KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. military denied Monday it has allowed soldiers to try to convert Afghans to Christianity, after a television network showed pictures of soldiers with bibles translated into local languages.
General Order Number 1 from the U.S. military's Central Command forbids active duty troops -- including all those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to their religion.
A military chaplain was shown delivering a sermon to other soldiers, saying: "The special forces guys -- they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down."
But a U.S. military spokeswoman, Major Jennifer Willis, said the comments from the sermon were taken out of context and chaplains were told to make clear to soldiers that they could not proselytize while serving.
Trying to convert Muslims to any other faith is a crime in Afghanistan. An Afghan man who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2006 but was allowed to leave the country after an international uproar.
- This is a delicate situation. If it is true, props to the preacher for going that extra mile and doing what he was trained to do. On the other side of the coin, should our military advocate any particular religion?
- Our military defends and honors Freedom, regardless of religious beliefs.
- I think we should just stick to the plan and continue to win hearts and minds.
1 comment:
Good reading! What ever it takes to do "maximum destruction" to those that oppose personal freedom.
This article is from 2003. After reading it, it put things into historical perspective. I realized we really have been victorious in Iraq!
http://warchronicle.com/Exclusive/NatHelms/ThunderingThird.htm
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