[Apologetics] Pentagon reports no longer quote Bible

[Art Kelly]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090518/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_pentagon_religious
_quotes;_ylt=AimiLuYG4VRIjK7ehD4.fdWyFz4D

Pentagon reports no longer quote Bible

11 mins ago 

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible
quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the
White House as was practice during the Bush administration.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the
Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air
Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them,
retired in August 2003, according to his biography.

For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President
George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians and
the epistles of Peter. At the time, the reports focused largely on the
war in Iraq.

The Bible quotes apparently aimed to support Bush at a time when
soldiers' deaths in Iraq were on the rise, according to the June issue
of GQ magazine. But they offended at least one Muslim analyst at the
Pentagon and worried other employees that the passages were
inappropriate.

On Thursday, April 10, 2003, for example, the report quoted the book of
Psalms - "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him. ... To
deliver their soul from death." - and featured pictures of the statue of
Saddam Hussein being pulled down and celebrating crowds in Baghdad.

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil
comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done
everything, to stand," read the cover quote two weeks earlier, on March
31, above a picture of a U.S. tank driving through the desert, according
to the magazine, which obtained copies of the documents.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, on Monday said U.S. soldiers "are not
Christian crusaders, and they ought not be depicted as such."

"Depicting the Iraq conflict as some sort of holy war is completely
outrageous," Lynn said in a statement. "It's contrary to the
constitutional separation of religion and government, and it's
tremendously damaging to America's reputation in the world."

___

On the Net:

GQ: http://www.gq.com
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