Hunting People For Jesus

US soldiers have been encouraged to spread the message of their Christian faith among Afghanistan's predominantly Muslim population, video footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to show.

Military chaplains stationed in the US air base at Bagram were also filmed with bibles printed in the country's main Pashto and Dari languages.

In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him".

"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/200953201315854832.html

May 4, 2009 response from the military:

Published on Monday, May 4, 2009 by Reuters
US Denies Letting Troops Convert Afghans
by Peter Graff

KABUL - The U.S. military denied Monday it has allowed soldiers to try to convert Afghans to Christianity, after a television network showed pictures of soldiers with bibles translated into local languages.

General Order Number 1 from the U.S. military's Central Command forbids active duty troops -- including all those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to their religion, considered a crime in many Muslim countries.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed footage of a church service at Bagram, the main U.S. base north of the Afghan capital Kabul, in which soldiers had a stack of bibles in the local languages, Pashtu and Dari.

A military chaplain was shown delivering a sermon to other soldiers, saying: "The special forces guys -- they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down."

But a U.S. military spokeswoman, Major Jennifer Willis, said the comments from the sermon were taken out of context and chaplains were told to make clear to soldiers that they could not proselytize while serving.

She said the bibles had been mailed to a soldier by a church back home in the United States and were never distributed.

"That specific case involved a soldier who brought in a donation of translated bibles that were sent to his personal address by his home church. He showed them to the group and the chaplain explained that he cannot distribute them," she said.

"The translated bibles were never distributed as far as we know, because the soldier understood that if he distributed them he would be in violation of general order 1, and he would be subject to punishment."

She said she was aware of at least one case of a soldier who had been punished for giving out coins that had biblical inscriptions on them.

Trying to convert Muslims to any other faith is a crime in Afghanistan. An Afghan man who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2006 but was allowed to leave the country after an international uproar.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090504/ts_nm/us_afghanistan_proselytising

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Afghanistan
• Bagram
• U.S.
• military
• christian
• proselytising
• bibles
• witnesses
• for
• jesus
• Brian
• Hughes

[IanFrank]

At least they NOTE that they're not supposed to do that

[ThisWeekInFascism]

@IanFrank …which makes it worse, because they know what's wrong and do it anyway.

[ProzrachnyTeatr]

No surprise to find the yankee-doodle Nazi God-Squad SCUM using WAR to spread their stinking "Gospel".

[thegamerhq1]

That's how Christianity has always been spread. If it didn't then a lot of people today would be serving zeus or something.

[sparkyj99]

~~> Not much moves me these days, but this shit scares the fcuk out of me...

[erlopez2]

Fucking Christian music sounds so fucking childish and gay. Something out of a Disney cartoon. Fucking stupid cornballs.

[zurapDOR]

"Western values"

[XBAGREMX]

group of criminals and dirty peoples...USA shame of you...

[mawnyz1]

"we are all loving & peaceful people"?

[ynot4tony2388]

lmao, I was on Bagram when this happened, we (on the SF compound) laughed for a good while after this

[bridgettedunn]

Right. A "specific case", which just happened to be filmed. Please. We all know the sneaky crap that churches pull. The church has no respect for law and government, because according to christians, god trumps all.

Nice try.