<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML xmlns:fb = "http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml"><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.7600.16588"></HEAD>
<BODY style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" id=role_body bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 rightMargin=7 topMargin=7><FONT id=role_document color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>
<DIV><A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/20/christian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s/">Christian
Right Activist Blasts Medal of Honor as 'Feminized,' Sparks Fury</A> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/20/christian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s/">http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/20/christian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s/</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<H1 class=artHeadline>Christian Right Activist Blasts Medal of Honor as
'Feminized,' Sparks Fury</H1>
<DIV class=artPosted>1 day ago</DIV>
<DIV class=miniCommTop sizset="83" sizcache="161">
<DIV class=miniComm sizset="83" sizcache="161"><SPAN class=miniCommIcon> </SPAN> <SPAN class=miniCount>144</SPAN> <SPAN class=miniCommLabel>Comments</SPAN> <SPAN class=miniLinkText sizset="83" sizcache="161"><A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/20/christian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s/#commentform">Say
Something »</A> </SPAN></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=clear></DIV>
<DIV id=articleStr class=smallText sizset="14" sizcache="170">
<DIV class=artUtils sizset="84" sizcache="161">
<DIV class=utilsLt sizset="84" sizcache="161"><SPAN class=txtSize sizset="84" sizcache="161"><SPAN class=labTxtSize>Text Size</SPAN> <A id=incFont class=at300c title="large font" rel=largeText jQuery1290431166619="87"></A><A id=decFont class=decFontOff title="small font" rel=smallText></A></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV id=addthisTop class=utilsRt sizset="86" sizcache="161">
<DIV class=aol-share sizset="86" sizcache="161" jQuery1290431166619="12"><A class=aol-share-print title=Print href="javascript:window.print();" jQuery1290431166619="5">Print this page</A><SPAN class=separator jQuery1290431166619="6">|</SPAN><A class=aol-share-email title=Email href="http://share.aol.com/sendmail/aolshare?pu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F11%2F20%2Fchristian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s%2F%3Fa_dgi%3Daolshare_email&pt=Christian%20Right%20Activist%20Blasts%20Medal%20of%20Honor%20as%20'Feminized%2C'%20Sparks%20Fury&pd=" jQuery1290431166619="7"><SPAN>Email</SPAN></A><A class=aol-share-facebook title="Share on Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F11%2F20%2Fchristian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s%2F%3Fa_dgi%3Daolshare_facebook&t=Christian%20Right%20Activist%20Blasts%20Medal%20of%20Honor%20as%20'Feminized%2C'%20Sparks%20Fury" target=_blank jQuery1290431166619="8">Share on Facebook</A><A class=aol-share-twitter title="Share on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Christian%20Right%20Activist%20Blasts%20Medal%20of%20Honor%20as%20'Feminized%2C'%20Sparks%20Fury http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F11%2F20%2Fchristian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s%2F%3Fa_dgi%3Daolshare_twitter via @AOL" target=_blank jQuery1290431166619="9">Share on Twitter</A><A class=aol-share-digg title="Share on Digg" href="http://digg.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F11%2F20%2Fchristian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s%2F%3Fa_dgi%3Daolshare_digg&title=Christian%20Right%20Activist%20Blasts%20Medal%20of%20Honor%20as%20'Feminized%2C'%20Sparks%20Fury&description=" target=_blank jQuery1290431166619="10">Share on Digg</A><A class=aol-share-lifestream title="Share on Lifestream" href="http://lifestream.aol.com/share/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F11%2F20%2Fchristian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s%2F%3Fa_dgi%3Daolshare_lifestream&title=Christian%20Right%20Activist%20Blasts%20Medal%20of%20Honor%20as%20'Feminized%2C'%20Sparks%20Fury&description=" target=_blank jQuery1290431166619="11">Share on Lifestream</A></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=clear></DIV></DIV><!---->
<DIV class=blogerProfile sizset="14" sizcache="170">
<DIV class=blogInfoCnt sizset="14" sizcache="170"><A title="David Gibson" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/bloggers/david-gibson/" sizset="14" sizcache="170"></A>
<DIV class=blogerName sizset="93" sizcache="161"><A title="David Gibson" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/bloggers/david-gibson/">David
Gibson</A></DIV>
<DIV class=colnslug>Religion Reporter</DIV>
<DIV class=blogerBio sizset="94" sizcache="161"><A title="author bio" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/david-gibson/">Author Bio »</A></DIV>
<DIV class=blogerCont sizset="95" sizcache="161"><A title="contact author" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/contact/david-gibson/">Contact Author
»</A></DIV>
<DIV class=blogerSubscribe sizset="96" sizcache="161"><A title=Subscribe onclick="aol_feeds_subscribe.show(this,null,'http://www.politicsdaily.com/bloggers/david-gibson/rss.xml');" href="javascript:void(0);" target=_top>Subscribe :</A></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=artCotents sizset="15" sizcache="170"><!-- surphace start -->
<DIV class=relatedLinksR sizset="97" sizcache="162">
