23.Nov.2012 - Black Friday Edition: Wal-Mart Protests, Boycotts, and Your [anti?]Shopping Survival Kit!

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Black Friday: A History of Violence

Last week, America observed a new and disturbing Thanksgiving tradition: In preparation for Black Friday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued safety guidelines for stores in the hope that this year no one will be bruised or maimed while trying to get their hands on a slightly discounted Elmo doll. OSHA has been sending out its tips for crowd management since 2008

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/101-101/14668-focus-black-friday-a-history-of-violence

The Facts Behind 14 Black Friday Myths

The team at dealnews wants to help you get the best possible price for what you want to buy, and to keep you from getting hoodwinked while you're shopping. While they can't tell you how to score a better parking space at your local mall, they canhelp you strengthen your shopping strategy this year by dispelling some common Black Friday myths. Don't fall victim to the 14 falsehoods below!

http://lifehacker.com/5961604/the-facts-behind-14-black-friday-myths

Israel Suffered a Double Defeat

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Israel has just suffered a historic defeat. One only had to watch the international news coverage.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33122.htm

The Fall of the American Empire

istory, it is said, arrives first as tragedy, then as farce. First as Karl Marx, then as the Marx Brothers. In the case of twenty-first century America, history arrived first as George W. Bush (and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith and the Project for a New America -- a shadow government masquerading as a think tank -- and an assorted crew of ambitious neocons and neo-pundits); only later did David Petraeus make it onto the scene.

http://rsnorg.org/opinion2/277-75/14667-focus-fall-of-the-american-empire-writ-small

Home for the Holidays? Not for Walmart Workers

s the six members of the billionaire Walton Family -- heirs to the Walmart superchain -- prepare to sit down to a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner with their families, the holiday will be very different for the 1.4 million Walmart associates who work for them. For the second year, Walmart is planning to put profits before its workers by beginning its Black Friday sales at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and forcing its workers -- many of whom are part-time -- to abandon quality time with their own families during a cherished American holiday.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/274-41/14665-home-for-the-holidays-not-for-walmart-workers

This Holiday, Give Thanks and Get Real (About Our Food!)

all is about food. Approaching Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, copious food-rich words are written before we all sit down with loved ones to celebrate food abundance. But in this fall food season, what do we most need to know about food for all seasons?

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/448-farm-and-food-policy/14664-this-holiday-give-thanks-and-get-real-about-our-food

Fox News prepares viewers for the terrifying war on Christmas

The war on the war on Christmas is starting early this year over at Fox News, where hosts across the network’s programs spent Thanksgiving week decrying the secularization of the holiday season.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/22/fox-news-prepares-viewers-for-the-terrifying-war-on-christmas

Black Friday walkout: Why Walmart is focus of labor’s struggle

As the hottest shopping day of the retail calendar looms, the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is embroiled in a battle to defend its image, even its formula for success. A growing number of employees, protesting low wages and benefit cuts, is vowing to walk out on Black Friday.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/22/black-friday-walkout-why-walmart-is-focus-of-labors-struggle

Study: Higher retail wages would lift Americans out of poverty, boost economy

A new study released by the progressive think tank Demos on Monday estimated that if retail workers were given a living wage, hundreds of thousands of Americans would be lifted out of poverty and the wage boost would significantly bolster the economy.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/21/study-higher-retail-wages-would-lift-americans-out-of-poverty-boost-economy

Israel’s War On Gaza: 161 Killed, 1222 Wounded
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of 161 citizens and wounded 1222 others, medical sources said on November 21, 2012, revealed the Palestinian Information Center.
http://www.countercurrents.org/cc221112.htm

The International Responsibility For Justice In Occupied Palestine
The conflict in Gaza may have come to an inauspicious end last night following a ceasefire agreement, but there is little reason to rejoice for the Palestinian people. Although a ground assault of the Gaza Strip was narrowly avoided, still well over 1,500 air strikes by F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopters and drones have further devastated the impoverished territory, leaving more than 140 Palestinians dead - mostly civilians, including at least 34 children - while five Israelis also died.
http://www.countercurrents.org/parsons221112.htm

