U.S. military destroys soldier's Bibles

[ACougar]

Is it really possible for the US Military to stop soldiers from Prostelizing?

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan.



Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion.

ChristianToday
ALTERNET
WashingtonPost

 

[Matthewj1985]

Is it really possible for the US Military to stop soldiers from Prostelizing?



Military destroys soldier's Bibles (OneNewsNow.com)

We will find out soon. I never understood why it was so hard for some people to separate work and religion.

 

[ACougar]

We will find out soon. I never understood why it was so hard for some people to separate work and religion.

There was a big piece in Al Jazera basicly using a video as proof that US Troops are Christians on another Crusade to destroy Islam. You have to wonder how many lives have been lost to insurgents and/or terrorists who believed we are in Afganistan & Iraq to destroy Islam?

 

[Washington]

Is it really possible for the US Military to stop soldiers from Prostelizing?

It certainly appears so, and legally.

 

[ACougar]

Trust me, there is thousand times this going on...

It certainly appears so, and legally.

 

[bigbadwilf]

Bearing in mind what happened to the last superpower to invade Afghanistan, or the one before that even...

You can't buy the loyalty of the Afghans, you can only rent it for a while, and effectively attacking their religion then it'll only be for a very short while. With a very unhappy ending

 

[revanneosl]

My fellow taxpayers & I aren't paying for them to be over there preaching to the locals. We're paying them to do soldier stuff. They should get on with it and leave the preaching to the experts.

 

[ACougar]

Thankfully any "we" that would subscribe to such a thing is incapable of committing cultural genocide on that scale. We (the United States) respect people’s right to believe (or not believe) as their conscience dictates.

Well we need to wipe Islam out. Better through books and ideas than through bullets...

 

[ACougar]

They have down time on occasion, just like anyone else. If we really believe in free speech, universal human rights and all that... how can we justify gaging our soldiers from talking about the things that matter most to them?

We say were liberating the Iraqies from Sadam, the Afganies from the Taliban... but do we really even believe in Liberty?

My fellow taxpayers & I aren't paying for them to be over there preaching to the locals. We're paying them to do soldier stuff. They should get on with it and leave the preaching to the experts.

 

[GuidanceNeeded]

So were the soldiers holding the locals there at gun point and making them read the Bible?


Hmmmm most likely not.

God Bless ALL of our Military Men and Women

 

[GuidanceNeeded]

My fellow taxpayers & I aren't paying for them to be over there preaching to the locals. We're paying them to do soldier stuff. They should get on with it and leave the preaching to the experts.

Yes better our tax dollars go to those who do not work and sit on their bums collecting checks!

IMHO our soldiers don't get paid enough for their work. They put their life on the line everyday they are over there, but thats just my opinion.

God Bless

 

[GuidanceNeeded]

I don't know if anyone has seen this. This thread here might just be a follow-up but anyways.

Dangerous Talk

What is very disturbing is why hasn't any of our news station brought this to our attention? Isn't this newsworthy?

My mom watches the news ALL the time, since brother has been Iraq, and she said she hasn't heard about this, granted she could of missed the 1st or 2nd time it ran, but when I told her it was the first she had heard of it.

So I guess it's best that we let the Afghanistan's stick to what they know, like signing up for the suicide mission classes, training classes to go undercover to come into the US and blend in with the American's so they can take over a few more planes - I think you get my point.

This is heart wrenching to me, the people over there could benefit from learning the word of God.

 

[gnomon]

This is heart wrenching to me, the people over there could benefit from learning the word of God.

They have that and call him Allah.

Actually, your statements about the Afghani's learning about suicide bombings also misses the point. This is a nation of a number of different ethnic groups and tribal groups that fended off an aggressor nation in the form of the Soviet Union with our backing but when it came time to help them pick up the pieces from their victory we failed them.

In that vacuum came the young mullah hardliners who formed the Taliban. They rebuilt that nation.

Now we are there again and any notion that an armed human being from foreign soil proselytizing to them is no different than the thought of an armed Islamist in Utah or Idaho proselytizing to white Christians.

Let the Army desist this kind of behavior and if it means throwing the Bibles away then so be it. It's a far more peaceful solution.

 

[GuidanceNeeded]

They have that and call him Allah.

Well like I said in my other postings were they being held at gun point? They weren't making anyone learn our Bible.

 

[revanneosl]

Yes better our tax dollars go to those who do not work and sit on their bums collecting checks!

IMHO our soldiers don't get paid enough for their work. They put their life on the line everyday they are over there, but thats just my opinion.

God Bless

Hey - I'm totally with you on the obligation to pay our military men & women well, and to give them first-rate medical and pension benefits besides.

I was just saying that they're not over there to preach - they're over there to soldier.

 

[GuidanceNeeded]

Hey - I'm totally with you on the obligation to pay our military men & women well, and to give them first-rate medical and pension benefits besides.

I was just saying that they're not over there to preach - they're over there to soldier.

Sorry I get a little defensive when it comes to our men/women on tour over seas.

But they do get time off, I think it's great they are using their time (when not working) to bring others to God.

Sorry but I don't see any issues with this what so ever.

 

[Nathan45]

They have down time on occasion, just like anyone else. If we really believe in free speech, universal human rights and all that... how can we justify gaging our soldiers from talking about the things that matter most to them?

We say were liberating the Iraqies from Sadam, the Afganies from the Taliban... but do we really even believe in Liberty?

Is there really such a thing as free speech in the military?

In any case, since this is dealing with foreign citizens it is fundamentally a diplomatic issue. U.S. Soldiers are representatives of the U.S. government, so they shouldn't be proselytizing afghans unless that's the official government policy. Actually shouldn't be handing out literature to afghans, period, unless it's been approved by the higher ups. And to be clear the article is not talking about the soldier's personal bibles it's talking about ones that had been translated into local languages that were being used for prostelytization.

This isn't any different than any other Job. Look, here's what i do for a living: I'm a programmer working for a company that writes custom IT software on contract for clients. If I called up my boss's clients to try to to convert them to Deism, I'm sure I'd get fired, and rightfully so.

 

[gnomon]

Well like I said in my other postings were they being held at gun point? They weren't making anyone learn our Bible.

Coercion does not need a gun.

Like I said, they already have a God.

 

[GuidanceNeeded]

Coercion does not need a gun.

Like I said, they already have a God.

So now they were coerced? LOL

And when they read our version of the Bible, you don't think they knew this wasn't their Bible?

Come on, please

 

[gnomon]

So now they were coerced? LOL

And when they read our version of the Bible, you don't think they knew this wasn't their Bible?

Come on, please

Nobody claimed coercion. You moved the goalposts by claiming they were not at gunpoint. I merely stated that coercion (being at gunpoint) does not need a gun.

The real issue is that they were proselytizing to members of another religious group when they had no grounds to do so by regulations and that it was probably one of the worst things the United States can support in a nation we already aided and dumped once before.

An understanding that they already have their own faith would show less bigotry.