[Dialogue] Ten Things I Learned from the Pentagon's Prayer Team

Thu Jan 4 17:54:49 EST 2007

AlterNet

Ten Things I Learned from the Pentagon's Prayer Team

By Jeff Sharlet, The Revealer
Posted on January 4, 2007, Printed on January 4, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/46262/

Little while ago I received a phone call from Mikey Weinstein, the prime
mover behind the Military <http://militaryreligiousfreedom.org/>  Religious
Freedom Foundation, created in the wake of 2005's revelations of widespread
evangelical proselytizing at the Air Force Academy. Weinstein told me that
he'd spent Thanksgiving morning reading my December, 2006 Harper's feature,
"Through a Glass Darkly" (online in January), which included a brief
discussion of the now infamous
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR200612100
0883.html>  Christian Embassy video [watch
<http://alternet.org/blogs/video/45438/>  here] featuring high-ranking
military officers testifying testifying in uniform on behalf of the
behind-the-scenes fundamentalist organization, an apparent violation of
military regulations. Weinstein has since launched a secular crusade of his
own in response to the video, with the backing of a group of generals
determined to maintain separation of church and state in the military.

The first public notice of the video came at the end of a longer discussion
on the surprising importance of confederate General Stonewall Jackson to
American fundamentalist historiography:

To put it in political terms, the contradictory legend of Stonewall Jackson
- rebellion and reverence, rage and order - results in the synthesis of
self-destructive patriotism embraced by contemporary fundamentalism. The
most striking example is a short video on faith and diplomacy made in the
aftermath of September 11,2001, by Christian Embassy, a behind-the-scenes
ministry for government and military elites. It almost seems to endorse
deliberate negligence of duty, Dan Cooper, an undersecretary of veterans'
affairs, announces that his weekly prayer sessions are "more important than
doing the job." Major General Jack Catton says that he sees his position as
an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a "wonderful opportunity" to
evangelize men and women setting defense policy. "My first priority is my
faith," he says. "I think it's a huge impact.. You have many men and women
who are seeking God's counsel and wisdom as they advise the Chairman [of the
Joint Chiefs] and the Secretary of Defense." Brigadier General Bob Caslen
puts it in sensual terms: "We're the aroma of Jesus Christ." There's a
joyous disregard for democracy in these sentiments, for its demands and its
compromises, that in its darkest manifestation becomes the overlooked piety
at the heart of the old logic of Vietnam, lately applied to Iraq: In order
to save the village, we must destroy it.

Weinstein, a former Air Force lawyer and Reagan White House counsel, saw not
just some disturbing theology, but a potential violation of military
regulations regarding separation of church and state. Moreover, with his son
-- a recent graduate of the Air Force Academy -- headed for Iraq, Weinstein
saw the video as almost made-to-order Al Qaeda propaganda. After all, how
hard would it be to persuade a potential Al Qaeda recruit that the U.S. is
fighting a Christian crusade when U.S. generals and Department of Defense
officials say so in so many words? Weinstein's organization is pushing the
Pentagon for a full investigation.

In the meantime, I promised Weinstein I'd review my notes from an interview
I conducted with Christian Embassy's chief of staff, Sam McCullough, on
November 2, 2005, in the process of researching a profile of Senator Sam
Brownback of Kansas, the Christian Right's favorite candidate for '08, for
Rolling <http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9178374/gods_senator>
Stone. McCullough and I met in his corner office at 2000 14th Street in
Arlington, Virginia, a sterile cul de sac of computer-cut brick and glass
down a hill from the Arlington courthouse. Christian Embassy occupies a low
suite of offices on the 3rd floor, decorated so generically that it looks
like it must be a front -- there are two ferns and some colonial lamps and a
tacky painting of the Grand Tetons. McCullough is an ordained minister, but
he prefers not to use the title of "reverend" because he believes he can
more effectively spread the Gospel if he can "blend in as a layman." He's a
tall man with broad shoulders that are slightly sloped. There's a golf hat
that says "The Hill" on top of his lamp, his sole concession to frivolity.