Thanksgiving at Walmart: Strikers Plan a Nationwide Celebration for Black Friday

As usual, Walmart, the world's largest and most profitable retailer, has big plans for Black Friday. In an effort to attract the lion's share of Black Friday shoppers Walmart is planning to roll out even more low, Low, LOW! prices than usual. The secret to Walmart's staggering success is volume . Walmart can afford to sell its merchandise at a steeper discount than any other store because Walmart deals in much greater volume than any other retailer. Droves of shoppers pack Walmart stores in every corner of the globe because shoppers know that they are going to find more and bigger bargains at Walmart than at any other store.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Thanksgiving-at-Walmart-S-by-Timothy-McGettigan-121121-856.html

Nickels & Dimes...Selling that Makes More "Cents"

Sales goals and a company's bottom line go hand in hand. In a down economy making sales can be more challenging than in an up economy, but it is still possible to meet and even exceed your goals without having to throw the company under the bus. Expertise, equipment, and time are valuable commodities in any economy and in any geographical location. When you waive or discount ancillary or other fees you might think you're doing the customer and yourself a favor, but the reality is you are doing both of you and the company a disservice.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nickels--Dimes--Selling-by-Cheri-Roberts-121121-60.html

Wall Street Finds a "Third Way" to Plunder Our Wealth

Gotta hand it to 'em: Those Wall Street guys are smart. They've already found two ways to plunder the nation's wealth for their own enrichment, and now they're working on a third.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Wall-Street-Finds-a-Third-by-Richard--RJ-Esko-121121-362.html

Black Friday Creep Costs Retail Workers Their Thanksgiving

About one-quarter of all Black Friday shoppers were in the stores at or before midnight last year, compared with just 3 percent in 2009, according to Ellen Davis, vice president at the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group. Echoing retailers themselves, Davis said many companies are opening earlier out of fear of losing ground to competitors.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/22/black-friday-creep-retail-workers_n_2167066.html

'Tis the Season to Be Stressed: A Survival Guide
The holiday season is upon us -- a time to lovingly connect with family, to relax, recharge and emerge happy, content and revitalized. Just kidding. In fact, of course, it's usually the complete opposite. But why is that? 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/holiday-stress_b_2171473.html

Why You Shouldn't Shop at Walmart on Friday

Today, America's largest employer is Walmart, whose average employee earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart's employees work less than 28 hours per week and don't qualify for benefits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/walmart-black-friday-strikes_b_2171524.html

Black Friday creeping into Thanksgiving night

Retailers this year are upping the ante in the game they started in 2011 and plan to open even earlier on Thursday night -- some as early as 8 p.m. -- to get a jump on their competitors.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/black-friday-creeping-into-thanksgiving-night/article/2514086

No Thanks for Thanksgiving

Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers.

http://www.alternet.org/culture/no-thanks-thanksgiving

The 7 Worst Black Friday Horror Stories (And Why You Should Stay Away From Stores This Year)

Do you really want to be the person crossing picket lines so you can save a few bucks on a TV?

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/7-worst-black-friday-horror-stories-and-why-you-should-stay

Black Friday: Americans Can Enjoy Low, Low Prices Without Suffering Slave Wages

A study shows just how easy it would be to pay holiday workers a fair rate.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/black-friday-americans-can-enjoy-low-low-prices-without-suffering-slave-wages

TSA/Airport Security: Killing Us On Christmas

It's typical to preface a Techdirt article, for me at least, by backtracking to a bunch of articles on related subject matter. I'm not going to do that with another piece on the TSA. Not because there isn't enough material to choose from. Oh no, there's simply too much of it, so if you want to see insanity in its most naked form (this statement assumes you don't live next to Gary Busey), just click here and you won't be disappointed. That said, even those outraged by the pure idiocy of the TSA's post 9/11 production of security theater will normally decry it as a massive waste of money or a gross encroachment on civil liberty. And they're right on both counts. Still, the more striking fact should be that the TSA, an agency with the mission of keeping us alive, is causing death.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121120/05540921099/tsaairport-security-killing-us-christmas.shtml

This Black Friday Fight ‘Always Low Wages’ At Walmart And Other Big Box Stores
These big box stores work on the straightforward business model of destroying their competition by doing everything they can to keep prices as low as possible. Characteristics like providing good customer service, selling quality products that last, and treating one’s workers well are all sacrificed at these big box stores in the name of trying to drive prices down. And while the proliferation of this strategy may have helped increase access to basic products for people living in or near poverty, the impact of the spread of big box stores on wages, economic inequality, local economies, the environment, and society as a whole has been disastrous.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/11/21/this-black-friday-fight-always-low-wages-at-walmart-and-other-big-box-stores-video/

