As if starting an ill-conceived war isn’t enough, Hesgeth now wants to turn this into a “holy crusade” complete with petitions for divine intervention and claims of a 21st-century manifest destiny of his form of uniquely American Christianity. Given the choice, he’d ride with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, albeit pulled behind them in a chariot like a Roman Emperor.
Let’s set one thing straight, Secretary Hesgeth: you and those who embrace a similar doctrine wrapped in Christian symbolism are further removed from embracing a true Christian faith than I am, and I am an atheist.
On this Easter Sunday, the day when Christians celebrate the Resurrection, nothing will reflect in the prayers, devotions, or celebrated masses that proclaim a need for a “holy war.” I am absolutely certain Jesus left no instructions for when it is right and just to fight a war in his name.
No true person of faith would turn their God into a bullet and shoot it into another person’s heart.
There is no philosophy, doctrine, or words in the recorded teachings of Jesus that condone war. Any Christian theological interpretation to the contrary is a human-made contrivance used to justify a purely human motivation for dominance.
Don’t twist what I am saying here into some naive pacifist nonsense. War is sometimes unavoidable because of the nature of humans, but it is never justified by Christian philosophy. Nor should it ever be waged under the guise that “God is on our side.” While I may doubt the very existence of a God, if he or she does exist, I seriously doubt he’d pick sides.
But with the rise of Christian nationalism and a president and his supporters willing to use this to their advantage, we are inexorably drifting toward a theocracy. We will not be defeated militarily or economically; we will commit societal suicide through our own willful ignorance.
I am incensed that we have a Secretary of Defense who is so inadequate in his self-awareness (along with his boss) that he needed to change the name to Secretary of War to make him more warrior-like.
Hesgeth is a crusader-wannabe with delusions of predestination and a holy writ born ten centuries too late.
Joe Broadmeadow
He can call himself whatever he likes; it won’t make him a warrior. It will expose him as a fraud.
I am incensed that we have a Sec. Def. who lacks the common decency to recognize we are a diverse and varied people who embrace a whole range of religious and philosophical perspectives and are united by these differences.
I am incensed that he cannot understand that the men and women we send into battle are not Christians, or Jews, or Muslims, or any other religious sect; they are American soldiers. To invoke his particular religious delusion—for in his case, seeking to justify this war and enlist the aid of a celestial being is delusional—flies in the face of what America represents.
We are Americans who fight for what is necessary and right, not because someone believes we are doing “God’s” work.
We should not be shocked by Hesgeth jamming his religion down the throats of men and women under his command. In his book American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, Hegseth demands “a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom. Read the book for yourself; he makes no bones about what he is.
The exact words Hegseth used in his prayer for the troops were:
“May God watch over all of them, each day and each night. May His Almighty and Eternal Arms of Providence stretch over them and protect them and bring them peace in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”
The prayer failed; we have dead and wounded. Either God can’t or won’t help, and he let that missile hit the school. Hard to fathom an omnipotent being letting that happen. If Hesgeth expected different results, he is making my point.
Hesgeth is a crusader-wannabe with delusions of predestination and a holy writ born ten centuries too late.
The moment he sought divine assistance in this military campaign doomed it to failure.
The is a common misconception, proffered quite often by the devout, that there are no atheists in foxholes. Nothing could be further from the truth, or more dangerous to those we send into battle.
Prayers do not win wars. Strategy, experience, training, intuition, intelligence, and wisdom win wars and this Sec. Def. and the President lack them all.
If there is a caring and loving God, why would he allow the circumstances in this world that led to war to exist? The nonsense answer, one that Hesgeth and crew would insist on, is that it is a mystery of faith.
The more logical answer, the one most likely to be closer to the truth, is that God isn’t there, and even if he were, he is not coming to help. To claim divine authority to wage war is the most callous and wasteful use of American lives, and the whole country should demand his immediate dismissal.
P.S. I wonder if Trump’s quote about John McCain not being a hero because he was shot down applies to those two F15E pilots recently shot down. Remember that!