<DIV class=relatedHeader>
<H3>Related Stories</H3></DIV>
<DIV class=relatedListContatiner sizset="97" sizcache="162">
<UL sizset="97" sizcache="162">
<LI sizset="97" sizcache="161"><A title="POLITICSDAILY - Obama Bestows Medal of Honor on Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/16/obama-bestows-medal-of-honor-on-staff-sgt-salvatore-giunta/" target=_blank>Obama Bestows Medal of Honor on Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta</A>
<LI sizset="98" sizcache="161"><A title="POLITICSDAILY - Army Sgt. Salvatore Giunta Earns Medal of Honor for Afghan Firefight" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/15/army-sgt-salvatore-giunta-wins-medal-of-honor-after-afghan-fire/" target=_blank>Army Sgt. Salvatore Giunta Earns Medal of Honor for Afghan
Firefight</A>
<LI sizset="99" sizcache="161"><A title="POLITICSDAILY - Pentagon Nominates Medal of Honor for Living Veteran, First Since Vietnam" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/01/pentagon-nominates-medal-of-honor-for-living-veteran-first-sinc/" target=_blank>Pentagon Nominates Medal of Honor for Living Veteran, First
Since Vietnam</A> </LI></UL></DIV></DIV>While a divided nation last Tuesday
finally rallied around one bright shining moment of patriotic glory -- President
Obama's <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/15/army-sgt-salvatore-giunta-wins-medal-of-honor-after-afghan-fire/">awarding
of the Medal of Honor</A> 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. <BR><BR>The Army's <A href="http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/giunta/citation.html">official
citation</A> 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.
<BR><BR>"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," <A href="http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147500421">wrote Fischer</A>,
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."<BR><BR>"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.<BR><BR>Fischer
based his claim on a line in <A href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703326204575616572168606014.html">a
column</A> 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."<BR><BR>In fact, that's not
exactly the case. The <A href="http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/smith/citation/index.html">official
account</A> 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 personally engage the enemy with hand grenades and
anti-tank weapons," losing his life in the process."<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>"Your artciles [sic] reek of ignorance and evangelical
stupidity," said one of the first commenters. <BR><BR>"What utterly disgusting,
false and un-Christian drivel," said one of the most recent. <BR><BR>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 <A href="http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147499026">"the Christian
thing"</A> by letting a family's house burn because they were delinquent on
their $75 annual fire protection fee. <BR><BR>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 <A href="http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147500577">pointed out</A> that
he believed Giunta did deserve the award, and <A href="http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147500607">that the media</A>
"so badly twisted and distorted my words that they are accusing me of saying the
exact opposite of what I actually said."<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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." <BR><BR>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."<BR><BR>"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."<BR><BR>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.<!-- surphace end --> </DIV>
<DIV class=filedUnder sizset="108" sizcache="161"><SPAN class=labFileUnder>Filed
Under: </SPAN><A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/religion/">Religion</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/gay-rights/">Gay Rights</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/terror/">Terror</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/culture/">Culture</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/disputations/">Disputations</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/afghanistan/">Afghanistan</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/barack-obama/">Barack Obama</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/category/iraq/">Iraq</A></DIV>
<DIV class=filedUnder sizset="116" sizcache="161">Tagged: <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/American+Family+Association/">American
Family Association</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/Bryan+Fischer/">Bryan Fischer</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/Medal+of+Honor/">Medal of Honor</A>, <A href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/tag/Salvatore+Giunta/">Salvatore
Giunta</A></DIV><!-- Facebook starts -->
<DIV class=pdFacebook>
<DIV scrollin="0" sonarBodyHeight="11332" sonarElemTop="2668"><fb:like class=" fb_edge_widget_with_comment fb_iframe_widget" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/20/christian-right-activist-blasts-medal-of-honor-as-feminized-s/" layout="button_count" show_faces="false" action="like" width="300"><SPAN></SPAN></fb:like></DIV></DIV><!-- Facebook ends-->
<DIV class=moreArticle sizset="120" sizcache="161"><A title="More article from David Gibson" href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/bloggers/david-gibson/">More articles from
David Gibson »</A></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>