Feds Won’t Stop Walmart Black Friday Strike, Walmart Threatens Firings

Walmart workers are gearing up for what could be a historic Thanksgiving/Black Friday strike. Nationwide Walmart protests over the last month have worried the retail giant enough to prompt its first complaint to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a decade. However, the NLRB indicated Tuesday that it won’t move on Walmart’s complaints in time enough to stop the Black Friday Strike.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/11/21/feds-wont-stop-walmart-black-friday-strike-walmart-threatens-firings/

As not seen on TV

It’s hardly ever like real life, so why are we so fascinated by workplace drama on television?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/74052e90-2e60-11e2-8bb3-00144feabdc0.html

The “Black Friday” protests at WalMart
A series of pickets and other protests are scheduled throughout the US against the giant retailer WalMart for “Black Friday”—the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. OUR WalMart (Organization United for Respect at WalMart), launched by the United Food and Commercial Workers last year, is behind the protests, along with a coalition of unions, liberal organizations and church groups.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/walm-n22.shtml

The Curious Case of George White

One of the government's many hired thugs

Wal-Mart Accused of Threatening Workers

Walmart strikes are necessary for workers to ever earn a living wage

 The Zionist Story

Why you should boycott the American Red Cross and give to other groups instead (4 videos)

Fundamentalist Christianity Is a Collection of Justifications for Hate

By: Hrafnkell HaraldssonAugust 13th, 2012see more posts by Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Modern Heathens have found that when you’re trying to reconstruct a religion it’s useful to know exactly what you’re trying to reconstruct – and from when. You see, Heathens don’t have an unbroken connection to the past thanks to a long history of Christian intolerance. Our ancestral believes were not allowed to develop naturally from the eleventh or twelfth century until today. We have to make do with what survived.

Because religions and religious beliefs evolve and do not remain static, a strict reconstructionist runs the risk of making a living, vibrant thing into a dead and static thing: a skeleton. You can’t simply say you’re going to reconstruct Viking Age religion and insist that is how it should be forevermore. It wouldn’t be that way if it had been allowed to live and evolve. That brings us to another approach, which I like to think of as revivalism, which has a less strict approach, one which allows a modern Heathenism that is inspired by more than transplanted from the past.

A revivalist believes that not all the customs of the past are necessarily relevant to today: thralldom (slavery) for example. The world has changed drastically, after all. Compounding the problem is our ignorance of beliefs and rituals. When we know for example that people chanted, we don’t know what they chanted or why, or what was being accomplished by the ritual. Simply transferring every bit of knowledge we have of the past to the present would result in a oft-times meaningless collection of activities.

American Tourists Flock to Israeli Settlement Shooting School

Published on Friday, July 20, 2012 by Common Dreams

- Common Dreams staff

In an Israeli West Bank settlement bloc known as Gush Etzion, American tourists are flocking to Caliber 3 shooting school, a training camp for Israeli 'security professionals including soldiers and bodyguards', which has recently opened its services to Israeli and American civilians. The company says it offers "the values of Zionism with the excitement and enjoyment of shooting which makes the activity more meaningful."

The company offers a two-hour "tourist course", in which travelers and families take turns shooting at photos of men wearing the keffiyeh scarf worn by Palestinians.

The school was set up in 2002 and opened its doors to tourists roughly three years ago.

The Caliber 3 website promotes the experience as a "special encounter that can not be experienced anywhere else except on the battlefield."

"It's a fun experience for the whole family," Rachel Frogel, a young mother holding a baby in her arms, told Agence France-Press at the Caliber 3 school.

American tourists are seen training with wooden guns as they participate in an introductory course to handle firearms at the Caliber 3 shooting range. (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)

Scamming America With Jesus

Why Faith Healers Are Immoral And Bad For Health Of The Country

 

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  Part I of a three part series

The Monday Sermon: Are Faith Healers Bad For Your Health?


