Right from Sarah Land - You must read this! Baseball, Jesus, and Alaska's Military Bases

[1776Forever]

After reading about Jewish Army trainee in Ga. who said he was beaten by his fellow troops: (posted by Scurrilous) this is even more horrendous! Something needs to be done about this and done quickly!

Post on incident report:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3525275&mesg_id=3525275

..........

Baseball, Jesus, and Alaska's Military Bases
By Chris Rodda Tue Sep 09, 2008

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/9/235113/0696

After reading about Sarah Palin's "coincidental" promotion of Alaska National Guard Adjutant General, Craig E. Campbell, from Major General to Lieutenant General as soon as he changed his tune about her involvement as commander-in-chief of his troops, I decided to take a look at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) files on Alaska's military bases to see if anything of concern is going on up there religious freedom-wise.

First on the list was the website of the U.S. Army, Alaska (USARAK) Command Chaplain's Office "Ministry Team," which serves Fort Wainwright, Fort Greely, Fort Richardson, and their tenant units, which include the Alaska National Guard, whose headquarters is located at Fort Richardson. The USARAK Command Chaplain's Office is blatantly and exclusively Christian, not even providing information for soldiers of other religions. Even the worst of the other military installations that provide no non-Christian services or programs at least provide contact numbers or listings of off-base houses of worship for non-Christians to find services of their faith.

In March 2007, Fort Wainwright hosted an Army "Strong Bonds" retreat, contracting an organization called Unlimited Potential, Inc. to provide "social services." Unlimited Potential, Inc. is an evangelical baseball ministry with a military ministry whose mission is: "To assist commanders and chaplains in providing religious support to military service members and their families by sharing the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ through the medium of baseball..." and "to use our God-given abilities in baseball to reach those who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to also encourage and challenge those who do.

I should back up here and explain exactly what Strong Bonds, a program currently being investigated by MRFF, actually is. Plain and simple, it's an evangelistic Christian program operating under the guise of a pre-deployment and post-deployment family wellness and marriage training program. A few years ago, Strong Bonds replaced a decade old, proven program called Building Strong and Ready Families (BSRF), which was a collaboration between the Army Nurse Corps and the chaplains. Strong Bonds cut out the Nurse Corps, creating a program run entirely by chaplains, eliminating the important physical and mental health aspects provided by public health nurses, and turning the whole thing into a program of Christian religious retreats -- paid for with your tax dollars. A lot of tax dollars.

It began with the Department of Defense (DoD) paying an advertising agency $100,000 to "sell" the Strong Bonds program to Congress. The result of the DoD's ad campaign was an unprecedented amount of funding, now being spent liberally on religious retreats, typically held at ski lodges, beach resorts, and other attractive vacation spots, luring soldiers who would never attend a religious retreat to sign up for the free vacation. MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein sums up this form of coercion with the following analogy:

"It's like a time share sales promotion. You get an all expenses paid vacation at a great resort -- the only catch is you have to sit through a sales pitch for Christianity paid for by the United States armed forces, courtesy of the American taxpayer. The Strong Bonds program is nothing less than an unconstitutional scandal and an outrage."

MRFF has already amassed quite a collection of DoD contracts for Strong Bonds retreats, which include funding for travel and accommodations, training materials, outside trainers, child care, and, of course, Christian entertainers. That one Unlimited Potential baseball ministry thing at Fort Wainwright, for example, cost taxpayers $38,269. And, this same ministry has been "Serving Christ Through Baseball" at number of other Army bases in the United States, including Fort Bragg, Fort Benning, and Fort Drum, as well as many bases overseas, presumably at a similar cost per event.

But, of even greater concern than the clear constitutional violation of the spending of tax dollars on this scheme to promote Christianity, qualified health professionals like the Army Nurse Corps are being edged out of programs dealing with issues like PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide prevention in favor of a religious approach. And, Strong Bonds isn't the only place this is happening. MRFF has uncovered that suicide prevention in the military now often includes materials such as the teachings of Rick Warren and, completely unbelievably, the teaching of creationism.

