Last week, I pointed out that a quote attributed to General David Petraeus, along with a photo of Petraeus in uniform, was being used as promotional material on the website of Eric Horner Ministries. Horner espouses a militant, nationalist strain of fundamentalist Christianity in popular country western songs such as “United We’ll Stand When Together We Kneel.” His use of the Petraeus photo has been called inappropriate by some military law experts, but, so far, Horner has not removed it. He has, however, changed the quote attributed to Petraeus to read: “I appreciate your patriotic performances for our soldiers and their families.” (Is this meant to blunt the impression that Petraeus is endorsing a religion? I’m not sure). Whatever Horner’s motives, the change either means that he is (or was) misquoting Petraeus, or that the general gave him permission to run the photo and quotes with the changes. I’ve sent Horner an email asking him to explain. Either way, the response does not inspire confidence.
Chris Rodda, a researcher with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has uncovered more information about Horner. In this online “praise report,” Horner recounts a November 2nd meeting with President Bush that he claims was arranged by Fort Jackson’s general. “The General then spoke up and explained to him (Bush) that we came as a ministry to the troops,” Horner writes. “The President seemed to get excited about that and thanked us several times. Again, I’m not looking for Glory in what we do, but it was pretty cool to hear those words from the President.”
For more of Rodda’s findings on Horner and the military, and the changes to his website, see the comments thread here.
Update: The Petraeus quote on Horner’s site now shows the word “patriotic” in brackets.