Pat Robertson began his ministry as a charismatic - a faith healer. He was also the first "prosperity gospel" preacher (calling it, however, "reciprocity" faith). People who first donated to his "700 Club" honestly believed that they would receive returns hundredfold and the poor were disparaged because they didn't "believe enough." His image as a healer was tarnished a bit when he opted for heart surgery in 2009, cries of "heal thyself" not withstanding. But as recently as February of 2011, Robertson hosted a   mass faith healing of an audience , telling people how important it was for people to give to the  700 Club   and its causes.


The Entertainment Industry Of Faith Healing


It has long been said: America has made a religion out of entertainment ... and an entertainment out of religion. Pat Robertson discovered that early on when he became one of the first truly successful televangelists to utilize cable TV.* Others followed suit and empires were built out of promises of prayer to heal everything from hemorrhoids to cancer. The TV shows then gave  rise to videoed rallies, the size and scope of which have been the envy of dictators. Today's Benny Hinn Ministries rallies are held in stadiums. And as we shall see, the rallies have actually increased in size and number, despite the number of exposes attempting to reveal the totally fraudulent enterprises.

Derren Brown's   Miracles for Sale  is probably the most astounding expose of the world of faith healers: he actually trains a man to be a "healer" with tricks done by magicians, hypnotists and inside-the-scam experts, for example, using partially-sighted people for "the blind see" and the use of music as a subliminal tool.  Anyone who views this hour-long video realizes how profoundly manipulated people are into believing in Word of Faith. It features heartless mass manipulation through skulduggery and shills and outright sham: it uses entertainment as a most insidious tool. 

Miracles for Sale   is a searing dismantling of the genre that every American should view regardless of faith or denomination. It is something that Pat Robertson and Benny Hinn don't every want you to see. Since its production, it has had only several million viewers in the U.K. and only 170,000 views on YouTube. Hardly a viral hit.

So why aren't the exposes successful in shutting down the faith healing industry? Perhaps because they are telling people things they don't want to hear ... or believe: a "man of God" would never scam them or lie to them, would he? 

The Immorality Of The Faith Healer


It is normal to place the machinations of someone like Benny Hinn into the category of scam artist and dismiss his immorality as based on greed. His "falling bodies" are entertaining and many people deem him as harmless (see video below). But the fact remains that faith healers have an immorality all their own: they use faith - albeit mostly blind faith - to scam people, people who are innocent in their gullibility or desperate in their quest for a cure. Faith healers are bad for the country's economic and mental health; like grave robbers, faith healers rob the coffins of people who are dead of reason, while raising false hopes to heights that fatal when fallen from. 

In the next parts of this series, we'll be looking at some of the ridiculous claims and events put on by today's faith healers, proving that exposes have had little effect upon the country's attachment to them and bringing to the fore the question: so what do we do about these guys? Here's an over-the-top proposal that matches the over-the-top tenor of the situation. It's amusing, but worth a thought. 

"100% Healer - Guaranteed!" Certification: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?


Let's face it: the only way to prevent scams by any entity is to keep tabs on it by regulating it. Organizations like the   Consumers Union  can do only so much to prevent people from falling into scams. And failure of Christianity in policing its own is obvious: denominations may frown upon faith healing, but do very little to discourage it. Pat Robertson, for example, was ordained as a Southern Baptist, but he is a charismatic, something which the Southern Baptist Convention does not recognize. It also does not recognize glossolalia (speaking in tongues), but some Southern Baptist churches have a decidedly Pentecostal bent.

So if people don't want to wind up waiting in line just to become one of Benny Hinn's human dominoes, it may be time to have our healers ... certified.

Think of it: an agency with a list of "certified" faith healers, people you can go to with a modicum of confidence, and with the knowledge that you won't be totally ripped off. It's implausible, of course, given the tenure of "freedom of religion" these days, and total irony would ensue: the people who scream at the very thought of Separation of Church and State would be demanding its enforcement. But such an agency would be a practical solution to protect people from fraud. It would work in this way: 

In order to be "certified" a faith healer would have to produce a certain amount of sworn testimonials with accompanying medical records that have been screened by a medical panel. The records would present before and after statements of conditions and diseases indicating marked improvement or complete cures not accomplished by normal drugs or procedures; in other words, proof that a change has occurred in the patient due to remedies other than the ones provided by medicine. It would be the most air-tight method of weeding out shills. The same qualifications would apply to all other types of "healers" outside the medical community. If you want to say that you're a "healer" in any capacity, you'd better be certified or else face charges of fraud or false advertising. 

