Coined Outrage

Left/progressives are upset that the US military in Iraq is proselytizing for Christianity. You know, you'll find a few witnessing for Jesus no matter where or what - but this is just outrageous, immoral, illegal, unconstitutional (the usual "left" adjectives).

"Left" icon Juan Cole writes: "Many Sunni Arab Iraqis, once the country's ruling elite, now feel oppressed by Shiite, Kurdish and American Christian dominance. The story that Marines are passing coins to Sunnis in Falluja with Christian messages on them is felt as a further humiliation, especially coming after the incident of the US soldier using the Qur'an for target practice. The coins passed in Fallujah had John 3:16 inscribed on one side, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." This verse is not a good place to begin a Christian-Muslim dialogue. The Qur'an explicitly rejects the idea that the One God can have a "son" as polytheistic. Some Islamic theologians have argued that the phrase "Son of God" is a metaphor, which cannot be translated literally into Arabic. In any case, there are lots of Gospel verses that Muslims might find interesting, but they would generally take this one as a clear signal that Bush's Christian Soldiers consider Iraqi Muslims to be supine and abject."

Jason Leopold, another "left" icon, writes: U.S. Soldiers Launch Campaign to Convert Iraqis to Christianity. In addition to coins and Bibles, there have been reports of the distribution to Iraqi children of Christian comic books published by companies such as Chick Publications. These inflammatory comic books, published in English and Arabic, not only depict Mohammed, but show both Mohammed and Muslims burning in hell because they did not accept Jesus as their savior before they died. Christian proselytizing DIRECTLY violates General Order 1A, Part 2, Section J issued by General Tommy Franks on behalf of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) back in December of 2000...

BAGHDAD - A U.S. Marine handed out coins promoting Christianity to Muslims in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, outraged Sunni officials said Friday. The U.S. military responded quickly, removing a trooper from duty pending an investigation.

---- As a lifelong heathen and agnostic, I'm only slightly irritated when religious folk slip flyers under my windshield wipers in the parking lot. I am much more irritated when I see hype from self-styled experts Cole and Leopold. One would think there's a massive military offensive to convert all of Iraq to Jesus. Odd is it not, that an "award winning investigative journalist" like Leopold does not have a copy of said comic book, or even a page, to share with us.

Fact: Apparently it was 1 Marine passing out coins, now removed from duty. Bibles and comic books in Arabic are not likely to be numerous; even so there are Christians in Iraq who might appreciate the material.

This may shock you - but the military has more pressing concerns and duties than recruiting Christian converts. And, I might add, if a few hundred Holy Bibles find their way into Muslim households, with shortages being what they are, those pages are likely to be used in the bathroom for more than reading.

Leopold states: In a newsletter published in 2004 by the fundamentalist group International Ministerial Fellowship (IMF), Capt. Steve Mickel, an Army chaplain, claimed that Iraqis were eager to be converted to Christianity and that he personally tried to convert dozens of Iraqis, which is also an apparent constitutional violation.

Imagine that, a chaplain who would try to spread his faith.

And yes, as always, the First Amendment is thrown in for good measure - the State not supposed to promote religion, etc. (Anyone besides myself find it ludicrous that left/progressives chant no God in government funded public schools - but government funding is okay for teaching/promoting homosexuality in the same schools? What happened to the mantra 'government out of our bedrooms' - oh, I know, we took the bedroom into the 1st grade.)

I suppose the good news may be the "leftist/progressive" exspurts have ran out of troop atrocities to provoke public outrage. But even more hopefully - so have the Iraqi.