Article makes a good case that "Proselytizing among military personnel has been conducted openly, in violation of the basic tenets of the United States Constitution." Good use of the Internet Archive (web.archive.org) to resurrect evidence that was withdrawn from the Web.

Yes, the author has an agenda and it is revealed by the use of the words ‘Freedom of Religion’ which comes from the ‘Bill of Rights’ amendments to the American Constitution. That agenda encompasses the upholding of the personal right to the freedom granted by the constitution to practice one’s own religion or even not to be an adherent to any religion. It is, therefore repugnant to realize that new recruits are being force-fed religion for any reason. Giving official approval to evangelizing and punishing those who do not acquiesce to being evangelized is a clear & obvious raping of the Constitutional rights of every new recruit. This Constitutional heresy, which is apparently condoned and fostered at the highest levels ... More »

I am not familar with this publication, but this is an important topic and it is a chilling thought that this subject has not been addressed by the mainline press.

The topic is important. The presentation is sound. Opposing viewpoints are from previous statements, including websites and previous interviews.

Truthout provides another well-written, well-researched story about the conversion of American military recruits to a certain sect of fundamental Christianity. The larger question may be: what are the military and security implications for the United States from soldiers who believe in the Rapture and end times?

The clearly illegal attempt to corrupt the military training regimen into an authoritarian training ground for fundamentalist religious sects is a dangerous and ethically reprehensible event. The story is one of the few tapping into the outrage that should be more widely voiced. When our no-longer-mainstream corporate rwhite wing press is too Christ-crossed to raise an objection, the truthout journalism is a rare voice for defending a religiously diverse and tolerant nation. Expect a different slant from the Newsweek verisimilitude of a church bulletin pretending to be news.

There's an over-reliance on Weinstein as a source, and little context to understand if what is being described is a new phenomenon, or has been part of the military for a long time. No data (number of evangelicals in the Army, for instance) to give the reader an idea of scope.

The author has an agenda, revealed by the constant use of "fundamentalist" a code word in anti-religious circles for anyone who is religious. Some of the points are truly weird. Criticizing the Christmas card from President and Mrs Bush for including a passage from Old Testament (!!!) is bizarre. One can imagine their horror if they were to read statements by really "fundamentalist" Presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln. And calling Campus Crusade for Christ "controversial" is only realistic if every religious and anti-religious organization in the country is "controversial". Dr James Dobson of Focus on the Family is as usual mis-identified as a "fundamental (sic) Christian leader". Either this was ineptly ... More »