This story really takes “Onward, Christian Soldier” to a new level. An Army chaplain appears to have come up with a brilliant loophole in the military’s clear ban on religious proselytizing and has called on his Christian soldiers to go out and spread the word of Jesus to the dirty Muslim heathens in Afghanistan.

A report by Al Jazeera English shows soldiers in Afghanistan passing around Bibles in Pashto and Dari, the languages of Afghanistan, presumably to be distributed. The chaplain leading the discussion acknowledges that “proselytizing” is against military rules, but one soldier says, “you can give gifts“.

[T]he chaplains appear to have found a way around the regulation known as General Order Number One.

“Do we know what it means to proselytise?” Captain Emmit Furner, a military chaplain, says to the gathering.

“It is General Order Number One,” an unidentified soldier replies.

But [Sergeant Jon] Watt says “you can’t proselytise but you can give gifts“.

After revelations that some American soldiers were given Bibles and encouraged to “hunt people for Jesus,” the Pentagon on Monday denied allegations that the U.S. military allows its personnel to seek the conversion of Afghans to Christianity. But while the copies of the New Testament translated into Pashtun and jaw-dropping video from Bagram may seem like exceptions that prove the rule of American prohibition on proselytizing by the military, they are just the latest episodes in the disturbing rise in influence of Christian conservatives in the United States armed services… In word and deed, evangelicals in recent years have aggressively boosted their visibility and influence within the American military.

An early warning came in 2003 in the guise of Lt. General William Boykin. Boykin, who later became a deputy under secretary of defense, claimed during speeches to prayer groups and breakfasts that militant Islamists sought to destroy America ”because we’re a Christian nation.” General Boykin also explained to evangelical audiences that Muslims worship an ”idol” and not ”a real God.” While President Bush expressed his disagreement (noting Boykin “”didn’t reflect my opinion” and “it just doesn’t reflect what the government thinks”), Boykin remained on the job.

Gee, I wonder where some Muslims get the impression that the U.S. is waging a holy war against Islam? After all, we’re just acting to save their dirty heathen souls from the fires of hell, right?

One would think that these would-be soldiers cum missionaries might think the better of this idea, considering how, ahem, “upset” some Muslims get when they see white, Western Christians trying to convert their people away from Islam:

Taliban gunmen on a motorbike killed a Christian aid worker in the Afghan capital on Monday, and the militant group said it had targeted the woman because she was proselytizing…

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the slaying, saying the woman was killed because she was spreading Christianity.

“This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to people of Afghanistan,” Mujahid told the Associated Press. “Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman. This morning our people killed her in Kabul.”

Trying to convert Muslims to any other faith is a crime in Afghanistan. An Afghan man who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2006 but was allowed to leave the country after an international uproar.