Silencing General Boykin

General William Boykin

General William Boykin, a highly decorated veteran came under fire for comments made during a church service in Maryland recently. One former Army Ranger and author, Chuck Holton, believes the brouhaha is indicative of the media’s double standard of intolerance toward Christian free speech.             Holton, the author of One Elite Soldier (Multnomah) attended the meeting in Maryland where General Boykin expressed his personal beliefs about why many Muslims hate the United States. In context, Boykin said, “Why do they hate us so much? I will tell you this. This is my own

personal belief. One of the most fundamental reasons they hate us is (a) because we are a nation of believers, and (b) because we support Israel.”

“Boykin made it very clear by specifically saying that what he was talking about were his own personal beliefs,” says Holton.  “He was not speaking for the military or for the government.”  Yet, syndicated columnists like Ellen Goodman and others lambasted Boykin for speaking about his personal beliefs. Goodman suggests tolerance is what she refers to as our new “civic religion.” For Boykin and millions of other evangelicals, the right to speak about one’s faith is not just a right but a responsibility.

Boykin’s so-called audacity to say that radical Muslims are Satanic is not an exact portrayal of what he really said.  “We as Americans, we as Christians, need to understand that that’s not the enemy that America’s up against. In fact, the enemy that we’re up against is called the principality of darkness, he’s called Satan.”  For Bible-believing Christians everywhere, the conflict between good and evil has a very real source.  For Holton, who served under General Boykin during the Somalian conflict, “there was nothing in that speech that I heard General Boykin give that was inflammatory toward Muslims at any point.”

For Holton and scores of other evangelicals, Christian views in the public square are no less valid than any others.  The war on terror is fundamentally religious-based and any attempt to dismiss this reality is a flawed interpretation of geopolitical realities.  That Islam is a formidable force assailing free people the world over is easily defensible.  “The extreme element of Islam has no question that this is a war of religion,” says Holton. “This is a religious war.”