For a blog that’s supposedly about atheism, I’m aware that I’ve done precious little writing on it of late. So here’s an article that, if true, makes for a great example of why government should always be separate from religion. It’s from Al Jazeera, admittedly not the most reliable of news sources especially on subject like this, and alleges that elements of the U.S. military are surreptitiously trying to proselytize to the local populace in Afghanistan.

From the article:

In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, tells soldiers that, as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility “to be witnesses for him”.

“The special forces guys – they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down,” he says.

“Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That’s what we do, that’s our business.”

The good news is that this is already against the U.S. military’s own rules. The bad news is that it’s not certain how far up this goes and how widespread this is. From my reading of the discussion thread on QT3 where this popped up, it seems that this is a relatively new thing and might well be another one of George W. Bush’s unfortunate legacies. To be sure, it is not the proselytization of Christianity that I oppose, even if it is illegal according to Afghan law, but the fact that it is being done by a government agency and that this clearly undermines the very mission the U.S. is performing in Afghanistan.