By McCullough's own description, he is not an optimistic man. Dour, even,
though not mean-spirited. Skeptical by nature, his business is belief; he
reconciles his temperament to his work through a style of half-smiles and
long silences. A graduate of Columbia Bible College, he is a bit of an
exception on staff; many of the counselors (of which there were 22 at the
time) are graduates of Campus Crusade's theological training program. He has
been working with Christian Embassy for 27 years, since shortly after
Christian Embassy, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, moved to
Arlington in 1978, a location chosen for its proximity to the ministry's
targets. "Pentagon's two minutes in that direction," says McCullough, "the
diplomatic community is over here, you can be on the Hill in ten minutes."

Christian Embassy originated in a 1974 collaboration between Bill Bright,
founder of Campus Crusade, and then-Arizona Congressman John Conlan. They
wanted to persuade evangelicals that it was not only permissible to
participate in politics, it was necessary to save the nation from "moral
decay" and imminent collapse. Bright is best known for Campus Crusade's
pollyanna-ish appeals to Christian college students, but his politics were
anything but sunny: Typical of his rhetoric throughout his career were his
declarations at a 1962 Arizona Governor's Prayer Breakfast that the United
States had between two and ten years before a complete communist take-over,
and that the only hope was a complete rejection of secularism, according to
the wisdom of II Chronicles, chapter six. That's the part where King Solomon
decrees that all government business will be conducted in the temple.

If Bright dreamed of a governmental embrace of the Hebrew Bible's theocracy,
Conlan wasn't quite as broadminded. When, in 1976, he ran in a primary for a
Senate seat against equally conservative Congressman Sam Steiger, his
campaign recruited clergymen to instruct their congregations to choose
Conlan over Steiger -- who was Jewish -- because the state needed "a man
with a clear testimony for Jesus Christ representing Arizona and America."
(Conlan lost.)

Bright and Conlan, however, thought that tactic good enough to take
nationwide, sending mailings to 120,000 clergymen to promote a political
action manual by Bright. In 1978, Bright pulled his ideas together into the
new organization of Christian Embassy. Even Billy Graham, long an ally of
Bright's, thought it was too conservative and refused to endorse it. But Sam
McCullough, who now directs Christian Embassy's ministry to congressmen,
diplomats, and military officers, guessed correctly that Christian Embassy
was the start of a new era of political evangelicalism in Washington. He
signed on then, and he's been with Christian Embassy ever since.

Following are ten key points from McCullough's description of Christian
Embassy, which McCullough said functions "very much" like the Fellowship, or
the Family, the self-described "invisible" network of prayer cells for
elites in government, military, and business described in my 2003 Harper's
article, "Jesus Plus Nothing <http://harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html> ."
The Fellowship produces the annual National Prayer Breakfast (although it
tries to keep its involvement quiet); Christian Embassy has no analogous
public face.

Christian Embassy is political.

Unlike the conservative Family Research Council, which McCullough describes
as an explicitly political lobby with which Christian Embassy sometimes
coordinates, Christian Embassy focuses on "networking, individual
counseling, that kind of thing." McCullough told me that Christian Embassy
is apolitical; on the other hand, he also said its ministry has a political
impact: "It's more to help the individual grow as a person in their
relationship with God, and then their politics is going to be an outcome."

Christian Embassy believes religion should guide politics. 

Christian Embassy believes that politicians, diplomats, and officers should
not consider their personal faith separate from their politics and their
official duties. McCullough offers as a role model President Bush: ".in
terms of the way [Bush] talks, the way he believes, he doesn't really say
'Oh I'm going to do religious things now and do other things later.'"

Christian Embassy sees the top brass as its mission field 

McCullough on Christian Embassy's Pentagon presence: "At the Pentagon, we
have a flag officers groups. Your stars, basically, 1-4 stars. We also have
a disciple group at the pentagon. And there's a general Bible study that
meets Wednesday morning where 70-120 come. Most of our groups that we
organize and work with are at the officer level. Flags, a good percentage.
We have about 40 that come or are involved with that."

Christian Embassy is closely involved with political and military officials.