Yeah, wishful thinking is sublime, isn't it? Yet the imagination reels in thinking just who would be able to be certified: certainly not people like Cindy "Japan-is-shaped-lie-a-dragon Jacobs", who offhandedly claimed that she "cured" a woman of her hysterectomy. None of Hinn's dominoes would could forth to offer testimonies either. And falsifying medical records is a felony. 

OK, so "certification" would be merely a ridiculous idea of treating a serious subject of scamming, but does anyone else have a better idea to keep the faith healing industry in check?

Next: Lou Engle Wants 100,000 Ex-Gays To Become Just Like Him. 

  

*It has often been quipped that the only true miracle Robertson has ever seen is when he went on cable TV and extracted money from people whom he had convinced were dumber and crazier than he was. 

http://thedevilanddanvojir.blogspot.com

Rev. Dan Vojir is has been writing/blogging on religion and politics for the better part of ten years. A former radio talk show host (Strictly Books €" Talk America Radio Network) and book publisher, Dan has connected with some of the most

How Corrupt Catholics and Evangelicals Abuse Religious Freedom

The Guardian / By Katherine Stewart

 56 COMMENTS

The founding fathers saw the state as guarantor of freedom from persecution. Now, the Church is trying to cast it as persecutor.

 

 

Photo Credit: AFP

 

 

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On 22 June, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops kicked off its "Fortnight for Freedom", a campaign of complaints about alleged persecution of the largest, most powerful and politically influential religious denominations in theUnited States. Religious freedom is "in jeopardy in America", says Archbishop Jose H Gomez in a prominent article in the theological journal First Things. Let's consider some of the alleged assaults.It is a terrible thing when a once-noble phrase gets beaten to a meaningless pulp. The time has now come to rescue the phrase "religious freedom" from its abusers. In the writings and speeches of Catholic bishops and evangelical leaders in recent months, "religious freedom" has come to mean something close to its opposite. It now stands for "religious privilege". It is a coded way for them to state their demand that religious institutions should be allowed special powers that exempt them from the laws of the land.

At St Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois, the adjunct professors had not had a raise in five years, according to Tom Suhrbur, an organizer with the Illinois Education Association. In 2010, in hopes of securing higher pay and benefits, they sought to organize themselves into a union.

The administration of St Xavier, with the backing of many prominent Catholic organizations, opposed the effort on legal grounds. Why? Because, it claimed, theirs is a religious institution, and the unionization of its employees would involve a violation of its "religious freedom". The National Labor Relations Board sided with the adjuncts, pointing out that neither the university, nor its faculty, nor their courseswere actually religious in any meaningful sense.

But Catholic University of America President John Garvey, at an address to the bishops intended to kick off the "Fortnight for Freedom", listed the National Labor Relations Board decision as a grievous example of the "decline in respect for religious freedom". In his mind, it seems, "religious freedom" means the power to engage in union-busting without having to obey national and state labor laws. In the past month, attempts by Duquesne University adjuncts in Pittsburgh have run into the same sort of opposition, as the university argues that its affiliation with the Spiritans, a Roman Catholic order, affords it a special exemption from the jurisdiction of the NLRB.

Is the Bible a Threat to National Security?

Antiwar.com / By Kelley B. Vlahos

 110 COMMENTS

A military Bible paints war as religious devotion. What could go wrong?

 

 

 

  

For years, the government has employed the risk of "national security" excuse to infringe on a wide range of freedoms — like the right to pass through an airport security checkpoint unmolested, or read library books without Big Brother peeking over your shoulder.Can a Bible be a "threat to national security"?

Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein is trying to prove that there is more than one way to put the country at risk, and he's found it in a heretofore unlikely place: the Bible.

Well, the Holman Bible. To be more exact, a version of the Bible that, for reasons still undetermined, was authorized with the trademarked official insignia of the U.S. Armed Forces emblazoned on the front cover. There is The Soldier's Bible with the Army's seal, The Marine's Bible with the Marine Corps seal, The Sailor's Bible and The Airman's Bible, both with their respective insignia. The books have been sold for nearly six years throughout Christian bookstores, commissaries and PXs on U.S. military installations — and are still available on Christianbook.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

 It's not the King James Version that the Gideons leave behind in hotel rooms drawers. The Holman Bible was commissioned and published by LifeWay Christian Resources, a subsidiary of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Baptist denomination in the world, in 2003.

