THE UNITED STATES is waging a religious war. This is, at least, how dozens of fanatical U.S. military commanders understand President Donald Trump’s illegal assault on Iran: a messianic battle to bring about Jesus Christ’s return.
“President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” one military commander told his combat unit, which could be deployed to fight in Iran “at any moment,” according to a complaint reportedly filed by one of the unit’s officers to a military watchdog group.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says it has been “inundated” with more than 200 calls across dozens of military installations, including 110 complaints filed between Saturday morning and Monday evening, from service members reporting their commanders have invoked similar extremist rhetoric of Christian Zionist messianism when justifying the unprovoked war on Iran.
As someone who grew up as a fundamentalist Southern Baptist… it’s fundamental/evangelical Christianity that’s so bad.
My dad was a preacher’s kid, son of a Methodist minister. He’s still somewhat conservative in some ways, but he’s fine with LGBTQ+, and his philosophy is basically that while he believes in God, he can’t make that choice for anyone else, so he doesn’t really worry about it for anyone else, i.e. doesn’t evangelize, etc.
If all Christians were like my dad, I’d probably be okay still being a Christian instead of the atheist I am.
Good on you for your journey, and I hope you continue to find peace <3