............

Are you sick yet? I am - Unbelievable - But not surprising!

[peacetalksforall]

1. I am proud of the military from our past who tried to reach soldiers of all

denominations and faiths. This is exclusionary. What are our representatives doing to us? I despise these moves of organized evangelicals. There is nothing fair in this. Nothing.

[izzie]

2. I am not shocked. I am sure you can find more if you look about.

I lived in Alaska for 10 years and the Middle Ages in churches were trying to take over the state then. Back in the 70's and 80's I am sure with Palin as gov. that they have not stopped trying and have moved on to more and more power. We know Bush has been doing this and I am sure that the GOP will get out the voters to beat Obama or try any how. Just wait. These people want a church state and 'their' church state. My own people came from a church state a few hundred years ago, from Plymouth and 'the city of the hill' and it is not a pretty picture to go back to. Fact is they never work.

[snake in the grass]

3. These fuckers...

...have permeated every nook and cranny of our government, it seems and this needs to stop immediately. When I was in the Army there was no pressure, no proselytizing. Once the drill instructor found me alone in the barracks and asked me if I was going to church. When I said no and made some smart remark about my weapon being my religion, he just laughed and told me to carry on. I got a lot of writing done on Sundays in Ft. Benning.

[1776Forever]

4. What bothers me the most is the last paragraph - Faith Based Healing Taken Over.......

As stated:

But, of even greater concern than the clear constitutional violation of the spending of tax dollars on this scheme to promote Christianity, qualified health professionals like the Army Nurse Corps are being edged out of programs dealing with issues like PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide prevention in favor of a religious approach. And, Strong Bonds isn't the only place this is happening. MRFF has uncovered that suicide prevention in the military now often includes materials such as the teachings of Rick Warren and, completely unbelievably, the teaching of creationism.

...........

Privatization has been a mantra of Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration since its inception. The money that is stripped away from qualified sources of health care is going to mean more and more of the troops are taken care of by these idealogues like Rick Warren and others who are dipping into the treasury money that should be going to the VA Clinics!

[mediaman007]

5. privatization: let the christian right have some money, so they can give

dominate the weak.

[snake in the grass]

6. Yes,

this development is very disturbing and is a huge danger. For as we turn our backs on the light of science and knowledge, we enter a world of darkness. I'm a pessimist at heart, and for me the point of no return has been reached. Ignorance in the U.S. has reached critical mass and the majority of the people lack the intellectual tools to turn it around. I may be wrong (I hope I am), but most of the people I know are pretty ignorant on such matters and they do not care one bit. I've met teachers who can't speak proper English and whose writing skills are on a 6th grade level. How can we expect children to be stimulated into independent thought when the ones who should be teaching them can't? How ironic that the very freedom we have, according to the constitution, is being used against us by people who would seek to rip that freedom from us.

[1776Forever]

7. Exactly - It is a very deep hole - One that is going to take some time to dig out of!

Hard to swallow when you know there are so many out there in need of good health care - those who have given all for our country are the ones that need the care the most!

[snake in the grass]

8. I can't figure out...

...how anyone with a conscience could even debate that point. My cousin and her husband are very educated people. He got a job offer to move to another city 2 years ago and they still can't sell their house. At the moment they are paying two mortgages and can't afford health care. When one of the children gets sick, they wait until it is serious before going to the family doctor, who charges them less than the insurance company because they pay in cash. In spite of this, they are hard core Republicans and will be voting for McCain/Palin this year. The have functioning brains, organically so to speak, but they just can't make the connection and, in the end, they vote against their own interests. Bizarre!

[1776Forever]

10. I hear you - Years of Propaganda from the Right has given a lot of people bad views of liberals but

when I hear this I only have to remember what President Kennedy said:

Acceptance of the New York Liberal Party Nomination
September 14, 1960

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/35_kennedy/psources/ps_nyliberal.html

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

Keep the faith! We are almost there brother!

[Berry Cool]

9. "Strong Bonds"? Sounds more like Barry Bonds.

And just as dicey, too.