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Controversy over Petraeus blurb on chaplain's book about Christianity

Thursday August 21, 2008

By Mike Carney

Gen. David Petraeus is under fire for the blurb a military chaplain has been using since last year to promote a book about Christianity in the military.

On the back cover of Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel, the incoming Centcom commander is quoted saying that Army chaplain William McCoy's paperback "should be in every rucksack for those moments when Soldiers need spiritual energy." (The version on Amazon has been modified, but you can still see the original back cover via Barnes & Noble.)

The author now says he mistook a private message from Petraeus for a public endorsement.

"In the process of securing … comments for recommending the book I believe there was a basic misunderstanding on my part that the comments were publishable," McCoy tells Military.com. "This was my mistake."

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group, is calling for an investigation.

"General Petraeus has, by his own hand, become a quintessential poster child of this fundamentalist Christian religious predation, via his unadulterated and shocking public endorsement of a book touting both Christian supremacy and exceptionalism," Michael Weinstein, the group's founder, says.

McCoy says on his blog that the blurb will removed from future editions of the book.


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