[PAA-Discuss] Christian Right Activist Blasts Medal of Honor as 'Feminized, ' Sparks Fury
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Mon Nov 22 08:12:46 EST 2010
_Christian Right Activist Blasts Medal of Honor as 'Feminized,' Sparks
Fury_
(http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/20/christian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s/)
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Christian Right Activist Blasts Medal of Honor as 'Feminized,' Sparks Fury
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* _Army Sgt. Salvatore Giunta Earns Medal of Honor for Afghan
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While a divided nation last Tuesday finally rallied around one bright
shining moment of patriotic glory -- President Obama's _awarding of the Medal
of Honor_ (http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/15/army-sgt-salvatore-gi
unta-wins-medal-of-honor-after-afghan-fire/) to Afghan hero Army Sgt. Salvatore
Giunta -- a popular right-wing Christian commentator sharply split
opinions even within his own camp. He blasted the award as "feminized" because it
honors Giunta for saving his comrades rather than killing the enemy.
The Army's _official citation_
(http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/giunta/citation.html) details how Giunta "exposed himself to withering enemy fire"
during a daring effort to engage the enemy and extract his wounded comrades
from an ambush. But Bryan Fischer, a columnist for the American Family
Association who has often provoked headlines and consternation with his
commentaries, read the narrative as hardly the sort of thing American soldiers
were once known for.
"When we think of heroism in battle, we used the think of our boys
storming the beaches of Normandy under withering fire, climbing the cliffs of
Pointe du Hoc while enemy soldiers fired straight down on them, and tossing
grenades into pill boxes to take out gun emplacements," _wrote Fischer_
(http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147500421) , director of issue
analysis for the AFA, a longtime lobby on the Christian right. "That kind of
heroism has apparently become passé when it comes to awarding the Medal of
Honor. We now award it only for preventing casualties, not for inflicting them."
"So the question is this: when are we going to start awarding the Medal of
Honor once again for soldiers who kill people and break things, so our
families can sleep safely at night?" he asked.
Fischer based his claim on a line in _a column_
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703326204575616572168606014.html) in The Wall Street
Journal by William McGurn, a former speechwriter for President George W.
Bush. In the midst of his high praise for Giunta's heroism, McGurn noted that
rather than "Rambos decorated for great damage inflicted on the enemy,"
every Medal of Honor awarded from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "has been
for an effort to save life."
In fact, that's not exactly the case. The _official account_
(http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/smith/citation/index.html) of the first Medal of
Honor given for service in Iraq, to Army Sgt. First Class Paul R. Smith, shows
how, among other courageous acts, Smith "braved hostile enemy fire to pe
rsonally engage the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank weapons," losing
his life in the process."
But such details didn't stop Fischer from asserting that "We have
feminized the Medal of Honor" -- a claim that sparked a string of fierce criticisms
on the blog post that are continuing.
"Your artciles [sic] reek of ignorance and evangelical stupidity," said
one of the first commenters.
"What utterly disgusting, false and un-Christian drivel," said one of the
most recent.
Fischer is hardly one to slink away under hostile fire, as he told me
after a post last month in which he said that the firefighters in South Fulton,
Tennessee did _"the Christian thing"_
(http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147499026) by letting a family's house burn because they were
delinquent on their $75 annual fire protection fee.
That was the column that had generated the most outrage among all of
Fischer's writings, until the Medal of Honor article. But in characteristic
fashion, Fischer wasn't retreating. In two follow-up posts he _pointed out_
(http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147500577) that he believed
Giunta did deserve the award, and _that the media_
(http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147500607) "so badly twisted and distorted my words that
they are accusing me of saying the exact opposite of what I actually said."
My point in all this is that we appear to have reached a point in awarding
the MOH that we are squeamish about awarding to those who "take the hill"
as well as awarding to those who throw themselves on a grenade to save
their comrades.
Fischer reiterated his central criticism that "our culture has become so
feminized that we have become squeamish at the thought of the valor that is
expressed in killing enemy soldiers through acts of bravery."
Indeed, while Fischer's column irked many of his allies, his views are in
keeping with a strain of conservative American Christianity that frets
about the "feminization" of the faith as evidenced by the widespread emphasis
on God's love and mercy rather than his anger and punishment, for example.
And some such Christian conservatives are also concerned about efforts to
accept gay clergy and to portray Jesus as a passive, wimpy victim rather than
a tough-guy martyr like the Messiah portrayed in Mel Gibson's movie,
"Passion of the Christ."
"Jesus' act of self-sacrifice would ultimately have been meaningless --
yes, meaningless -- if he had not inflicted a mortal wound on the enemy while
giving up his own life," Fischer wrote in his original column on Giunta's
Medal of Honor. "The cross represented a cosmic showdown between the forces
of light and the forces of darkness, and our commanding general claimed
the ultimate prize by defeating our unseen enemy and liberating an entire
planet from his bondage."
With repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy still
possible during the lame duck session of Congress after Thanksgiving, it's likely
that Fischer -- and others -- will have plenty of other opportunities to
make their point, and perhaps with more support from their own troops on the
religious right.
Filed Under: _Religion_ (http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/religion/)
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(http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/culture/) , _Disputations_
(http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/disputations/) , _Afghanistan_
(http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/afghanistan/) , _Barack Obama_
(http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/barack-obama/) , _Iraq_ (http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/iraq/)
Tagged: _American Family Association_
(http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/American+Family+Association/) , _Bryan Fischer_
(http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/Bryan+Fischer/) , _Medal of Honor_
(http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/Medal+of+Honor/) , _Salvatore Giunta_
(http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/Salvatore+Giunta/)
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