My articles are usually rated G for general audiences. I don't normally write articles directed toward a particular group. But since the juggernaut of military idolatry is proceeding full speed ahead through conservative Christian churches, I must address conservative Christians directly.

Let me first say that I am a Bible-believing Christian, as conservative as they come. Probably more conservative than many nominal Christians would feel comfortable with. Although I am not an ordained minister, I am no stranger to preaching, teaching, and church work. I have earned degrees in theology, taught at a Bible college, and written a number of Christian books. I will put my conservative Christian credentials up against anyone. I think I know Christianity and Christians as well as anyone. My religious areas of expertise include theology, Greek, English Bible history in general and the history and text of the King James Bible in particular.

I say these things for two reasons. One, Christians sometimes stumble across my writings for the first time and assume that because I have said something critical about Christians that I must not be one. And two, conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians need to know that I am one of them, so to speak. I write not as some liberal Christian who denies the authority of the Bible and the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith.

There is an unseemly alliance that exists between many conservative Christians and the military. Many conservative churches fawn over current and former members of the military, not just on the Sunday before Veterans Day and Memorial Day, but also on the Fourth of July and on special "military appreciation" days that they designate. Some of these churches would have no trouble doubling as military recruiting centers. We hear more from the pulpit today in some churches justifying military intervention in the Middle East than we do about the need for missionaries to go there. Instead of the next military adventure of the U.S. government being denounced from every pulpit, it will be preachers in many conservative churches that the government can count on to justify it.