embassy, an offshoot of Campus Crusade for Christ that focuses on diplomats, government leaders and military officers. As a uniformed Air Force Maj. Gen. explains, "I found a wonderful opportunity as a director on the joint staff, as I meet the people that come into my directorate, and I tell them right up front... my first priority is my faith in God, then my family and then country. I share my faith because it describes who I am."

Free exercise of religion doesn't stop at the entrance to the Pentagon or other government buildings, but when those in senior positions are moved to share their religious views with colleagues and subordinates, the tension between the twin constitutional guarantees -- the mandate of free exercise of and the prohibition against government establishment of religion -- comes into play. The Christian Embassy video suggests that such sensitivity has not always been present. With its extensive, inside-the-Pentagon footage and interviews with senior officials and high-ranking officers in uniform, the video conveys a sense that the group's mission has been endorsed by the Pentagon... the video has been removed from Christian Embassy's Web site and the Pentagon is reviewing the matter. It would be wise to consider not only whether the video and the Christian Embassy's other activities comply with the letter of Pentagon rules but also with the spirit of the Constitution its personnel are sworn to protect.

The second Washington Post editorial, entitled, "Pulling Rank on Religion -- an Evangelical group and top officers cross a line," said in part:

THE PENTAGON'S inspector general has concluded that seven current or former military officers, including two major generals and the Pentagon chaplain, violated ethics rules when they appeared in uniform in a promotional and fundraising video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy...Maj. Gen. John J. Catton Jr. explained that he felt comfortable praising the group because it had effectively become a "quasi-federal entity."

What's important to me in the context of our work here in the Pentagon is to get together with other believers and be encouraged," Maj. Gen. Peter U. Sutton says on the video. Maj. Gen. Sutton is now based in Turkey, where an article in a Turkish newspaper about the video described him as a member of a "radical fundamentalist sect."

A "radical fundamentalist sect." Where have we heard that before? How many people in our nation and our government have uttered those exact same words?

As someone who has experienced the good and the bad of life, I know that any human can become twisted. I also know that any faith can become twisted. Hence, the premise of a novel that is now offending some of my fellow Christians.

While fiction, the novel is meant to also serve as a bit of a warning. What if you had a conservative Evangelical President in the third year of his second term who believed the Lord spoke directly to him? What if he, and like-minded individuals in the military, shared a common belief that the apocalypse was not only coming but that it was their duty to God to hasten the process? What if, they felt they had to act before losing control of much of the government and much of our nuclear arsenal? What if, unless stopped, they would set in motion a chain of events that would wipe clean the face of the earth?

As comedian Jon Stewart once said: "Not so funny when it's your guy." How right he was.

Comments

[jhamm1]

Best of luck to you.

Be careful, however, for just as assuredly as many fundamentalists Christians have embraced that which you so aptly referred to as Christian Jihad, don't be surprised if these fanatics, within a few years, issue their own equivalent of a Fatwa on you.

[druidlady42]

Are you SURE your book, "Apocolypse directive", is a novel, not a documentary record of the current Occupant-in-Chief's second term? Perhaps that's why you are being attacked by your contemporaries! Evil intentions thrive best in dark secrecy!

Hang tough, Sir, and thank you for your post!

[parkerfly38]

It's important to note that the Inspector General report in July of 2007 did nothing more than give a verbal slap on the wrist to military participants in the Christian Embassy video, for endorsing said agency while in uniform. Also, the chaplain involved was said to have provided a "selective benefit" to the Christian Embassy organization.

Have any punishments for this activity been doled out to date? No. The same treatment is not accorded to service members in junior grades in circumstances where similar ethics violations might take place.

I find these fundamentalists creepy and diametrically opposed to the principles of the uniformed service. That they get command recognition is utterly dispiriting, especially when one falls into the category of the "unsaved," by their narrow definition of the term.

[rudiy]

I thought this article was about Iran.

[JohnFromCensornati]

I find it amusing that a Republican (Dole's press sec) is surprised that the party of God (R) has turned on him. You helped build it. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

[portwes]

Ha! Amen to that!!

[BADEN]

The next adminstration will need to deal with ALL the ideological "embeds" at every rung of the civil service ladder.

The Sun Myung Moon group, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, managed to have THEIR grand pubah crowned JESUS CHRIST right there on Capitol Hill, attended by GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES.

Their members are embedded at every level of the government - especially in that "faith-based' initiative office where the money is disbursed.

It's been a LONG 8 years of fascism on the march.
It's going to take a LONG time to vet these people OUT.
They have no place in a civil society.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/21/politics/main630916.shtml?source=related_story

[Bitsko]

Good to know someone remembers the Moon coronation. These politicians from both parties don't care who supports them, as long as they get the big bucks. I feel the same way about Seantor Clinton and The Family. That's even scarier!

I recommend the book, "Bad Moon Rising" by John Gorenfeld for more info on the subject.

[Chris Rodda - Huffpost Blogger]

John Gorenfeld also did a must see short film about the Moon insanity, which can be viewed at: http://www.gorenfeld.net/book/cinema/

[lowlycitizen]

Nothing scarier than world leaders who think God has "touched" them. That vanity shields them from reality and encourages them to act as if everything they do is a mandate from heaven. The current president is an example of that. Christians can't even recognize that's about as close as you can get to the idea of an anti-Christ.

[hopeless277]

In God We Trust. Right on our money. You can't agrue that God created the USA and that He keeps us safe. We must have military leaders who embrace the miracles of Jesus Christ so that when we want to kill hundreds of thousands of sinners, Jesus will help. It's just plain old common sense.

[kellysmalltowngirl]

I hope you are being ironic. If not, you are scary.

[mckinley]

So, when God created the USA, He promulgated that all women and even white men who were not wealthy enough to own land, were not worthy of having a vote; and African-Americans were only 2/3rd human?

Good thing that in later years, progressive liberal MEN intervened, and corrected God's deprication of over half our people. Including, i might add, your own mother.

[Ramirez]

Everyone was considered human but for enumeration purposes slaves were counted as 3/5 of a citizen.

[Agent420]

Interesting, I lost my imaginary friends when I turned 10. I'm afraid that there is a bunch of people out there to remember that they are older than 10.

[vipersdad]

The actual phrase used by the founders of our country was "Natures' God"

There - I just did argue that God did in fact, NOT create the USA. In fact, if you really understand your faith, you will come to understand that the establishment of a "Christian Government" is in fact a contradiction that is antithetical to the teachings of Christ.

Then again - perhaps you are just being ironic. If so..... never mind.

[larmarch5]

I assume then that you liquid assets are in an account called "In God We Trust" and that you refuse to use financial institutions that are not FDIC insured.

[moAb]

...and Jesus wept.

[Dave24]

"Religion: bringing people together in a world torn apart, by religion"

Secular society protects all individuals from the impositions of religious doctrine by making faith a private matter. This also ensures an individual's right to believe in whatever fabricated version of the manmade idea called "God" that they wish to believe in.

Religious infiltration into our secular processes will lead only to tyranny.

These theistic lunatics are destroying the very system that protects them.

[2bad]

Much has been made recently about two Supreme Court rulings regarding the 2nd and 4th amendment. We need the Court to once and for all make a ruling upholding the 1st amendment. Religious institutions have every right to exist in this country. Believe all the superstitious, dogmatic non-sense you wish but keep your beliefs out of my government as the constitution mandates very clearly!

[Ramirez]

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances­."

What law has Congress passed which the court needs to overturn?

[MajorKong]

That 1st amendment is just so darned inconvenient when you're trying to establish a theocracy.