Scary Evidence U.S. Army Infested with Modern-Day Christian Crusaders Some Seeking ArmageddonHundreds of U.S. service members complain their commanders are invoking God, Armageddon and Trump, as God's anointed one, all as integral to America and Israel's war on Islamic Iran
Hundreds of U.S. troops say their commanders are invoking God, end-times prophecy of Armageddon, and depicting Donald Trump as a divinely anointed figure, all as integral to America’s war against Islamic Iran. Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), devoted to protecting religious freedom in the U.S. military, was unapologetically blunt about his fear of where the U.S. military is today and the threats from within posed by Christian radicals, who see themselves as modern day crusaders. The 11th and 12th century Christian crusades were savage assaults on Muslim states to wrest control of Muslim- ruled lands in the name of Christianity. Weinstein said in recent days more than 200 service members have reached out to his organization, knowing it is a safe space to express their fears, and they were “pretty much hysterical” about the religious injunctions being invoked by their commanders. For some of those commanders the Iran war, begun by America and Israel and coming on the heels of Israel’s two-year assault on Gaza that turned the tiny strip of land into rubble and killed 70,000 Palestinians, is a sign of a nearing Armageddon and the second coming of Jesus Christ. “We have people who believe we are almost there,” said Weinstein. “We are now staring into the abyss,” he said. The prevalence of would-be crusaders in the U.S. military “is a national security threat internally. . .It could not be more dire.” The complaints from service members have been vivid and frightening, said Weinstein. They told of commanders using graphic and bloody imagery reminiscent of the language used by 11 century crusaders. They said their commanders spoke of rivers of blood, of Armageddon, of Christian defeat of evil, of Trump as chosen by Christ to realize the prophecy of Armageddon. Weinstein, whose organizations has assisted more than 100,000 service members since its inception in 2005, is a former U.S. military man himself, who graduated with honors in 1977 from the United States Air Force Academy. He comes from a generations-long line of U.S. service personnel, a legacy he embraces with pride. Weinstein said his organization represents all faiths and no faiths. Weinstein said the infiltration of Christian radicals is complete, in every branch of the service, but critically today it is at the top in Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense or War as it has been renamed. Hegseth is a member of the Communion of Evangelical Reform Churches which adheres to a strict interpretation of the Bible, justifies slavery, rejects gender equality, and accepts no separation of Church and State. Hegseth proudly wears tattoos glorifying Christian crusaders. Inked large and boldly on his right arm bicep is the Latin words, Deus Vult, the crusaders war cry of ‘God Wills It.” On the same arm, a tattoo immediately below Deus Vult is the Arabic word Kafir or infidel, which is seen as deeply Islamophobic and seeming to suggest that Hegseth sees today’s wars, like that of the crusaders before him, as against Islam. Weinstein also accused Hegseth of “viciously eviscerating our constitution,” which separates Church and State, by holding monthly “Jesus prayer meetings” in the Pentagon. which he apparently broadcasts to a wider Pentagon audience through an internal broadcast channel. Until now the Pentagon has not responded to either Weinstein’s accusations or the content of the complaints by its service members. In keeping with America’s usual practice of using euphemisms to soften their extraordinarily bad behavior, Christian radicals, who espouse racist, misogynist, radical Christian beliefs that justify slavery, see women as subservient, diversity as the devil’s work and espouses no separation of Church and State, are called “Christian Nationalists.” They are not called the radicals and extremists that they are, but rather their movement is known as “Christian nationalism.” Yet when referencing the extremists views of others, the lexicon used by America is less euphemistic. Islamic radicals are not Islamic nationalists. No, they would be Islamic radicals or worse, when Trump launches into one of his tirades, then they would be as he once said “evil forces of radical Islamic terrorism.” This delusional reframing, so as not to offend American ears, or accept as true the depth of the regressive and racist behavior espoused by these Christian radicals, might well explain how they crept from the fringe in America to now sit smack in the middle. Dr. Sam Perry at Baylor University in Waco Texas, who has researched the progression of Christian radicalism into mainstream political parties as well as daily discourse, warned the use of the language of Christian radicals, who invoke Armageddon prophecies is in itself “very dangerous . . . and important to pay attention to it.” “When does the messaging end up turning into hard policy and strategic goals, I don’t know (but) it makes a lot of Americans nervous, it makes people in the Middle East and living in Islamic countries nervous,” he said. Indeed the open and public use of symbolism and language reminiscent of the Christian crusades by senior U.S. officials, most notably the Secretary of Defense, should worry Muslim countries, particularly those allied to the United States. It both hurts and angers their population and dangerously it also offers justification and an “I told you moment “ for radical Islamic militant groups, who have long framed their fight as a fight against the crusaders. Today the extreme Christian messaging inside the U.S. military would seem to have reached extraordinary and dangerous proportions, but it is not new. It has bubbled below the surface for decades, occasionally making it to the top. U.S. President Ronald Reagan often invoked his deeply held Christian beliefs and the belief that God was on the side of the U.S. military in America’s Cold War battles with the former Soviet Union, often referring to them as the ‘godless’ communists. In 2010 investigations revealed the US. military equipped it soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with high powered rifles with coded Christian inscriptions. The inscriptions on the so called “Jesus rifles” evoked the name of Jesus Christ and referenced passages in the Bible. Weinstein says after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the belief that the U.S. military was God’s army to protect Christianity was “on steroids”. Today Weinstein said Christian extremists have infested every branch of the forces, including the space and nuclear fields, and he says he fears for the future. |