 In a 1999 press release announcing the edition's progress, Broadman & Holman Publishers called the new version "a fresh, precise translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek of the Old and New Testaments." LifeWay President James T. Draper Jr. weighed in, saying there was a "serious need for a 21st-century Bible translation in American English that combines accuracy and readability," adding, "the Holman Christian Standard Bible is an accurate, literal rendering with a smoothness and readability that invites memorization, reading aloud and dedicated study."

The Holman Bible, or HCSB, has been popular with evangelicals for its references and study tools. Someone convinced each branch of the service they'd be perfect for the military, too. So the HCSB became the "official" Bible of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines in 2004, complete with reader-friendly text and custom "designed to meet the specific needs of those who serve in the most difficult of situations," according to the publishers.

In other words, aside from the text, the books are filled with "devotionals" and "inspirational essays" tailored to each branch of service. I was unable to get my hands on a copy by press time, but Amazon's "peek" inside the book and several positive reader reviews confirm some of the contents, revealing what could only be described as a guileless conflation of both Christian and Americanmilitary iconography. War and service as religious devotion.

In addition to the Pledge of Allegiance and the first and fourth verses of the Star Spangled Banner, there are excerpts from one of George W. Bush inaugural addresses and the Republican president's remarks at a National Prayer Breakfast. Gen. George S. Patton's famous Christmas prayer card from the field of battle 1944 is also included, as is "George Washington's Prayer," which has been widely circulated (and debunked) as proof of America's Christian paternity.

These Bibles also feature "testimonials and encouragement from the Officers' Christian Fellowship," which has approximately 15,000 members across the military and whose primary purpose is "to glorify God by uniting Christian officers for biblical fellowship and outreach, equipping and encouraging them to minister effectively in the military society." In other words they proselytize within the officer corps as part of an evangelical "parachurch" within the military.

A largely unfettered one, apparently, as one watches Pentagon officers commenting freely on camera — and in uniform — for this Bush-era promotional video for Christian Embassy, another federal government-wide "fellowship" with similar missionary goals.

One officer, Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, who said he worked on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, described himself as "an old fashioned American and my first priority is my faith in God." Pointing to his meeting with other officers under the auspices of Christian Embassy, he said, "I think it's a huge impact because you have many men and women who are seeking God's counsel and wisdom as we advise the Secretary of Defense."

Then U.S. Brigadier Gen. Bob Caslan (currently promoted to lieutenant general as the commanding general at the U.S. Army's prestigious Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.) went so far as to say he sees the "flag officer fellowship groups ... hold me accountable."

"We are the aroma of Jesus Christ," he added.

Something smells, all right, said Weinstein, who heads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). The roles of the officers in the video were later deemed improperafter MRFF demanded an investigation in 2007. As for the Bibles, Weinstein said he received some 2,000 complaints about them from service members over the last year. Weinstein, a former Air Force Judge Advocate (JAG) whose 2005 charges against the Air Force Academy in Colorado led to an investigation that officially found religious "insensitivity" against non- fundamentalists there, has gone on to expose a much wider climate of "top-down, invasive evangelicalism" at the institution and throughout the military as a whole.

"We're fighting a Fundamentalist-Christian-Parachurch-Military-Corporate-Proselytizing-Complex," Weinstein said told Antiwar.com last week, "and we have been fighting this for some time." MRFF just posted a video montage, which could easily be called the military evangelicals' greatest hits, here.

He said aside from "prostituting" the military insignia, the military's endorsement of the Bibles violated federal separation of church and state, and continue to sanction an insidious culture of radical evangelicalism and discrimination throughout the services (as a Jew, Weinstein said he felt the sting of prejudice when he attended the Air Force academy in the late 1970s; his sons had it even worse, he claims, prompting his first formal complaint seven years ago).

Since then, "(MRFF) has had 28,000 clients and a hundred more each month," said Weinstein, rejecting claims by his critics that they are all atheist. He insists that 96 percent of his clients are Christians (Catholic and Mainline Protestant) and that his is not a religious crusade. On the other hand, some 33 percent of chaplains are now evangelical Christians (Weinstein's MRFF places that number at 84 percent), while only 3 percent of service members describe themselves as such.

