Most Christians probably think of Jesus as the “Prince of Peace,” foretold in Isaiah 9:6, so the idea of “Jesus the military leader” might seem a bit odd—but not for Christian nationalists, particularly those involved in parachurch organizations that prey on the military.
One such individual in one such organization, Cadence International, has just been blocked from attempting to convert 112 subordinates via a mandatory military training titled, "Leadership Lessons of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Swift action by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) put an end to the attempt. But the mere fact that such a clear violation occurred is a troubling reflection of deep-seated problems which the Biden administration has done little, if anything to correct, MRFF President and CEO Mikey Weinstein told Crooks and Liars.
“We're just not seeing the Biden dividend,” Weinstein said, despite the fact that “Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austen said he wanted to be—these aren't my words—he wanted to be the lodestar for racial and religious diversity in DoD.” Of course, “It's overall far better than we when we had the narcissistic, egotistical, cowardly, idiot racist as president, in Trump,” he said. “But clarity of separation of church and state, which everyone swears an oath to when they join the military? We're not seeing it.”
In this case, a senior non-commissioned officer (NCO), who happens to be Jewish, tried to prevent the training by reasoning with the officer in charge (OIC) who ordered the training, billed online as “Leadership Lessons of the Lord Jesus Christ,” according to an emailed account provided by an MRFF representative at the base. Specifically:
The OIC told the senior NCO that there “was absolutely nothing religious” about the planned mandatory training as it would "only focus on Jesus the military leader” and not “Jesus the Son of God”. The senior NCO asked the OIC why he chose Jesus to be the object of this mandatory military training and the OIC said, “because Jesus is respected as a model of Godly leadership by all worldwide even if you’re not yet a Christian”.
“Jesus the military leader? What Bible is this guy reading?” MRFF Research Director Chris Rodda asked in her coverage at Daily Kos.
And for good reason. There are many battles in the Bible, with mixed relationships to the best historical evidence. Joshua fought the battle of Jehricho, David slew Goliath, but Jesus? In matters of conflict, he’s best known for rejecting it entirely in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
Christian nationalists see things differently, though, as I noted in a 2018 Salon story about a paper co-authored by Andrew Whitehead that first introduced the term to a wider audience:
“Christian nationalism, however, draws its roots from ‘Old Testament’ parallels between America and Israel, who was commanded to maintain cultural and blood purity, often through war, conquest, and separatism,” Whitehead’s paper explains. “Unlike civil religion, contemporary manifestations of Christian nationalism can be unmoored from traditional moral import, emphasizing only its notions of exclusion and apocalyptic war and conquest.”
But that still doesn't explain Jesus as a military leader--only the desire to see him as such. And Rodda rightly found the second statement equally troubling, if not moreso:
NOT YET a Christian? Apparently, this proselytizing officer expects those service members who are NOT YET Christian to BECOME Christian. But that’s not surprising considering that this OIC belongs to Cadence International, one of the large fundamentalist Christian parachurch organizations found on every military base, an organization that has declared that “The Military is Our Mission Field”…. The OIC, with his "Leadership Lessons of the Lord Jesus Christ,” was presumably trying to do his bit to fulfill Cadence’s convert-the-military mission.
You might think Rodda is a bit biased given her role at MRFF, but author Frederick Clarkson, a Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates has a similar analysis.
“This guy seems to be confused,” Clarkson told Crooks and Liars. “He apparently can't tell the difference between a deity and a soldier, and by the same standard, cannot separate his own role as a soldier from that of a religious leader. He does, however, seem to be seeking to be recruiting for a religious army -- from the ranks of the U.S. armed forces.”
This was “unsurprising,” Clarkson said, “Because that is exactly what the non-denominational Cadence International seeks to do. Its an outside evangelical agency, called a parachurch group, whose mission is to proselytize soldiers and turn them into a legion of proselytizers.” What’s most worrying is what Clarkson pointed out next: “Their very mission conflicts with that of the military as an organized expression of Constitutional values, including those of religious freedom and equality under the law, and separation of church and state.”
Weinstein concurs—and then some. “The final warning from Pres. Eisenhower in his farewell speech was to beware the military-industrial complex,” Weinstein said. “What we are fighting here at MRFF in the military is a fundamentalist-Christian nationalist-parachurch-military-corporate-congressional-proselytizing complex.” It’s a mouthful, but that’s reality. “It's omnipresent. It's literally like gravity,” he said.
“The problem is not just the military looking the other way, it's that many of these organizations have actual buildings and offices at the military installations themselves,” Weinstein explained. “And they have a number of people in the military, active duty who are members who support them. They are blinded to the fact that we have the constitutional separation of church and state.”
In theory, such groups need not be a problem. “Parachurch organizations are fine to exist as long as what they are doing doesn't violate the time, place and manner restrictions of the separation of church and state, which is buried into the essence of our case law our Constitution and what we call the DIR, the directives instructions and regulations of the US military,” Weinstein said. But that’s not how they operate. “What they do is they prostitute, and they turn and they weaponize the chain of command. It's always from top down trying to push the great commission of getting people to accept their fundamentalist Christian nationalistic perspective of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
This particular officer was “a poster child for that,” he said. “His is not at all an isolated act. We have this happen, we get complaints about almost the exact same thing on almost a weekly basis.”
Which is why MRFF wants to see him punished. It needs to be taken seriously, Weinstein says, “Like in the Navy, sexism and sexual assault wasn't taken seriously until the Tailhook incident in Las Vegas years ago.” The problems persist, of course, but progress has been made. So there’s a precedent. “But we are waiting for the first person to be publicly disciplined and punished under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for weaponizing Jesus on otherwise helpless subordinates.”
This could be the case that changes that. There are now three separate investigations underway: an Equal Employment Opportunity investigation, an Inspector General investigation, and a Chain of Command-Directed investigation. " It is our intent to have this officer aggressively and visibly and very publicly court-martialed and it is our hope that he will be facing imprisonment for what he did here," Weinstein said.
“When it comes to the armed forces, we expect our officers to respect and defend the rights of all, not only those of their kind of Christian,” Clarkson said. :Religious freedom and equality under the law is part of the Constitution that officers commissioned in the armed forces are sworn to “support and defend". And by this we do not only mean our general system of government or an ancient piece of parchment -- but the living Constitutional rights of those under their command.”
