Check out this article from Harper's magazine: www.harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488 It shows what has happened when God and country get blurred and blended. It is distressing and destructive to the integrity of any sort of genuine Christian witness. It is worth your time to read the article and see what is being promoted some in influencial places in the U.S. military and in some very large churches. No doubt some smaller churches are also advocating this sort of "Christianity." Any of you touched by it?

Mentioned in the article is "Mikey" Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation who is actively working to oppose the misguided attempts to "Christianize" the military. He is no leftwinger but was Assistent General Counsel in the Reagan White House. But he is actively fighting this blending of God and country. For this he has been villified by those who wrap the flag around the cross and think patriotism and Christianity are rightly wed to each other. I applaud his efforts. After reading the above mentioned article I wrote him the following.

Mikey,

I just read Jeff Sharlett's article in the May issue of Harper's. It moved me to write to you, especially since the article mentioned that you've received a lot of hate mail. As a Christian minister I want to thank you for your work. I am disgusted by the way "Christianity" is being promoted -and twisted- in the military and at how top brass are using their positions to gain a spotlight in certain church circles. I find militaristic Christianity repugnant. To turn military service into a means of missionary activity abuses both faith and the purpose of the military. Any "witness" they offer is deeply tainted. I can share neither the methods nor the message of those who seem so willing to blend and blur God and America, Christianity and nationalism.

Your focus is insuring religious freedom in the military and maintaining the wall of separation between church/religion and state. Mine is maintaining the integrity of the life and message of the church. I, too, believe in a wall of separation but the constitution is of secondary importance to me. My faith itself demands such a separation for without it the church -and other religious organizations- end up getting subverted by the interests, aims and identity of the state. Those evangelicals in the military who so eagerly seek to "Christianize" the armed services end up Americanizing and to a significant extent de-Christianizing the church.

I wish you the very best in your work. Neither the church nor America needs missionaries in military uniform.

Sincerely,

I am speechless.  The behavior in the article is abhorrent.