Defense Department and the Evangelical Crusades

The OSU (Operation Straight Up) is an evangelical entertainment group whose goal is to entertain active duty soldiers with their beliefs. They are planning, according to AlterNet, "to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also scheduled to embark on a Military Crusade in Iraq in the near future."

"We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war torn region," OSU declares on its website about its planned trip to Iraq. "We'll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq."

Now, OSU is an official affiliate of Defense Department's 'America Supports You' program. I, as many others, ask what kind of separation of church and state is this? To send apocalyptic messages to the brave U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Isn't Iraq in such a state because of people's beliefs being forced on others? "The constitution has been assaulted and brutalized," Mikey Weinstein, former Reagan Administration White House counsel, ex-Air Force judge advocate (JAG), and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told me, [Max Blumenthal, TheNation.com]. "Thanks to the influence of extreme Christian fundamentalism, the wall separating church and state is nothing but smoke and debris. And OSU is the IED that exploded the wall separating church and state in the Pentagon and throughout our military." Weinstein continued: "The fact that they would even consider taking their crusade to a Muslim country shows the threat to our national security and to the constitution and everyone that loves it."

A good thing coming from the OSU is the fact that the are sending Freedom Packages to the soldiers in Iraq. In these packages there are socks, and baby wipes, and Left Behind: Eternal Forces the video game! WOW! According to Max Blumenthal of The Nation, "The game is inspired by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' bestselling pulp fiction series about a blood-soaked Battle of Armageddon pitting born-again Christians against anybody who does not adhere to their particular theology. In LaHaye's and Jenkins' books, the non-believers are ultimately condemned to "everlasting punishment" while the evangelicals are "raptured" up to heaven."

I would assume that the soldiers in Iraq would love to play a video game that requires them to kill people of unlike faith, kind of a reflection of the Iraqi's, is it not?