u.s. troops in afghanistan: "we hunt people for jesus"

There's a long story in last month's issue of Harper's about a disturbing, but little noted, trend: US Christian evangelicals using the war in Afghanistan as a platform for missionary work - and as a crusade. You can't read that for free online, but it relates to this.

US soldiers have been encouraged to spread the message of their Christian faith among Afghanistan's predominantly Muslim population, video footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to show.

Military chaplains stationed in the US air base at Bagram were also filmed with bibles printed in the country's main Pashto and Dari languages.

In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling 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."

According to this story at Military.com (via BoingBoing), the Army confirmed that the bibles existed, confiscated them and issued reprimands.

But according to Jeff Sharlet, who has been studying US evangelicals for a long time, the trend is much more extensive than that. "Jesus Killed Mohammed: The crusade for a Christian military" is available to read with a subscription password or in print. Some scary stuff.

Thanks to both Allan and James for linkage.