Oh, my stars and garters, he’s done it to himself again. This time, he gets taken down by both sides of the aisle, and it is beautiful! We all know the fun we have with his actions. What he did is actually pretty major, and he got fried to a crisp about it. It’s also an overall touchy subject for many people. Nevertheless, he was a moron, and he’s paying for it. My gratitude to Raw Story:
Pete Hegseth’s decision to strip the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of its Christian designation in the Pentagon’s new religion classification system has ignited a rare cross-aisle pile-on, with Republican lawmakers, conservative commentators and Democratic senators lining up to call it a mistake. As Raw Story reported, Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) moved quickly on Saturday to condemn the change as “unacceptable,” saying he was working to reverse it. He wasn’t alone.
Petey Boy was an idiot. He’s hacking up the religious classification in no uncertain terms. He claims one thing and then does another. And (again) we won’t get into his version of Christianity. This is a deeply personal choice for every person. Claiming one religion is not Christian is ridiculous. Hegseth doesn’t need to be interfering with such things. He needs to leave it alone. He needs to leave it up to the person, not some arbitrary list he creates. He loves changing things, oh yes, he does.
Based on the list published by Hegseth’s office, the Pentagon placed LDS in its own standalone category — “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (CJ)” — separate from the two dozen denominations listed under the “Christian” umbrella. Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a prominent conservative commentator, said Hegseth shot himself in the foot: “Failing to characterize Mormons as Christians is a huge own goal by Hegseth.”
And hence the title of this column. Owns himself, yes, he does. What on earth was he thinking? His boss recognized the LDS as Christian. That’s some mighty big backlash coming Hegseth’s way from a whole lotta people. With Trump, who knows? He might remember it, and he might not. These days it’s a 50-50 chance of one or the other, although it didn’t used to be this bad. But *why* did Hegseth feel like rearranging the classifications? There was no need for it. There’s no reason for it.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), whose handle is @BasedMikeLee, kept it simple: “Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches?” The backlash wasn’t limited to the right. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) — an Arizona Democrat whose state has a significant LDS population — replied directly to Lee: “I don’t know why, but I am with you. This needs to be fixed ASAP.” The classification overhaul was announced by Sean Parnell, Hegseth’s assistant for public affairs, who framed the reduction from more than 200 categories to 31 as a streamlining effort to help “religious support personnel” provide “spiritual care to our warfighters.” Whether it accomplishes that — or simply hands Hegseth’s critics a gift — is now a matter of bipartisan consensus.
Ha. Hands Hegseth’s critics a gift. That gets my vote, because you know how much entertainment we have with Hegseth. And we know what an imbecile he is. Restricting faiths to a list does no good for the military, much as he might boast about it. And how many members have to stay under the radar because Petey Boy could do something that would bring danger to them? If someone has a belief structure that doesn’t match Hegseth’s ideals, what would happen to them? No wonder the hotline has so many calls. No wonder people are afraid to follow their chosen religion. Reducing the number of religious classifications won’t help. It’s going to hurt. And Petey Boy is oblivious to anything outside his creepy personal religion (ugh, nasty). How much farther is he going to go in forcing the military to be his ideal?
See you soon!
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that, of all the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Small correction. Petey Boy IS an idiot.
Smaller correction. Yes, Hegseth is an idiot, but Ursula was saying that he was an idiot (that is, he acted like an idiot) when he classified LDS as non-Christian. Not everything that an idiot does is idiotic or shows that the person is an idiot, but what Hegseth did in that matter was idiotic.
Add this to the little stunt he just pulled in Europe, insulting US allies, and it’s obvious that Drunk Kegsbreath is easily the most incompetent SecDef ever.