A question for religious DU'ers WRT CIA paying fake clerics..... [View All]

[Liberal Veteran]

This is not designed to be a flame war, but an actual question. I am agnostic who grew up as a Christian, but turned away from organized religion because on examination, I found I didn't require that in my life to be spiritual. That is neither here nor there.

Reading the article about the CIA paying fake Muslims clerics/mullahs to spread "moderate, pro-american" sentiment in the Middle East struck me as a disgusting tactic, although I read a couple of DU'ers that actually thought this was a good idea.

I don't. I have always believed that being a cleric of any faith was a vocation (a calling from God if you will). I find the notion of hiring people to pretend to be muslims clerics to be disrespectful and downright blasphemous and I wonder how DU'ers who are aligned with particular faiths would feel to find that their particular priest, priestess, rabbi, whatever was a paid operative of a particular government?

I understand the nature of propaganda, but I wonder if this is really a good idea.

What are your thoughts on it?