How not to evangelise, part 2

From the department of religious-coercion:

At Speicher base in Iraq, US Army Spec. Jeremy Hall got permission from a chaplain in August to post fliers announcing a meeting for atheists and other nonbelievers. When the group gathered, Specialist Hall alleges, his Army major supervisor disrupted the meeting and threatened to retaliate against him, including blocking his reenlistment in the Army.

Months earlier, Hall charges, he had been publicly berated by a staff sergeant for not agreeing to join in a Thanksgiving Day prayer.

...

In 2006, MRFF learned of a video produced by Christian Embassy, a group that conducts Bible studies at the Pentagon and seeks to evangelize within the armed services. Aimed at fundraising for the group, the video was improperly taped in the Pentagon and involved endorsements by Army and Air Force generals in uniform.

MRFF's public alert spurred a DOD investigation. In a report critical of the senior officers, the Inspector General said they gave the appearance of speaking for the military. One general defended his role by saying "Christian Embassy had become a quasi-federal entity."

The report noted that Maj. Gen. Paul Sutton participated while he served as chief of the US Office of Defense Cooperation in Turkey, a largely Muslim nation whose military takes pride in protecting the country's secular status. After a Turkish newspaper wrote about the video as promoting a "fundamentalist sect," General Sutton was called in and questioned by members of the Turkish General Staff.

"They had to give him a lesson in the separation of church and state," Weinstein says. "Imagine the propaganda bonanza! And how this upset Muslims."

As an evangelical I believe that Christianity is the only true faith. Moreover I believe that historical evangelical Christianity is the faith that God and Christ intended. All other religions are false, all other expressions of Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, modernist Christianity, Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity) have elements that range between problematic and heterodox.

I have said all that first because I wish to nail my colours to the wall before I respond to this article. I wish it to be known amongst everyone that I am most certainly not some mushy God-loves-everyone- so-let's-all-just-love-each-other-man postmodernist person whose "faith journey" is unique and yada yada yada. No. I adhere to a faith that proclaims its exclusivity and it would be sinful and dishonest for me not to express that.

Having said that, let me just express my utter disgust at what these evangelicals are doing. I do not think that this report has somehow been manufactured by some atheistic department of truth that exists within the mainstream media. The article in question has reported on events that I have been familiar with for some time now, namely that evangelical Christians in positions of power within the US military are coercing their underlings to accept the evangelical faith, and rewarding those who do and punishing those who don't.

It is important for evangelicals to be in positions of power, whether that be in the military or in the world of business or politics. Evangelicals who truly obey the bible are people of great integrity and who give glory to God through their professionalism, competence and fairness. Moreover, they treat people fairly and without fear or favour; they refuse to do things that are in conflict with their faith or things which are illegal.

That's the theory. In practice these guys have abused their position. They have formed their own elite clique that excludes outsiders and rewards those on the inside. They are culture warriors who think that the enforcement of laws will result in a more godly nation, rather than the preaching of the Gospel.

The worst thing about these people is that they have confirmed to many that evangelicals are not interested in dialogue, or love, or respect... but power and authority. Sadly this appears to be true. The Apostle Peter says:

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation (1 Peter 2.12)

It'd be nice if these so called "evangelicals" actually obeyed Scripture.