Much ado has been made of the GQ article which includes a slide show of government Top Secret briefing coversheets.  The pages contain pictures of the military and Biblical quotes. (Ironically, the topic was a short lead-in to a completely different subject, which has been largely ignored.)

While interesting, the issue is a non-story.  The coversheets were a very limited distribution briefing (a Top Secret brief for a few individuals, not public distribution).  They were produced over a short period in 2003 by an officer who has since retired.  Supposedly, those who would have briefed and received the slides wouldn’t have even found the quotes acceptable, so its unclear who did ultimately receive the briefings.

The mere presence of the religious quotes, which allegedly replaced inappropriate humor, has been predictably called a sign of “Christian nationalism,” a “violation of the separation of church and state,” and an attempt to frame the global conflict as a “holy war.”

Of the Bible verses themselves, one blogger tellingly opined

It all sounds remarkably similar to what the Muslim terrorists who brought down the World Trade Center were no doubt telling themselves before takeoff, doesn’t it?