Quote Originally Posted by Cavguy View Post
Good comments by all.

I actually am surprised it took this long for an incident like this to happen, given the strength of the evangelical movement inside the military. I'll never forget walking patrol in Tal Afar past a poor Iraqi kid in a 'Jesus Loves Me' t-shirt that obviously had been given out by a prior unit. No one had an objection, but I'm not sure anyone in that particular dirt poor area could read English.
My own experience was kind of the inverse of this. When we encountered Iraqi vendors in the opening days of OIF I, they were well-stocked with "Christian" paraphenalia and were vainly trying to sell it to us. Icons, crosses, coffee cups, t-shirts, decorated bibles, you name it, they were trying to push it on us...

Unfortunately for them, I think their marketing was based on an incorrect assumption of that same "evangelical movement inside the military". (We WERE "Christian Invaders" after all) Much is made about this supposed "movement", but in reality, I think it has more to do with American society's radical move to atheism, while the military isn't moving that direction quite as fast.

My experience, as a Christian in the US Army, is that the vast majority of soldiers are much more interested in getting laid, getting drunk, getting high (without getting caught, of course) and avoiding work (extra points are awarded if you work harder to avoid the work, than just doing the work itself, of course....) more than proselytizing....

But I'm interested in how many of the higher ranks become "neo-Christians" once they take command/get in que for a choice, promotable job....