Obama Admin: Catholics, Evangelicals “Religious Extremists” Like KKK

The Obama administration came under fire last week for a presentation that classified Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as “extremist” religious groups in the same vein as al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan.

The Washington Free Beacon has more information about the Defense Department presentation:

The presentation detailed a number of extremist threats within the U.S. military, including white supremacist groups, street gangs, and religious sects.

The presentation identified seventeen religious organizations in a slide titled “religious extremism.” They include al Qaeda, Hamas, the Filipino separatist group Abu Sayyaf, and the Ku Klux Klan, which the slide identifies as a Christian organization.

“Religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or region of the world,” the slide explains, in language that closely resembles the text of a Wikipedia page on “extremism.”

While outfits such as al Qaeda and the KKK are explicitly violent, the presentation also lists Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism as extremist groups.

More than half of all Americans identify themselves as members of those two Christian denominations. National Public Radio reported in 2005 that 40 percent of active duty military personnel were evangelical Christians.

An Army spokesperson said the presentation “was produced by an individual without anyone in the chain of command’s knowledge or permission.” The Army removed the offending slide after receiving complaints.

The person responsible for the presentation, the spokesperson said, “was not a subject matter expert, and produced the material after conducting Internet research.”

The Obama administration has repeatedly called pro-life advocates terrorists and extremists.

In January 2010, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the agency charged with keeping American travelers safe from terrorism said as much. A video showed Transportation Security Administration nominee Erroll Southers including pro-life advocates in a list of terrorist groups.

In May 2009, details emerged about a terrorism dictionary the Obama administration had put together in March. The “Domestic Extremism Lexicon,” was essentially a terrorism and political extremism dictionary for the Obama administration’s internal use.

That followed a report the Department of Homeland Security sent out saying pro-life advocates were right-wing extremists.

Funny, this is about the 10th thread on this I've seen LOL. This is the first one. Glad to see it is making the rounds...it needs to be kept front-and-center!

From that thread:

The slide deck is here. The slide in question:
The accompanying narrative with that slide states:
Extremism is a complex phenomenon; it is defined as beliefs, attitudes, feelings, actions, or strategies of a character far removed from the "ordinary." Because "ordinary" is subjective, no religious group would label itself extreme or its doctrine "extremism." However, religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or region of the world; every religion has some followers that believe their beliefs, customes and traditions are the only "right way" and that all others are practicing their faith the "wrong way," seeing and believing that their faith/religion superior to all others.

The Archdiocese of the Military Services had the following press release:
The Archdiocese for the Military Services and Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty recently became aware of a U.S. Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief that expressly listed “Catholicism,” “Evangelical Christianity” and other religious groups as examples of “religious extremism” alongside groups such as “Al Qaeda”, “Hamas” and the “KKK.”
The Archdiocese is astounded that Catholics were listed alongside groups that are, by their very mission and nature, violent and extremist.
According to an investigation and reply from the Army Chief of Chaplains office, the training in question appears to have been an isolated incident not condoned by the Department of the Army. The Archdiocese and the Chaplain Alliance explained that the Army can and should take steps to prevent such incidents in the future.
The Archdiocese calls upon the Department of Defense to review these materials and to ensure that tax-payer funds are never again used to present blatantly anti-religious material to the men and women in uniform.

The Obama Admin continues to nudge. Remember the 2009 Right Wing Extremism report put out by DHS? When that got exposed, they retracted that one, as well (it was "unauthorized").

First off, "Christian Identity" isn't Christian and since the few KKK folks I've met over the years were Christian Identity, not Christian, I doubt there are many people left associated with the KKK who are Christian other than in usurping the name. This is deliberate brainwashing, not legtimate training about potential threats. Legtimate training at least attempts to properly characterize and describe potential opponents, it doesn't just make a grab bag of political enemies and proceed from there to, "kill whoever we tell you to".

As for Evangelicals and Catholics, authorized or not they've already made a trial run and they know what they can get away with which is, "kill em' all, let Reno take the fall". If you can get away with murdering women and children on TV in broad daylight, what is or isn't authorized doesn't much matter.

Having retired from the USAR a few years back,let it be noted that most annual mandatory training (EOOC, AIDS avoidance, sexual harassment, be nice to queers class, etc.) is a drudgery for the troops and the patsy assigned to teach the class.

In this case some true believer (probably a black female Black Muslim) wrote up the training aids . Note that the Black Panthers or Screwy Louie’s fake religion are not on the list She, her commander and every one up the chain should be fired for insulting the US Army and its 238 year heritage!

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