Unless God comes down, points his Flying Fickle Finger of Fate at these Corrupticons, and says “Free lightning bolts-First Come, First Served!”, the loyalists will conveniently assume that all is well and good in the Land of Nodding Off. Looking in that direction for any support is a great way…to begin your neck calisthetics.
The same god. Hence Christians, Muslims and Jews are “Children of Abraham.”
Yes, this. Hegseth invokes “the full armor of God” partly against his manifest, obvious-to-all illegitimacy as SecDef. 'I AM legitimate, GOD SAYS SO’ is the whine one can easily imagine him spewing out.
But as has been noted in the thread, all of this is in aid of ensuring a military that will obey all orders, even illegal ones (such as killing peaceful protesters).
As such it’s no joke, even though Hegseth himself may be very much a joke.
And the summary execution of Caribbean boaters.
For your perusal/comparison: Reich Ministry for Church Affairs - Wikipedia
An alignment of goals, through the alignment of souls?
Let’s not drag God into this mess.
What Hegseth wants is a military full of people who are willing to obey Hegseth’s orders as if he was speaking for God.
Just like a lot of religious leaders. It’s not like he invented the idea of using religion to push personal beliefs.
Would that he visit the front lines – and stop a bullet. Then he can explain his views on Christianity to Jesus himself.
Tell that to Hegseth.
Disclaimer: I’ve never served in the military, but it seems that this whole Hegseth bullshit illustrates the biggest problem, which is the lack of checks and balances. In a system that, by its very design, punishes for “insubordination” and heavily influences people to just go along with orders that aren’t of My Lai massacre severity, the military is just rife for someone to corrupt it from top to bottom because people just can’t say no.
Brace yourself for this; Hegseth is lying.
Hegseth is not doing God’s work just because Hegseth says he’s doing God’s work.
The reason this is a major point we need to get out in the public mind is there are a lot of devout Christians in this country. We need to remind them that some of the people who call themselves Christians are lying and they don’t deserve the loyalty of real Christians. Turning against people like Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump is not the same as turning against God.
From your lips to the True Scotsm… I mean True Christian’s ears.
I can’t get into specifics, but it includes making him cry like a little girl.
I’ve read few of the replies.
What concerns me most about this kind of Hegseth/Military shit is something I’ve frequently come back to: the potential dire consequences of ‘building a fighting force of … extraordinary magnitude’ based on the language of religion and the crux of faith (belief in things for which there is no evidence).
When we, here, muse aloud about whether/who/how much of the military would follow blatantly illegal orders … mining, grooming, nurturing, and cultivating the faithful while simultaneously culling the thinkers – particularly from the upper echelons of all branches of the military increases – IMHO, greatly – the odds of meaningful compliance with illegal orders.
Because whatever you can say about the faithful … the farther along that road you look, the less ‘critical thinking,’ incredulity, skepticism, and rational thought you tend to see.
The military has always depended on chain of command and following orders. The apocalyptic, Biblical rhetoric is that on steroids – pun intended.
Breaking everything down into existential battles of good vs. evil dovetails quite nicely into this Stygian scenario, and is somewhere near the heart of organized religion’s appeal.
And Chapter One of The Demagogue’s Playbook.
Yeah. It’s bad. It’s really, really bad.
Speaking of that,
Is Iran the Key to the End Times?
Are we witnessing the fulfillment of ancient Bible prophecy in the Middle East today? In this urgent update, Pastor Greg Laurie is joined by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to discuss the chilling “apocalyptic prophecy” surrounding Iran and its growing alliance with Russia.
As tensions rise between Israel and Iran, many are asking: Could this be the lead-up to the Ezekiel 38 (Gog and Magog) scenario? From the mysterious imagery of the “Islamic Messiah” (Imam Mahdi) to the strategic military partnerships forming in the North, we explore what the Bible says about these “signs of the times” and why Christians should “look up” instead of “freaking out.”
Lest we dismiss this entirely,
In 2013, Laurie served as the Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. President Donald Trump selected Pastor Laurie as one of several evangelical church leaders to participate in the National Prayer Service hosted at the Washington National Cathedral following the presidential inauguration of 2017.
Greg Laurie - Wikipedia
Like I said, the radical religious right is Christianity’s version of the Talaban.
And the calls are coming from inside the house!
There’s a Bible passage about putting on armor, Ephesians 6:11, around which people have developed an elaborate devotional prayer. Armor/arms/spiritual warfare are a rich vein of metaphor.
Some evangelicals, as a daily devotional, actually stand in front of a mirror and pantomime putting on armor while they say the prayer. It’s popular, most Christians are going to recognize what Hegseth is talking about and resonate with it.
Here’s a blog about it. There are a zillion YouTube videos about “how to pray the armor of god”
Another problem is that they are doing their best to find the people who would say no to illegal orders and are weeding them out, at least in top positions.
Yes, that (sadly, continuing) situation was a major accomplishment on the Road to Autocracy. The military complied. And the US population was made very much aware that our current military WILL comply with orders to kill, orders of dubious legality.
Control over a cowed population, check! 