Soldiers told the U.S. Army considers Christians & the Tea Party terror threats

U.S. soldiers attending a pre-deployment briefing at Fort Hood say they were told that evangelical Christians and members of the Tea Party were a threat to the nation and that any soldier donating to those groups would be subjected to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

A soldier who attended the Oct. 17th briefing told me the counter-intelligence agent in charge of the meeting spent nearly a half hour discussing how evangelical Christians and groups like the American Family Association were “tearing the country apart.”

Michael Berry, an attorney with the Liberty Institute, is advising the soldier and has launched an investigation into the incident.

“The American public should be outraged that the U.S. Army is teaching our troops that evangelical Christians and Tea Party members are enemies of America, and that they can be punished for supporting or participating in those groups,” said Berry, a former Marine Corps JAG officer.

“These statements about evangelicals being domestic enemies are a serious charge.”

The soldier told me he fears reprisals and asked not to be identified. He said there was a blanket statement that donating to any groups that were considered a threat to the military and government was punishable under military regulations.

“My first concern was if I was going to be in trouble going to church,” the evangelical Christian soldier told me. “Can I tithe? Can I donate to Christian charities? What if I donate to a politician who is a part of the Tea Party movement?”

Another soldier who attended the briefing alerted the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. That individual’s recollections of the briefing matched the soldier who reached out to me.

“I was very shocked and couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” the soldier said. “I felt like my religious liberties, that I risk my life and sacrifice time away from family to fight for, were being taken away.”

And while a large portion of the briefing dealt with the threat evangelicals and the Tea Party pose to the nation, barely a word was said about Islamic extremism, the soldier said.

“Our community is still healing from the act of terrorism brought on by Nidal Hasan – who really is a terrorist,” the soldier said. “This is a slap in the face. “The military is supposed to defend freedom and to classify the vast majority of the military that claim to be Christian as terrorists is sick.”
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/10/23/does-army-consider-christians-tea-party-terror-threat

Politicians view Tea Party members as radicals:

Speaking about the Tea Party, former vice president Dick Cheney joked: “I’m not a card-carrying member. I don’t think there is a card, but I have respect for what the people are doing. These are Americans. They’re loyal, they’re patriotic, and taxpayers and fed up with what is happening in Washington. It’s a normal, healthy reaction, and the fact that the party is having to adjust to it is positive.”

Cheney did say that the Tea Party was “an uprising” but that this is a good thing for the Republican Party to learn how to be more radical.

This group was described as a “new wave”.

Cheney said that “we really do need new talent. Here we’ve got a woman who’s got five children, has got the drive and the energy to represent that next generation. We need to be passing on leadership in the party to that next generation.”

Senator Ted Cruz was given Cheney’s seal of approval: “He represents the thinking of an awful lot of people, obviously in Texas. But my own daughter is running for the U.S. Senate from Wyoming, partly motivated by the concern that Washington’s not working, that the system is breaking down and that it’s time for new leadership.”

Florida State House Representative Alan Grayson released fund-raising emails to potential donors that claimed the Tea Party is comparable to the Klu Klux Klan (KKK).

He said: “One could go on and on, because there is overwhelming evidence that the Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation. If the shoe fits, wear it.”

While speaking with Al Sharpton, Grayson said that “everyone who is willing to cater to the tea party has to go, so Americans finally get the government that they deserve.”

Reports have continued on in a fervent campaign to demonize Constitutionalists by claiming that “increasingly frightening numbers, cells of angry men in the United States preparing for combat with the U.S. government. They are usually heavily armed, blinded by an intractable hatred, often motivated by religious zeal.”

These patriots are demonized as “white, right-wing Americans, nearly all with an obsessive attachment to guns, who may represent a greater danger to the lives of American civilians than international terrorists.”
http://www.occupycorporatism.com/tea-party-uprising-spurs-gov-concerns-for-radicalization/

(UPDATE) U.S. Army claims it halted training program that labeled Christians as extremists:

The Secretary of the Army has ordered military leaders to halt all briefings on extremist organizations that labeled Evangelical Christian groups as domestic hate groups. The shutdown comes just four days after I reported exclusively about a briefing at Mississippi’s Camp Shelby that labeled the American Family Association as a domestic hate group.

“On several occasions over the past few months, media accounts have highlighted instances of Army instructors supplementing programs of instruction and including information or material that is inaccurate, objectionable and otherwise inconsistent with current Army policy,” Army Sec. John McHugh wrote to military leaders in a memorandum I obtained.

McHugh “directed that Army leaders cease all briefings, command presentations or training on the subject of extremist organizations or activities until that program of instruction and training has been created and disseminated,” Army spokesman Col. David Patterson, Jr., tells me.

“This most recent mislabeling of a Christian organization reflects what appears to be a troubling trend of religious intolerance in the military,” Rep. Doug Lamborn wrote in a letter signed by Reps. Tim Huelskamp, Steve Scalise, John Fleming and Joseph Pitts. “We are very troubled.”

The Army does provide a list of organizations that do list groups like the AFA and FRC as domestic hate groups – specifically the Southern Poverty Law Center. And the SPLC is featured in the military’s Equal Opportunity Advisor Student Guide.

The Chaplain Alliance uncovered that information through a Freedom of Information Act request. Crews wants the Army to stop using any materials from the SPLC.

“The SPLC has labeled many mainstream religious organizations as hate groups,” Crews said. “Reliance on lists produced by anti-Christian political organizations violates the apolitical stance necessary in the military.”
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/24/exclusive-army-halts-training-program-that-labeled-christians-as-extremists/