The Pentagon has turned to Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin to coordinate the military intelligence as part of our ongoing hunt for Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and others.
Before today, I’d never heard of Boykin, so the fact that he’s helping lead the search for known terrorists didn’t immediately strike me as particularly alarming. MSNBC is reporting, however, that Boykin has a track record of being something of a religious zealot.
On the surface, Boykin sounds like a talented soldier. He’s a highly-decorated officer who has been wounded twice in combat. Boykin is the former commander of Army Special Forces and has participated in military operations in theaters including Grenada, Panama, Iran, and Somalia.
When the Pentagon promoted him to deputy undersecretary of defense and charged him with the task of coordinating information on terrorist targets, many Defense officials saw Boykin as a natural choice.
The problem is that Boykin is not just a decorated officer. He’s also an evangelical Christian who appears to spend a lot of time working as a religious right-style activist.
Boykin’s beliefs are, shall we say, a bit on the fringes.
* Over the summer, Boykin conducted a slide show with a church group. He said, “Well, is he [bin Laden] the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man [Saddam] the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.”
* When asked why terrorists have targeted the United States, Boykin said, “Why do they hate us so much? Ladies and gentlemen, the answer to that is because we’re a Christian nation.”
* Boykin recalled in a January speech a Muslim soldier in Somalia who believed Allah would protect him in battle against the U.S. “Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his,” Boykin said. “I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.” When the Muslim soldier was eventually captured, Boykin claims to have told the man that he “underestimated our God.”
* Boykin believes God hand-chose Bush to be president. “Why is this man in the White House?” Boykin routinely tells his audiences. “The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.”
Boykin is a free man who can believe whatever he wishes. My theology may not be the same as his, but I respect his right to be as fanatical as he wants to be. How Boykin worships is no one’s business but his own.
But (and you had to know a “but” was coming), Boykin is not just a private citizen speaking at prayer breakfasts and religious right gatherings. He’s been charged with the incredible responsibility of combining existing intelligence with Special Forces units to catch some of the world’s most dangerous people.
The fact that he views the war on terrorism as some kind of religious battle, in which he’s fighting for Christianity, is terribly disturbing. The man appears to be Jerry Falwell in a military uniform. At a minimum, the two use nearly identical religio-political rhetoric.
The Muslim world is already suspicious of America’s intentions and motivations. For the Pentagon to choose an evangelical Christian to serve in the Middle East who believes Allah is just an “idol,” and argues that his God is “bigger” than their God, is likely to reinforce the worst possible fears in the region.
I am not saying that Christians, whether they be evangelical or not, should somehow be disqualified from positions of authority and responsibility in the war on terrorism. That would be absurd and discriminatory.
I am saying, however, that there is a perception in the Middle East that the U.S. foreign policy in the region is driven by a modern-day Christian crusade, led by an evangelical Christian president and waged by evangelical Christian military leaders.
The fact that the Defense Department has called on a religious right-style activist to organize the hunt for terrorists like bin Laden may prove to be a dangerous political and strategic mistake.