Heh! This Should Fire up the ACLU
Posted on June 6, 2007
Whether the ACLU likes it or not, America has a largely Christian army so the following comment from an Army spokesman about troops that have not been deployed to Iraq was perfectly normal:
“There are a lot of folks doing God’s work right here stateside that are invaluable to the people overseas,” said Col. Daniel Baggio, an Army spokesman. “The spirit of the Army is really that folks want to do their part … in any way they can. … They go where they’re told to go.”
(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)
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14 Responses to “Heh! This Should Fire up the ACLU”
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The fact that the US or her military is “largely” christian is irrelevent in a free society. The constitution doesn’t endorse the “majority” religion. The constitution, one might say, was written by christians to protect other christians — to keep the Puritans from murdering Quakers and excluding them from voting, public office, property rights, education, for example. What has made our nation great, is that the majority must protect the civil rights of all minorities, that certain rights belong to all citizens even when the majority might disagree with those rights. That way, should the nation ever be mainly Jewish or even agnostic, the rights of Evengelicals to worship, own property, vote, etc., will never be denied. …In short, the ACLU fights to protect the rights of christians forever under our Constiution. The Colonel’s remarks about “God’s work” are not particularly “christian” anyway. The remark is simply presumptive asserting that the officer knows the mind of God.
As a member of the ACLU I would fight for Colonel Baggio’s first amendment right of free speech. I can’t however, support his obvious support of a religious war and I’m sure our founding fathers would be horrified to know that in the 21st century we had reverted to 13th century thinking.
Your headline says it all. The right-wing platform is founded on a middle-school mentality of wanting to piss off people you don’t like for reasons that aren’t entirely coherent. Of course the right-wing trolls are either ignorant or intent on keeping others ignorant of the fact that the ACLU has done just as much to protect the freedom of speech of right-wingers and Christians (such as fighting for the right of Operation Rescue to stage protests after they were banned) as it has for ‘liberals’ - a job it does thanklessly, I might add. Your juvenile attacks are truly pathetic.
Do you actually believe in god? If you do, you really are stupid.
Whoever Colonel Baggio is he isn’t speaking for the Army. Unless thay’ve changed the oath in the last 15 years his oath
and that of every officer in every branch of the service is to the Constitutiion of the United States. Not God.
He doesn’t work for GOD. He works for the people of this country. And if he thinks any different then he shouldn’t be wearing
the uniform and I hope someone straightens him out before he shoots his mouth off in public and embarrasses himself again.
Shame on Military.Com for printing that.
Nice job Alex and iaiantbacchus.
Comments like this are also invaluable to those recruiting for, say, al Qaeda. It fits right it with their charge that the war in Iraq is really a Christian crusade. Thanks for supporting our troops, Col. Baggio.
Osama bin Laden has said repeatedly that the US wants to invade their countries and take away their Korans (I’m paraphrasing, obviously). This sort of crap plays right into the terrorist’s propaganda. Conservatives say that the enemy is listening to our debates. This sort of crap has to stop.
oh look! there’s a bush on fire… lets go ask it what to do about iraq.
My history books tell me that the SS was largely composed of “Christians” too. It’s interesting that neither Jesus nor any of the twelve disciples ever appear to have served in an army. I wonder why not?
What a sad site this is. You want to stop the people who are trying to protect Americans’ civil liberties. Thanks for nothing.
If Col Baggio is working for God then God should be the one to sign his paycheck. NOT THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER
Well, well, well…. I was resisting responding to this, but have succumbed to temptation and must now put a stake in it. Everybody on both the right and left side of the fence need to lighten up a tad here. Somewhere among what I allegedly said, what Pauline from AP noted, what the AP editors edited, and what some of you readers interpreted, the whole context of my comments has been lost and distorted. Let me get the mea culpa out of the way - if I used the word God - I regret that I did, especially today in this world where folks hang on your every word, over-analyze it and in-turn over-react. Although I’m no rookie to the Army (enlisted in the National Guard in Nov 1979; became a Regular Army Officer in April 1983) or to the media (11 years media relations experience), this is a testament that we can and should learn something every day; I’ve certainly been reminded to be more cautious. That said, assuming maybe I did say “God†- it was only a figure of speech; I could have said “yeoman’s workâ€, “more than their fare share of the workâ€, incredible work, freaking hard work - you get the point!!! I’m curious - from that passage, how does one assume I’m Christian? Didn’t see Jesus or Christ in there - did ya? The last time I checked, the Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God, plus many other faiths believe in a divine being. My faith or lack of it is irrelevant. My so-called quotes came from an informal chat - albeit on the record - with AP’s Pauline Jelinek in my office - I like Pauline and I don’t fault her article, I’m sure she didn’t intend for it to be extrapolated as a call for Christianity and probably most people didn’t read it that way. The focus of the interview was two-fold: 1. The number of troops who had deployed vs. haven’t deployed and 2. An announcement by the Marine Commandant, saying how operationally focused they are and was the Army somewhat different - less operationally focused (translate: not as gung-ho). I vehemently defended the lion’s share of Soldiers, focusing on the Army’s Warrior Ethos and that no matter where they work - theater or stateside - Soldiers contribute to the fight. I can relate, currently working at the Pentagon, but having spent 13 months and 17 days in Iraq (Jan 04 - Feb 05), plus multiple shorter war zone deployments in the Balkans. I made it clear that the Army was full of Warriors - every bit as tough as our sister service the Marines. Well…now I got “that†off my chest - it at least makes me feel better. I’d normally sign off with something like “God Bless Our Troops†but I don’t want to offend anyone else - so I’ll say “Keep our Troops in your thoughts and wishes.†COL Dan Baggio, U.S. Army.
If you took every church, temple, and mosque, stacked them on top of each other, you’d still be farther from Heaven than the first floor of the ACLU. God loves the U.S. Constitution more than anything other text.