Pentagon Briefings No Longer Quote the Bible

Pentagon Briefings No Longer Quote the Bible

Back in 2003, it appears that the daily intelligence briefings sent to the White House by the Pentagon began to have a Bible verse on the cover. And—surprise, surprise—they have stopped this practice. The verses were intended to be an encouragement to President Bush during a time of war.

I'm not really surprised by this; no doubt the Obama administration was not inclined to tolerate the practice. But I'm a bit annoyed by this gratuitous quote:

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, on Monday said U.S. soldiers "are not Christian crusaders, and they ought not be depicted as such."

"Depicting the Iraq conflict as some sort of holy war is completely outrageous," Lynn said in a statement. "It's contrary to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and it's tremendously damaging to America's reputation in the world."

Why I am annoyed? Here's why:

• Who cares what this guy thinks? He's not part of the story.
• Nothing in the article in any way indicated that soldiers were being portrayed as anything other than...soldiers.
• Nothing in the article in any way indicated that the "Iraq conflict" was being portrayed as anything like a "holy war."
• To quote Scripture in this context is no more unconstitutional than to quote Shakespeare or Thomas Sowell.
• America's reputation was unimpacted before this story came out, since the use of the Scripture was not common knowledge.

So basically, this fool said nothing of value. So why was he quoted??