DoD-connected Christian group draws fire - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

DoD-connected Christian group draws fire

A religious group has abandoned plans to send packages to U.S. troops in Iraq with the controversial Christian video game, “Left Behind: Eternal Force,” along with Christian books, Pentagon officials say.

The group, Operation Straight Up, does not plan to send “any care packages to troops in Iraq,” said a Pentagon public affairs officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The representative deferred all questions Aug. 14 about the reasons for the decision on Operation Straight Up, commonly called OSU. Group officials have not responded to phone calls or e-mails from Military Times over the last two days.

Operation Straight Up is an official member of the Defense Department initiative “America Supports You,” as one of more than 250 home-front groups that have joined the effort to support troops by sending letters, e-mails and care packages, and by giving assistance to military families, including the wounded and their families.

On Aug. 15, the OSU Web site continued to report that the group is raising money to send “Freedom Packets” to troops in Iraq — but it has removed any reference to the “Left Behind” video game. Those packages were also to include a Gideon’s pocket-sized New Testament, and the book “More than a Carpenter,” by Josh McDowell, printed in English and translated into Arabic.

The OSU motto on its site is: “Until Every Soldier Hears the Truth.” The site encourages donors to give to the nonprofit foundation, to make “an enormous difference in the lives of thousands of lost men, women, and children.”

“Support our sons and daughters in the military by introducing them to the eternal salvation that can only come from God,” the statement continues.

OSU is active in the military in other ways. It sends entertainment troupes with the likes of actor Stephen Baldwin, the Flying Wallendas, pro football and wrestling stars, and others to perform free for military audiences. At the shows, they invite troops to attend events a week later called “Tough-Man Meetings,” described as “boot camps for the soul.”

“These meetings are all about training to live life to the fullest, God’s way,” the Web site states. “Some would call it discipleship.”

Many of the personalities sent out by the group “speak at these events,” according to the Web site. It notes that the group has performed at Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Bragg, N.C.; and at the Pentagon. The Fort Hood concert was held off-base in Killeen.

The group says it plans to take its entertainment troupe to Iraq, but further information was not immediately available. “OSU has stated its desire to go, and we have suggested ways in which they can arrange that for themselves,” the Pentagon representative stated.

As for programs on military bases, “The chaplains’ office has sponsored groups … of all faiths to perform as a thank-you to the troops for their service and sacrifice,” the representative wrote in an e-mail. “Chaplains sponsor many religious groups of all faiths that do this for those interested in attending.”

Attendance is not mandatory, he noted. “They come in through the chaplains and present a program, and then give a short testimonial about their Christian faith and ask the chaplains to follow up on anyone who is interested.”

The watchdog group Military Religious Freedom Foundation first revealed OSU’s plans to send care packages to Iraq. Foundation founder and President Mikey Weinstein said the link between the Pentagon and OSU is the worst example the group has seen in the four-year fight to ensure religious freedom for service members.

“OSU is a giant [improvised explosive device] that is blowing up the constitutional wall separating church and state,” said Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the Air Force Academy who spent 10 years as an Air Force JAG officer, then later spent more than three years as legal counsel in the Reagan administration.

Weinstein also has harsh criticism for the Pentagon, which he called “the Pentecostal-gon.” His book, “With God On Our Side,” published in 2006, details his charges of religious intolerance in the U.S. armed forces. More than 5,000 service members have contacted his organization because “they say they are being preyed upon by groups using the military chain of command,” he said.

About 96 percent of those who said they were pressured are Christians themselves, he said. “But these groups are preying on non-evangelical Christians. They believe they have the only right faith, that everybody else is false.

“We couldn’t care less what someone’s religious faith is,” Weinstein said. “But you cannot use your position of authority to force [your religion] onto military subordinates,” he said. “To send a para-church organization into a war zone undercuts the Chaplain Corps.”

Lawyer and minister Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said: “This is just the thing to convince Islamic militants that America is on a religious crusade to convert Muslims to Christianity. This officially connects DoD to make it look like the U.S. government is on a crusade. There appears to be a very deep connection between this allegedly private group promoting evangelical Christianity and the military itself. It doesn’t matter what the religion is. The government is supposed to be neutral. It is supposed to be hands-off on that.”

Lynn, who said he characterizes OSU as a fundamentalist Christian group, said that if they planned to send a Christian book translated in Arabic, “one assumes they want troops to distribute it in Arab neighborhoods.”

The OSU Web site states: “We can only hope that since the book is double printed on the reverse side in the Arabic language that it will indeed influence the nations overseas as well.”

U.S. customs restrictions prohibit mailing bulk quantities of religious materials to Iraq that run contrary to the tenets of Islamic faith.

“The intent of the customs prohibition against mailing religious items stems from the host country’s concern about distributing these materials to its citizens,” the U.S. Postal Service’s Web site states.

Critics of the “Left Behind” video game, released late last year, said it glorifies violence in the name of Christianity. The Council for American-Islamic Relations and other groups demanded that Wal-Mart pull the game from its shelves. The game was rated “T” for teen viewing, similar to the PG-13 rating for movies, and the manufacturer notes that unnecessary killing will result in fewer points.

“Contrary to misinformation on the Web, this game does not include references to any other religion,” the game’s Web site states. “Also, there is NO killing in the name of God and NO ‘convert or die’ missions.”

Weinstein was also involved in requesting an investigation of the “Christian Embassy” video. A Pentagon Inspector General investigation found that seven officers — including two Army generals and two Air Force generals — violated ethical standards by appearing or participating in uniform in the Christian fundraising video, which was filmed inside Pentagon hallways. Their appearance in uniform implied official Defense Department sanction of a religious fundraising message, which is forbidden under various military regulations, according to the IG report.

All the officers defended their conduct as proper, but the IG report noted that nothing in the responses altered the investigators’ fundamental conclusion that the officers had violated military regulations and policies.

Weinstein’s suit against the Air Force for allegedly allowing improper proselytizing and religious insensitivity at the Air Force Academy was dismissed.

“This kind of thing has to be very carefully looked at to make sure it doesn’t cross the line,” said attorney Eugene Fidell, a military law expert and head of the National Institute of Military Justice. “This is problematic. And I say this as a friend of freedom of expression, but I think this kind of thing may be playing with fire ... it’s extremely tricky.”

Fidell, who has represented clients on both sides of the issue, said there is a “drive toward proselytization,” but when someone stands on the corner of the street in the civilian community and proselytizes, “you can tell them to buzz off.”

In the military’s more closed environment, with emphasis on unit cohesion and obedience to the chain of command, troops could be more vulnerable, he said.

“People’s spiritual needs are certainly extreme in the environment we’re dealing with in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that doesn’t mean we toss the First Amendment into the waste basket” in wartime, he said. “The military is not a debating society, but neither is it a chapel.”

OSU also states on its Web sites that it performs programs for military children at school assemblies. Further information was not available about where these assemblies take place.

“To our knowledge, the group has not done any assemblies at any of our schools ... they’d also have to get a commander’s consent to come on base,” said Elaine Kanellis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense Education Activity.