Winning hearts and minds!

[theweaselking]

US soldiers distributing Chick tracts and copies of the "edited for Baptists, who are illiterate" Bible, translated into Arabic, in Iraq.

Chief Warrant Officer Rene Llanos of the 101st Airborne told Mission Network News, “the soldiers who are patrolling and walking the streets are taking along this copy, and they're using it to minister to the local residents.”

"Our division is also getting ready to head toward Afghanistan, so there will be copies heading out with the soldiers," Llanos said. “We need to pray for protection for our soldiers as they patrol and pray that God would continue to open doors. The soldiers are being placed in strategic places with a purpose. They're continuing to spread the Word.”

Karen Hawkins, a BPM official, said military chaplains "were trying to encourage [soldiers] to be in the Word everyday because they're in a very dangerous situation, and they need that protection."

The book’s cover includes the logos of the five branches of the armed forces giving the impression that it’s a publication sanctioned by the Pentagon.

The distribution of the Bibles and Christian literature comes on the heels of a report published Wednesday by McClatchy Newspapers stating that U.S. Marines guarding the entrance to the city of Fallujah have been handing out “witnessing coins” to Sunni Muslims entering the city that read in Arabic on one side: "Where will you spend eternity?” and "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. John 3:16" on the other.

The issue comes at a particularly sensitive time for Sunnis who recently clashed with U.S. military in an area west of Baghdad week after an American soldier was found to have used a Koran for target practice.

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.

Chick Publications states on its website that its literature "is desperately needed by Muslims, but getting it to them without endangering our soldiers or enflaming the Muslim leadership will not be easy."

Postal regulations prohibit sending bulk religious materials contrary to Islam into Iraq, but allow religious materials to be sent to an individual soldier for their personal use.

Sending more of these materials than would be necessary for an individual's personal use, but not a large enough quantity to risk being flagged by the postal service, is one way that these materials are making their way into Iraq. Chick Publications advises those wanting to send their literature to military personnel to first find out "just what tracts would be most useful and how many they can effectively use," and "to find out whether the tracts can be drop shipped from Chick Publications or if they should be sent as personal mail from the soldiers' families."

Meanwhile, members of the 101st Airborne stationed in Iraq will continue their work evangelizing Iraqis unless it is told otherwise.

Llanos, the division's chief warrant officer, said about 2,000 copies of the military edition of the Bible provided to the 101st Airborne will soon be distributed to Iraqis.

Comments

[dolston.livejournal.com]

Nothing like turning the existing military operation into a crusade to ensure any and all gain will be lost.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

*wince* My faith for humanity... fading...

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I dispute that people who distribute Chick tracts without irony qualify as human.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Oh, my aching head. Don't they understand that they're giving the jihadists exactly the tool they've been gagging for?

-- Steve'll also note that proslytising in Afghanistan isn't just counterproductive... it's a death sentence crime still, as that statute hasn't been stricken from the Taliban-written legal code. So keep it in your pants, ye God-botherers, if you so much as hear about Kandahar.

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaaaaaugh!

It's the fucking Decade of the Moran!



Just Aaaaaaaaugh!

[zastrazzi.livejournal.com]

Someone really needs to seriously enforcing that whole separation of Church and State stuff... damn. The military is definitely a Federal institution and should in no way be associated with this. Ever.

[themanabides.livejournal.com]

Urge to kill ... rising.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Y'know, if I can point to a single thing that drove me AWAY from Christianity, it'd be Chick comics.

[mcpino.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but they worship the Wrong GOD! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vMPEaO8TPs)

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

Just a slight correction, it was a single Marine passing out the coins not "marines" in the multiple.


And I used to pass out chick comics to my friends but more in the sense of "Oh God this is awesomely stupid, must share!"

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

It was a single Marine prosecuted for it. Do you actually know (or have evidence) that it was a single Marine doing it?

[graethorne.livejournal.com]

Also, screaming, inside, quietly. Too tired for mayhem, today...

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

Agreed, on both counts.

[zdallin.livejournal.com]

Uh huh. Of course they could be handing out supplies or something that could save lives, but that wouldn't be the Christian thing to do.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I was coping. I was. All the way through.

But the bitter flat delivery of this comment--yes. Perfect.

Brain implosion may now begin. :)

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

There are only four branches of the DoD. I'm curious what the so called fifth is.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard?

[reyl.livejournal.com]

DOING IT WRONG doesn't even begin to cover it.

GAH.

I'm just...


GAH.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I am just boggled by the severe stupidity here. One of the worst problems the occupiers are having in iraq (other than actually going there in the first place) is that the Iraqis don't trust us (on the mild end of the scale) through to venemously hate us. And this? This will not win hearts and minds

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Fuck hearts and minds! We're talking about SOOULS for JEEEEZUS!

[elffin.livejournal.com]

US Military

Godwin Limit Reached.

End Task Y/Y?

[ninjaguydan.livejournal.com]

that's how bullshit wars work..you want oil, but you've got to tell the troops you're fighting a crusade....perhaps it's time mr. chick and i have a duel.

It's on!
-)

[leighdb.livejournal.com]

The stupid, it burns.

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

I posted the link to a Navy Officer website, and the results were surprising. Most of the people who have responded have agreed this was a bad idea.

I was shocked....

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

I think many people in the military are pretty sensible (other than the whole "putting themselves in a place where they could be shot" thing), and this seems like something most sensible people would recognize as a bad idea.

[theamaranth.livejournal.com]

gross as all fuck.