Those who work with Christian Embassy will typically meet in small groups,
under the supervision of a counselor like McCullough, for an hour every
week. Counselors typically select a scripture verse for discussion and
attempt to draw out its "practical" implications, often through application
to current events. Participants can and do call on Christian Embassy
counselors for additional advice outside of their cell meetings. These
counseling sessions typically take place in the officer's or politician's
office. The most committed participants may travel overseas on behalf of
Christian Embassy or arrange their official government travel to leave time
for evangelizing work. This work may sometimes be "covert," such as a
evangelizing in countries where it's against the law.

Christian Embassy takes political positions. 

Participants may call on Christian Embassy for advice on specific issues.
"'What does the Bible say about this?'" is a common question, according to
McCullough. He says Christian Embassy will not give explicit policy advice,
but as a counselor, he would tell a member of Congress or a military
official that a particular position -- pro-choice politics, or pacifism, for
instance -- is "contrary to scripture."

Christian Embassy believes the Iraq War may be biblically sanctioned. 

On the question of the war in Iraq, McCullough counsels: "We have war all
throughout the Bible. Man's history is war. So what's the right thing? Not
necessarily [the] war in the Bible. But what are you looking for? Is peace
possible?" McCullough answered his own question by laughing.

Christian Embassy is a lobby in all but name. 

McCullough says Christian Embassy is not a lobbying organization, but
describes his work thusly: "I often will go visit a member of Congress and
say, 'Hey, there's this going on, could you be involved in that?' . Or I
will recommend to some of these groups that are issue oriented as to who
might be interested in helping them. I am aware of where people are. So we
do try to connect the dots. Network people." He agrees that Christian
Embassy participants use the Christian Embassy network to political
advantage, but considers this a positive outcome since it gives ambitious
political, diplomatic, and military figures an incentive to get more
involved with Christian Embassy's evangelical theology.

Christian Embassy is conservative and mostly Republican. 

McCullough says Christian Embassy is bi-partisan, but in addition to
President Bush and the Republicans featured in the video, he offered as
examples of public figures very involved with Christian Embassy's work three
very conservative Republican senators, Sam Brownback of Kansas, James Inhofe
of Oklahoma, and John Thune of South Dakota; and four Republican
representatives, conservatives Robert Alderholt of Alabama and John R.
Carter of Texas and moderates Vern Ehlers of Wisconsin and Tim Johnson of
Illinois. McCullough could think of only one Democrat, Representative Mike
McIntyre of North Carolina, a blue dog Christian conservative with high
ratings from the Christian Coalition and Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. He
said that McIntyre was living at the time in the Fellowship's special
Capitol Hill dorm for congressmen. The video features appearances by former
Congressman Tom DeLay of Texas and Representative J.D. Hayworth of Arizona,
two more religious conservatives.

Christian Embassy is influential.

McCullough says there are "about 80 members of Congress that are in our
rotation." More than half are "mature," by which he means fully in sync with
Christian Embassy's theology. Immature Christians are matched with mature
Christians to mentor them in Christian Embassy's beliefs. Christian Embassy
is stronger in the House than in the Senate; their goal is to develop a
relationship with politicians and officers at the beginning of their
Washington careers--as they did with Brownback--that will allow them access
as some of those politicians and officers grow in influence.

Christian Embassy thinks separation of church and state has gone too far. 

Christian Embassy's theology, like that of Campus Crusade, might best be
characterized as "ecumenical fundamentalism." They're not interested in
denominational divides. Rather, they're invested in a critique of culture
that sees the United States as in a state of "decay" as a result of
inadequate Bible study. They believe the Bible was once part of public life
and that it must be restored to its central role in order to achieve
"revival." According to McCullough, separation of church and state has gone
too far.

Christian Embassy's ambition is international. 

An elegant booklet that accompanied the DVD McCullough gave me is filled not
just with the testimonies of generals and congressmen, but also with those
of foreign diplomats declaring Washington a sort of holy city. "The most
important thing since coming to Washington from my communist-dominated
society is that I that I have discovered God," writes a "European
ambassador," thanking Christian Embassy. Fijian Ambassador Pita Nacuva,
reports the booklet, following his "years of spiritual training in
Washington, D.C." with Christian Embassy, reconfigured his country's public
schools' "on the model of Jesus Christ" using an American Christian
curriculum designed for developing nations, currently exported to around 40
countries. 

Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor to Harper's and the author of a
history of elite Christian Fundamentalism, forthcoming from HarperCollins. 

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