Open Email to the Christian Coalition of America

ON 17April13, I received the following communication from the Christian Coalition of America:

Dear Friend,

Believe it or not, materials in an official US Army Reserve training program listed evangelical Christians as “extremists”.

It even lumped us into the same category as the KKK, Hamas and Al Qaeda.

Yes, really.

After receiving numerous complaints from clergy and other concerned Christians, that portion of the material was removed and the Army proceeded to blame underlings for its inclusion.

Of course we are accustomed to such labeling from radical liberal organizations, even from some of America’s leading politicians and some elements of our bloated bureaucracy.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burning_cross.jpg

But now the liberal culture that allows such characterizations to be made about tens of millions of Americans is now beginning to infect even our nation’s military.

It is just another step in the marginalization of conservative people of faith in America.

You don’t have to use too much imagination to think that our government could one day label us as “extremists” just on the basis of our refusal to recognize homosexual “marriages”, or the desire to defend our First Amendment rights to religious liberty.

That is why it is so important to add your voice to ours and speak out about matters like this now.

Click here and become a sustaining member of the Christian Coalition today.

Your support enables us to continue to speak out and represent our values every day in the public arena and to educate others on how they can have an impact.

Your voice can make a difference!

Thank you so much for all that you do for our shared values.

Sincerely,

Roberta Combs, President & CEO
Christian Coalition of America

P.S. Please be sure to forward this email on to fellow conservatives and encourage them to join you in supporting the Coalition today!

So, two things, then. One is that if you are a fellow conservative of the type that responds to this kind of rabid fuss ‘n’ bother, consider yourself warned of this terrible assault on the liberties of Christians. Also, you should stop reading right here.

What follows is not for my fellow conservatives of that peculiar strain, but for people who know me as a type of conservative different from that. It’s also for the Christian Coalition, given that I emailed it to them a few minutes ago:

You are misrepresenting the facts, as you well know. The contents of one Powerpoint training session, presented by one soldier (undoubtedly a PSYOP or CA soldier, but that’s neither here nor there), hardly characterizes an army-wide pogrom of the pious.

Army chaplains — most of them Christian — continue to receive respect both from commanders and from soldiers. They also continue to garner officer’s commissions without specialized military training. In other words, religion receives outsized consideration from our defense structure, as it always has and most likely always will.

Presenting that glitch as though there is some kind of military conspiracy against Christianity — which is BY FAR the most respected religion within the ranks, the one with the most chaplains, and the one most accessible to soldiers — is fabulously dishonest to your supporters and completely unfair to soldiers.

Shame on you for this manipulative distortion. Lying has always been a sin, and trying to meet your fundraising budget doesn’t make it any less so.

–Jack Lewis