Onward, Christian Soldier!
GELERNTER, DAVID
Onward, Christian Soldier! The jihad against General Boykin. BY DAVID GELERNTER LIEUTENANT GENERAL William Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and a highly decorated...
...The angry denouncers are by no means only, not even mostly Jews—^but the Jewish contingent is of special interest to me...
...Muslims are familiar with the principle...
...But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made things worse by refusDavid Gelernter is a contributing editor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Of course the United States is a Christian country...
...America's mission as Lincoln defined it is to act with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right...
...By erecting and maintaining America on Christian principles, Christians have tendered Jews the deepest of compliments...
...Some journalists are all in favor of General Boykin's right to say and believe what he chooses—so long as Secretary Rumsfeld fires him...
...Since when...
...The essence of conservatism is to build our future in harmony with our past...
...Why not accept it in that spirit...
...Look up "controversial" and you will find that "upsetting to the Los Angeles Times" is not the definition...
...Granted, ours is the Offended Age...
...He spoke for America's better self, and still does...
...the same thing usually holds for philosophical, scientific, artistic, and political "religions...
...And Boykin has been accused of casting aspersions on Islam— Heaven forbid...
...If you believe in one, ordinarily that entails disbelieving in the others...
...No federal functionary (and no wiseacre journalist) had the right to dictate anyone's religious beliefs, or force him to keep quiet should he choose to express them...
...They are working under the theory that it is unacceptable for a DoD official to say that Christianity is true and that other religions are, therefore, false...
...We have changed our minds about religion...
...All right, I'm offended...
...It used to be accepted in America that it was a Christian's right to believe in Christianity and to say so in public...
...But, some people argue, that was long ago...
...Naturally he has apologized (to "those who have been offended by my statements") and promised never to do it again...
...ing to kick Boykin when he is down, and by adding such weird, unaccountable pronouncements of his own as, "That's the way we live...
...It is also a statement of principle...
...The Judeo-Christian strain in the sacred documents of this country is too formidable to ignore...
...In fact it is a baseball-loving Christian country...
...The right even applied to soldiers—in fact to highly placed ones...
...While they are resting, here are a few simple, healing truths about which we can all agree...
...At this point, the world's hyperventilating pundits need time to compose themselves...
...It is a moral, intellectual, and artistic principle: Naturally the structure must grow and is always growing, but in what style...
...What prigs we should all feel, after Islam has been so sweet to us...
...The general also stands accused of calling for a Christian "jihad"—but he never used that word, and the accusation has long since been exposed as phony...
...Journalists across the nation are shocked and horrified...
...As a practicing Jew I am offended when Jews all over the country pop up to denounce angrily some hapless truth-teller who says what is obvious, that this is a Christian country...
...Which doesn't empower the government to establish a national baseball team or force non-Christians to be baptized...
...In the Order for Sabbath Observance of November 1862, Lincoln quoted to his army George Washington's own first general order following the Declaration of Independence: "The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country...
...Of course there is no justification for insulting people gratuitously...
...He said, "Whatever shall appear to be God's will I will do...
...the work of Jews, propagated by Jews, focused on Jews...
...But does anyone doubt that it remains an overwhelmingly Christian nation nonetheless...
...We are solemnly warned that, nowadays, public expressions of Christianity are "controversial...
...It is just a statement of fact...
...Which doesn't mean that everyone is a Christian or loves baseball...
...but clearly that was not the general's intention...
...Demographics and beliefs have changed...
...And clearly, too, religion ain't beanbag...
...The Constitution confers on Jews and Christians equally the right to behave as if they believed in Judaism and Christianity respectively...
...When Jesus is asked by a "certain lawyer" how one might deserve eternal life (Luke 10:25), the two Christian fundamentals that emerge are each verses from the Hebrew Bible—the Bible Jesus knew...
...Pretty much...
...Of course this is no longer the almost exclusively Christian nation it was in 1776...
...The Founding Fathers made clear that they wanted the federal government ^out of the religion business...
...We're a free people...
...Lincoln said that he wished to be a "humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty...
...BY DAVID GELERNTER LIEUTENANT GENERAL William Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and a highly decorated officer, has intimated that the United States is a Christian country and that he is, himself, a Christian...
...Christianity is (at any rate) a variant of Judaism, formed on a Jewish armature...
...But it's not so strange...
...Might as well get with the program...
...Says who...
...So the "offended" to whom General Boykin apologized can hardly claim that we sprang religion on them out of nowhere...
...Some journalists are not...
...Apparently the general has been traveling around the country speaking in churches, and has gone so far as to suggest that all religions are not equivalent and that, while he relies on his own God, the one bloody-minded terrorists praise and celebrate must be a different and a false one...
...Among whom...
Vol. 9 • November 2003 • No. 8
