Kill Or Convert, Brought To You By the Pentagon

[RiverStone]

8/7/07
The Nation
Max Blumenthal

Actor Stephen Baldwin, the youngest member of the famous Baldwin brothers, is no longer playing Pauly Shore's sidekick in comedy masterpieces like Biodome. He has a much more serious calling these days.

Baldwin became a right-wing, born-again Christian after the 9/11 attacks, and now is the star of Operation Straight Up (OSU), an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military. As an official arm of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, OSU plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also scheduled to embark on a "Military Crusade in Iraq" in the near future.

"We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war torn region," OSU declares on its website about its planned trip to Iraq. "We'll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq."

The Defense Department's Chaplain's Office, which oversees OSU's activities, has not responded to calls seeking comment.
"The constitution has been assaulted and brutalized," Mikey Weinstein, former Reagan Administration White House counsel, ex-Air Force judge advocate (JAG), and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told me. "Thanks to the influence of extreme Christian fundamentalism, the wall separating church and state is nothing but smoke and debris. And OSU is the IED that exploded the wall separating church and state in the Pentagon and throughout our military." Weinstein continued: "The fact that they would even consider taking their crusade to a Muslim country shows the threat to our national security and to the constitution and everyone that loves it."

more:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=220960

[thunder rising]

1. It's the RAPTURE

And in that case, if a bunch of people are vanishing and some soldier with a weapon says "Convert or Die" it a rhetorical question. The Rapture has happened therefore it's no longer a leap of faith the answer is given, "I am a believer"

At that point, the question to raise is, "If you are such a believer, how did you get left behind?"

My gut feeling, is that God's yardstick of faith is not the same as they think it is.

[AuntPatsy]

3. I know, that belief in that rapture thing is beyond idiotic, really and no one can accuse me

of not having faith, faith has nothing to do with believing in such ignorance.

[RiverStone]

4. religious zealots

Within any faith are less about practicing and all about converting. I equate it as a cross between being an egomaniac and a sociopath. Or just plain crazy. No big surprise the Army would allow this as Shrub even believes his insane choices are based on words he thinks he hears from God.

Easier to sleep at night when he removes himself from any personal responsibility for all the blood on his hands.

[Tom Joad]

2. We need Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland back doing FTA tour.

FTA meant ...ummm would you believe Fun, Travel, Adventure?

or fuck the army.

anyway, they did good work got a lot of military people excited about resisting an illegal war.
we need that now.

[EOTE]

5. LB: Eternal Forces...

What a horrible and shitty RTS game. I was actually looking forward to it when I first heard about it. I had grand visions of going online and playing on the fundy equivalent of BattleNet in order to kick some pious ass as the forces of darkness. Then I play the demo and find out that you don't even have the ability to play as Satan UNLESS you're playing online. So basically, you can only practice for the whole other half of the game when playing online. Most likely against players who have played quite a bit in both single and multiplayer. That, and the balance of the game is pitiful, resource management is boring and hokey, the graphics are substandard, and it's just not interesting in the least. What would have gamers thought of Starcraft if they only allowed you to play the single player campaign as the Terrans? Or not being able to play as the Russians in Command and Conquer?