"They are spiritually raping the U.S. Constitution, the American people and the men and women who are fighting for us," said Weinstein, who never, ever minces words.

MRFF's lawyers sent a formal letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's office in January. In it, MRFF charged that authorizing LifeWay to print its Bibles with the service insignia "is in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution ... and several regulations," and that the authority should be withdrawn immediately or face legal action from MRFF.

Interestingly, according to the documents now available online, the Army, Navy and Air Force responded to the letter in February, insisting that the summer before Weinstein's lawyers at Jones Day contacted the Pentagon, they had already pulled their trademark authorizations to LifeWay, for "unrelated reasons." So, in effect, according to the military, the Southern Baptist Convention subsidiary no longer had use of the trademarks and the question was moot.

Weinstein responded with one word: "lies." He told Antiwar.com that they were just informed of the letters in June, not in February. Furthermore, according to MRFF senior research director Chris Rodda, MRFF has obtained documents through Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests that indicated the "AAFES (the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which runs the BXs, PXs, and other stores on military bases) was clearly concerned about the complaints about the Holman Bibles, with emails as early as June 6, 2011 from AAFES to LifeWay saying that these Bibles had 'become a hot issue,' and referencing and linking to a June 2, 2011 article on MRFF's website as the reason they were becoming a hot issue."

Nevertheless, according to a Fox News Radio story, LifeWay insists it's "sold" all existing copies of the military Bible in question, and instead is printing the same Bibles with "generic insignias, which continue to sell well and provide spiritual guidance and comfort to those who serve."

The AAFES told Fox News Radio it has 961 copies of the Bible left on shelves at 83 facilities. Weinstein doesn't know how many are out there but contends that until each and every one is gone, "they're still aiding and abetting the cause of al- Qaeda."

Why? Because it is a national security issue if America is perceived as waging a religious war against the Muslim world. One can't help but get that impression reading the added material in these Holman Bibles, suggesting that that God has blessed the American warrior for his existential struggle of good versus evil.

A crusade — and one playing right into the religious extremism on the other side, putting Americans overseas, and at home, at risk, said Weinstein.

His approach — which is as fiery and combative as the preachers he rebukes (he's taken to calling the Pentagon, "Pentacostal-gon,") — has drawn fire from a number of conservative Christian organizations and websites, which have labeled MRFF a bunch of zealous atheist agitators.

"Why should these Bibles be removed because of the demands of a small activist group?" Ron Crews, head of The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, asked last week, adding in an interview with Fox News Radio that the Department of Defense was acting "cowardly" by backing down to MRFF.

"MRFF must cease and desist their reckless assault on religious liberty. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty calls on Congress to investigate this frivolous threat and apparent discrimination against religious views by the DoD."

But this "reckless assault" has offered the public a window into how much evangelicalism threads through the military ethos today — from the Pentagon buying guns with sights outfitted with biblical references, to born-again chaplains directing soldiers to hand out Bibles and proselytize among the Muslim locals in Afghanistan.

MRFF has accused Army chaplains of using religion in lieu of mental health counseling to aid battlefield stress, and drew attention to provocative displays of religious murals and crosses sprawled on walls at U.S. bases and on vehicles driven through the urban battlefront. MRFF has protested the taxpayer-funded "Spiritual Fitness Concert Series" performed on bases here in the states, and followed up on complaints by service members at Fort Eustis in Virginia who said they were punished by a superior officer for not attending. MRFF also helped put the brakes on an Air Force training program in 2011 that used the New Testament and the insights of an ex-Nazi to teach missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons.

More recently, MRFF criticized a fighter squadron's decision to switch back to its old "Crusader" moniker, complete with a Knights Templar red cross emblazoned on its planes. Under pressure, the Marines have since reversed that decision, returning to its old World War II-era "werewolves" nickname, earlier this month.

Weinstein said "predatory" evangelicals in the military "believe the Separation of Church and State is a myth, like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster," and he doesn't mind putting his own reputation and safety on the line to smash that myth to pieces.

"If we're catching them on things like this Bible, what the hell else is going on? Well, we know," he said. "The Bible situation is not innocent, it is not innocuous, it is another raging example of this cancer."