On a Veterans Day broadcast program, televangelist Kenneth Copeland and controversial historian David Barton told listeners that soldiers should never experience guilt or post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from military service.
Reading from Numbers 32: 20-22, Copeland said, “So this is a promise — if you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war — you shall return, you’re coming back, and be guiltless before the Lord and before the nation .”
“Any of you suffering from PTSD right now, you listen to me, ” Copeland said as Barton affirmed him. ”You get rid of that right now. You don’t take drugs to get rid of it. It doesn’t take psychology. That promise right there will get rid of it .”
[Bolding mine]
44 comments
And of course these two jackasses did the hard stuff, right? Shooting and getting shot, day after day in some shithole far from home, right? Because otherwise this is using a national tragedy to milk more members and money from PTSD survivors
And for that you get kicked in the balls every day for the rest of your life.
PTSD does not work that way.
What being promoted right here is dangerous. This is the attitude that gets spouses and children killed when the serve member with PTSD finally breaks from not getting the treatment s/he needs.
If Copeland and Barton had not served in the military, then they have no business to criticize veterans for their ways to cope with their war-related traumatisms.
Barton already made another war-gloryfing comment here , where he said which acts made their authors guiltless.
What the actual fuck is wrong with you?
You're saying every soldier who has nightmares about watching their unit - their friends and comrades in arms - die around them is just being childish?
You're saying there's nothing horrifying about seeing the aftermath of an IED in a crowded street, with bits and pieces of what used to be people in the middle of their daily routine scattered about?
You're saying that having any emotional response at all to being the one doing the killing is ridiculous?
You're saying that people who will never be the same for as long as they live because they went out and risked their lives in active warzones bearing witness to the worst atrocities imaginable knowing each breath could be their last before being killed in action or taken prisoner and tortured to death believing that they're keeping their loved ones safe from harm should be scorned and admonished for any attempts to dull the pain?
You're saying this specifically on a day to commemorate the fallen who died in the defense of your very existence. So that everyone in America, even an ignorant, ungrateful, unabashed, overly entitled shit like you could enjoy the rights and freedoms you spend your days so enthusiastically wiping your ass with?
I don't always agree with why soldiers go to war but I damn well know they deserve all due respect. You have dishonored them, their sacrifices, and your flag. You've lost all right to the Stars and Stripes pal. You're a fucking disgrace. If not for the very people you've shit all over you'd be living in a country where that kind of gross disrespect sees you up in front of a firing squad.
I personally know a Catholic priest who was a front line Army chaplain in war zones in the Middle East. He suffers from PTSD. You don't just "get rid of it."
The thing is, if religion is such a comfort, then why does a priest suffer from PTSD? The simple answer is that anyone in fear of their life will suffer lasting psychological effects and will need counseling.
“Any of you suffering from PTSD right now, you listen to me,” Copeland said as Barton affirmed him. ”You get rid of that right now. You don’t take drugs to get rid of it. It doesn’t take psychology. That promise right there will get rid of it.”
$cientology much, Dave & Kenny? Go and enterbulate your conditions elsewhere, as you clearly haven't been in battle - and experienced for yourselves what they have: IEDs, RPG attacks etc - to dictate what veterans should or shouldn't feel.
'Walk a mile in another man's combat boots ', and all that jazz...!
Oh for fuck sakes. This has to be among the most irresponsible pieces of bullshit I've seen. And this is what makes religion dangerous. If people just minded their own damn business and believed whatever they felt like believing without involving others in their insanity I'd be perfectly fine with religion. But no, the highly religious types aren't content to just believe their nonsense, no, they have to butt into other people's lives too and tell others what to do and what to believe. Even when it's something that some prick preacher has no place saying anything on, like giving medical advice, they insist on not only giving advice but demanding that their dumbass advice be followed.
So your response to people suffering from a severe psychological is "get over it."
I have never said this before in a post but Kenneth, David, DIE IN A FIRE!
(Uhura)
To quote the late, great George Carlin: "Maybe, if we were still calling it (PTSD) 'shell shock', we'd be more willing to get these veterans the help they need."
Ah! The Mary Baker Eddy school of Psychiatry!
Didn't work with physical health...won't work with mental health.
Godde works through doctors & medicine.
As a spiritual person with a strong faith, I still endorse regular psychiatric care and, when needed, meds!
Same goes for other forms of medicine.
You are idiots, Barton & Copeland!
In other words: Right wing Fundamentalists folk support the troops more than anyone right up to the point of them needing support.
Not just Barton but most right-wingers are against any assistance to the soldiers, cannon fodder for the church and corperate world.
But to suggest them traumatized soldiers aint got their God on enough, as opposed to your sorry ass existance of privilage, living entirely off of lies, is shameful.
This is one of the many examples of Right-Wing Conservative Christian figures being on the payroll of big business and their many politicians. If it costs some money then the compassionite words of Jesus are thrown out to support the tax reserve, so it can be funneled into the churchs and corporations. (It's not that they don't only pay any taxes it's also billions of dollars lost every year to supporting church upkeep, in Canada also)
Forget medication or pschological help soldiers, sit in our pews and give us your veterans benefits, God doesn't like whiners unless they're Dominionist spokesmen who have been so put upon and suffer so much for their God. Selfish soldiers! Remember who counts!
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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