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Media goes nuts over Army general's comments on religion
After reading dozens of articles about comments U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin made to church groups, Weblog still can't figure out what all the fuss is about. Apparently, many believe the following beliefs make him unfit for military service: that America is engaged in a spiritual war, that Satan is more of a threat than Osama bin Laden, that Islam is tantamount to idolatry, that America is grounded in a Judeo-Christian heritage, and that Islamic terrorists have targeted the U.S. because of that heritage.

Now, CT has written quite a bit on all of these things, and we probably wouldn't state things quite the way that Boykin did (here's us on whether Islam is idolatry, for example). But while Boykin's phrasing needs more nuancing, the rhetoric of his critics is simply startling.

The chief inquisitor is William M. Arkin, a former Army intelligence analyst and consultant. After a month of "investigative" reporting, he was behind both an NBC Nightly News broadcast and a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times targeting Boykin as "divisive" and "controversial." He says Boykin's comments suggest that the war against terrorism is a religious war. "I think that it is not only at odds with what the president believes, but it is a dangerous, extreme and pernicious view that really has no place," Arkin told the Times. (And, for the record, that's where the quote ends. He doesn't say "has no place in military leadership. It apparently has no place anywhere.) In a Timesop-ed piece, he calls the Lt. Gen. "an intolerant extremist."

An "intolerant extremist," it should be pointed out (as the Times did in one of its articles), who regularly talks to churches about how radical Islamic terrorists are as different from most Muslims as the KKK is from most Christians.

Let's look at some of these "intolerant, extreme" comments.

Who is that enemy? It's not Osama bin Laden. Our enemy is a spiritual enemy because we are a nation of believers. You go back and look at our history, and you will find that we were founded on faith. Look at what the writers of our Constitution said. We are a nation of believers. We were founded on faith. And the enemy that has come against our nation is a spiritual enemy. His name is Satan. And if you do not believe that Satan is real, you are ignoring the same Bible that tells you about God. Now I'm a warrior. One day I'm going to take off this uniform and I'm still going to be a warrior. And what I'm here to do today is to recruit you to be warriors of God's kingdom.

What's so offensive here? That bin Laden isn't the enemy? That Satan is? Is belief in Satan diametrically opposed to military service? Is the belief that Satan is a spiritual enemy of the American state?

And we ask ourselves this question, 'Why do they hate us? Why do they hate us so much?' Ladies and gentlemen, the answer to that is because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian. Did I say Judeo-Christian? Yes. Judeo-Christian. … Our religion came from Judaism, and therefore these radicals will hate us forever.

Again, what here makes Boykin unfit for service? If anything, it puts the lie to the idea that Christians like him are intolerantly anti-Semitic.

There was a man in Mogadishu named Osman Atto. … He went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said, 'They'll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.' Well, you know what I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol. But I prayed, Lord let us get that man.

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47