BlogHer - Pentagon-Funded Evangelism Halted - Comments

Maria! Thanks for those links!

Dana J. Tuszke — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:35:25 -0500

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Okay, I couldn't get my

Dana J. Tuszke — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:30:55 -0500

Okay, I couldn't get my comment to go through correctly.

Maria, I was going to say that I was happy for those links. This is very interesting.

Wiccans and the military

Maria Niles — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:18:36 -0500

Interestingly Wiccans are fighting for recognition and inclusion in the military. There are by DOD stats, 1800 "out" Wiccans on active duty which is about twice as many as Christian Scientists.

Although an Army Chaplain was dismissed for becoming a Wiccan, recently Wiccan symbols have been approved grudgingly to be used on memorial plaques and headstones honoring fallen veterans.

I find this strangely fascinating.

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Beyond Help

Kim, I can only imagine the

Dana J. Tuszke — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 17:29:06 -0500

Kim, I can only imagine the stink the fundamentalist Christians would raise if a Wiccan video game was sent.

It makes me laugh. It also reminds me of my neighbor who is a "recovering" Mennonite (her words). She said her sister won't let her children read the Harry Potter books because of the "witchcraft".

I still don't know how OSU got involved with this videogame. I mean, Baldwin claims to be a born-again Christian, this video game seems like something that goes against their believes. Kill or convert? It's just WRONG on so many levels.

Thanks for raising this issue, Dana

Kim Pearson — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:13:11 -0500

There's a lot that's really interesting here, Dana. Thanks for putting together such a comprehensive post. As Blumenthal notes, the "Left Behind" videogame has drawn some of its strongest criticism from Christian fundamentalist evangelical publisher Marvin Olasky, who said the game's description sounds like "the way homicidal Muslims think."

I looked at the entertainment roster of the America Supports You program and I didn't see any other religiously-oriented groups. I wonder what would happen if, say, a group of Wiccans wanted to mount a similar program. I wonder how this group got put on the roster -- was there an open call, for example?

BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Thanks Nelle, Dana & Denise

Maria Niles — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 19:58:59 -0500

Your comments got me thinking and I've written a bit about Obama and his foreign policy speech here.

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It was me...

Denise — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:39:18 -0500

well me and RE, but we're both good at going off topic and taking folks with us. Just wait and she and I will do battle of some sort right here in your comments. We are good at poking each other to get a rise. :-)

Exactly - he's sticking by his comment rather than clarifying or changing or improving on it. I'm not voting for him. Heh.

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings

Perhaps it was lack of

Dana J. Tuszke — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:22:01 -0500

Perhaps it was lack of experience or a blur in judgment, but Obama claims he's standing by his comment and challenged other candidates on the issue. It's very interesting to see what happens.

Sorry to get off topic! ;)

Lack of experience?

Denise — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:09:24 -0500

So was Obama's comment showing a lack of experience? Lack of judgement? Or something else? And are we going off topic here? lol. ;-)

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings

So true! I assumed invasion

Dana J. Tuszke — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:17:17 -0500

So true! I assumed invasion when I firt heard the remark and it was almost backed by the newspapers that reported the remark as an invasion of the country.

It's interesting...

nelle2nelle — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:06:50 -0500

how many took it to mean invasion as opposed to a surgical strike, which is how I took his comment, but Hillary is right, candidates have to be very careful about what they say and how they present their ideas.

nelle

Obama's comment really

Dana J. Tuszke — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:45:07 -0500

Obama's comment really caught my attention, especially after Democrats have been demanding a withdrawal from Iraq for ages.

As a conservative Republican, I sort of felt like he was pandering to people like me. It is so difficult to read between the lines these days!

Invading Pakistan...it's a very controversial remark for Obama to make -- considering the mess we're in already, in Iraq!

In light of the reaction to Obama's...

nelle2nelle — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:24:21 -0500

Pakistan comment, sending insensitive material into Iraq is really not a wise move. And at best it is insensitive.

nelle

Pentagon-Funded Evangelism Halted

Dana J. Tuszke — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:31:27 -0500

Last week, The Nation blogger Max Blumenthal reported a Pentagon-funded program that sent "kill or convert" video games to U.S. military troops stationed in Iraq.

Blumenthal writes that the program was organized by Operation Start Up (OSU), an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military," and boasts Hollywood actor Stephen Baldwin, magician/comedian Bunny Martin, world champion kick-boxer Charlton Young, and former NFL superstars Keith Davis, David Rocker and Bruce Collie as some of it's organizers, among others.

With the endorsement of the Defense Department, OSU planned to mail copies of the controversial apocolyptic video game Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq.

The game was inspired by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' best-selling book series about the battle of Armageddon, in which believers of Jesus Christ fight the Antichrist.

The Left Behind Games website states:

Contrary to misinformation on the web, this game does not include references to any other religion. Also, there is NO killing in the name of God, and NO convert or die missions. All content has been reviewed and approved by Tyndale House Publishers prior to publication.

However, as part of this research, I downloaded the demo of the game in which it does ask the player to convert "non-believers" and to fight/kill "evil-doers".

A video preview of the game can be found here.

The OSU website did not mention the inclusion of the video game but describes the initiative:

We send care packages to soldiers on the front lines of the war in Iraq. We call them “Freedom Packets” because the truth will set you free. Included in each “Freedom Packet” is:

Greeting card
75 Minute Phone Card
White Socks
Baby Wipes (suggested by Col Oliver North)
Gideon’s pocket size New Testament
Extreme Sports “Livin It” DVD
And an assortment of snacks.

We ship them to Iraq free of charge to soldiers. The approximate cost per package is $50. Two items – phone cards and shipping cost – account for approximately half that total amount. Most of the items were donated at no cost to support our troops. Your donation helps us send a clear message that God cares, including their mind, body and soul.

Aside from the inclusion of a Bible and the fact that this is sponsored by government funding, one would think this program to beneficial considering it would send items such as socks and phone cards.

The program was discovered by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and founder Mikey Weinstein told Blumenthal, "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."

ABC news reported last night that, "plans by a Christian group to send an evangelical video game to U.S. troops in Iraq were abruptly halted yesterday by the Department of Defense after ABC News inquired about the program" and that the Defense Department's only comment on the record was that the OSU Tour is "currently not planning on sending any care packages to the troops in Iraq."

Some reactions across the blogosphere:

LunaBean writes:

So, what of this Operation Start Up Tour? Well, any entertainment troupe who counts Stephen Baldwin amongst its most important members has class and legitimacy written all over it. Plus, with OSU's President saying things like, "We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war-torn region," well, how can you think that the games were meant to be anything but a distraction from the stress of war?

From The Flying Fascist:

This proposal should have been given a ‘no’ from the start, not a wise last minute decision by the Pentagon. Mikey Weinstein has been doing a great job keeping the Religious Right at bay from corrupting the military, but the prostelyzation is still a problem. It would only get worse if Left Behind was shipped over to Iraq. Besides, that game sucks.

From Reformed Chicks Blabbing:

I guess the atheists can relax now, they aren't sending the Left Behind game to Iraq.

Blognonymous writes:

The Good News: US troops in Iraq won't be receiving copies of Left Behind: Eternal Forces in care packages.

The Bad News: The Pentagon giving a group that specializes in proselytizing to soldiers and that refers to their activities in Iraq as a "Crusade" access to our military forces.

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Contributing Editor Dana J. Tuszke also blogs at The Dana Files.