Praise the Lord

It appears that new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates is making at least one positive move. The warrior for GOD, Satan hating General William Boykin is being moved out of the Pentagon where he currently oversees anti-terror special operations.

Boykin is a fundie, right wing, religio-nut who believes Chimpie was “appointed by God” to be leader of the United States. He has become well known for nutzoid statements like these:

Describing his sense of destiny about Christian America, he says, "We in the Army of God, in the House of God, the Kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this."

Preaching in his military uniform before a religious congregation in Oregon, General Boykin proclaimed, “we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian. Did I say Judeo-Christian? Yes. Judeo-Christian. The enemy that has come against our nation is a spiritual enemy. His name is Satan. And if you do not believe that Satan is real, you are ignoring the same Bible that tells you about God.”

In a religious flyer, General Boykin is quoted as saying, “Bin Laden is not the enemy. No mortal is the enemy. It's the enemy you can't see. It's a war against the forces of darkness.”

Comparing himself to a follower of Islam, General Boykin offers the taunt that “my God is bigger than his.”

According to a Charisma News Service report of June 4, 2002, Boykin told to the Community Prayer Breakfast in Fort Myers that in executing the wars of George W. Bush, “It is a spiritual enemy we have to contend with. Now is the time to fight.”

Back in 2004, Boykin was assigned the task of investigating claims of prisoner abuse by the military intelligence unit “Task Force 6-26.” He of course found there was violations of misconduct.

Also disturbing was the fact that many of Boykin's statements were made while he was in uniform - a clear violation of military guidelines. With all of his outrageous comments, one would think that he would have been upbraided by his Commander in Chief. One would think wrongly of course, as our President does not represent all of America. In fact, in a now familiar pattern for the frat boy Commander in Chief, Boykin was promoted to his current post - after these offenses were committed.

Particularly troubling is Boykin's predilection towards abusing his position to coerce and subvert the rights of US service personnel to exercise freedom of religion:

Boykin has a long history of using his official position in concrete ways in an attempt to transform the American military into a Christian organization of religious conversion and holy war. The Bush Administration, for example, has long been aware that Boykin used his position as leader of a military base within the United States to provide unique and unprecedented access to civilian Southern Baptist missionaries so that they would have the opportunity to convert Green Beret soldiers to their particular fundamentalist version of Christianity.
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The role of radical fundamentalist Christian theology in the Bush Administration's foreign policy is crucial to understand, yet shrouded in secrecy. Is the Bush Administration cooperating with fundamentalist Christians in the Pentagon to attempt to bring about Armageddon?

Boykin seems to suggest as much. Describing his sense of destiny about Christian America, he says, "We in the Army of God, in the House of God, the Kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this." It seems that General Boykin believes that he is fighting in the first battles of the prophesied End Times, in which the forces of righteousness combat Satan on Earth.

The problem with having an active military general who believes that he is fighting in a final holy war against Satan is that fundamentalist Christians regard the global destruction that this holy war would bring as a good thing. For believers like General Boykin, such destruction is a welcome first step to establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth. That's what Boykin is referring to when says that now is the time of the "Kingdom of God".

Gates is making a step in the right direction to remove Boykin from the Pentagon – he should also force his retirement.

More here on Boykin and here for information on nutzoid proselytizers still prominent in the Pentagon.

Image by Austin Cline

Posted on The Human Stain