“God has called me to go and make disciples of the youth of America. That is what I am going to try to do, and if you try to stop me I am going to break your face.” - Stephen Baldwin

Baldwin is an an actor who found Christianity through mega evangelist Luis Palau. He has been appointed as a cultural ambassador by US President George Bush and is heavily involved in an evangelical group called OSU (Pentagon approved). Operation Straight Up Tour and its “Tough-Men Meetings are a conservative Christian organization that invites current as well as former military commanders to help proselytize on military bases.

The OSU targets all military including chaplains. From their website:

These scheduled events take place one week after our live entertainment shows on military bases inside the United States. We use a personal touch approach at our shows to invite military personnel to attend these events. They are held in auditoriums on base and last approximately 3 hours. It’s a boot camp for the soul. We stress the fact that soldiers need proper training to be successful in war, right? So how can they fight the enemy that destroys their homes and children unless they are properly trained. These meetings are all about training to live life to the fullest, God’s way. Some would call it discipleship. We have many of our OSU Tour performers, NFL athletes, and former and current military commanders speak at these events. It’s also another place that we can empower and encourage chaplains to fulfill their roles. We feel these meetings will keep the fires burning long after we’re gone.

Their merchandise is something else - especially the T-shirts. As Jonathan Hutson of Talk 2Action points out:

 (they) suggest that U.S. soldiers should fight not only the enemies of our nation, but also the alleged enemies of Christ. The message seems to be that people who believe and act differently from conservative Christians are people who are asking for an ass-whuppin’.

OSU staff wear these:

Hutson notes the homoerotic art of the staff shirts.

Tough Men in Tight Tees
This Christian soldier is a bare-chested, bald bear of a man with buff biceps and impeccable pecs, whose dog tags sparkle against his rippling six pack. Clad only in black bicycle shorts and loosely laced combat boots, he is kneeling, holding his automatic rifle upright and burnishing the barrel with a tight grip. Too good to be real, he’s pure fantasy: a pair of cherubic wings sprouts from his brawny back. He conjures the homoerotic drawings of Tom of Finland, who liked to portray muscular military men. Ironically, he’s featured on the official staff T-shirt of the (ahem) Operation Straight Up Tour, a conservative Christian entertainment troupe promoted by the Pentagon that evangelizes “tough men” in uniform. 

This should disturb Christian and none Christian alike. This is one of the messages for sale. The shirt reads: “UFC - Ultimate Fighting Character. Bet you can’t whip me. Because J.C. [Jesus Christ] lives in me.”  As Hutson notes below the in-your-bloody-face message is the tagline, “Until every soldier hears the truth: OSU Tour.” Why such a distorted view of Christianity? Why the twisted juvenile concepts of masculinity? Why such deviation from biblical principles?

Fundamentalist Christians chose arrested development, they chose authoritarian leadership for safety because they are often overwhelmed and hurt their foray into the inter-dependence of adulthood and the choices faced in a pluralistic society. Fundamentalists comprise a small group of Christians, but they tend to make the news a great deal; fundamentalism arrests the moral, social, emotional, intellectual, and sexual development those raised in it and in those who chose it. Fundamentalist leaders target the vulnerable. Soldiers are vulnerable. Fundamentalism is about regression, not orthodox Christianity, not Christian manhood or womanhood.

Orcinus has an explanatory post on the emotional and developmental regression that occurs when we embrace the magical thinking authoritarian fundamentalism offers; looking at the basic develpmental psychology. Topics are touched on such as development of the age of reason (around age 7) the play of 5 and 6 year olds who engage in rule learning -rule play -rule lawyer- and machismo magical thinking. It is particularly striking in men raised in fundamentalism and peddled just as zealously by men who convert. 
While Orcinus looks at the snickering juvenile punditing on US TV and talk radio - many parts of the conservative evangelical movement are obviously no different. It is stunning to me the US Department of Defense and The US Chaplaincy would permit the peddling of this regressive, fantasy-celebrity-driven unscriptural human centred interpretation of Christianity on any military base.

Kill or Convert, Brought to you by The Pentagon
Bob Altemeyer’s - The Authoritarians

fundamentalism (n)

1. A usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.