Stolen Valor: Conservative hero Chris “American Sniper” Kyle was a liar and a fraud who grossly exaggerated his military record.

The Intercept reports internal Navy documents show that Kyle lied about his service record in his bestselling autobiography, American Sniper.

In his book, and in his life, Kyle repeatedly claimed that he was awarded two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars, all for valor. However, as The Intercept reports, this is not true: Kyle was awarded only one Silver Star and three Bronze Stars.

Kyle was told before he published the book that his claims were false; however, he went ahead and published them anyway, and continued the fabrication until the day he died.

Fellow Navy SEALs who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity said it was a poorly kept secret that Kyle had falsified his military service record. One former Navy SEAL commented on a public memorial service for Kyle held at Cowboys Stadium near Dallas that drew nearly 7,000 people:

Everybody went on a pilgrimage to his funeral at Cowboys Stadium, knowing full well his claims weren’t true.

The conspiracy of silence to protect Kyle’s fabrications about his war record is understandable when one recalls that Kyle was, and continues to be, worshiped by many conservatives as a great American hero who fought bravely for God and country.

Kyle is revered by many as the deadliest sniper in military history, and a good Christian man. His bestselling autobiography, American Sniper, has sold more than a million copies, and the movie adaptation of Kyle’s story became the highest-grossing war film in American history.

Yet despite the hero worship, Kyle was a liar. He lied about punching Jesse Ventura in a bar. And Ventura, a former military man, wrestler, and governor of Minnesota, was awarded $1.8 million in a defamation suit against the Kyle estate.

Kyle also lied about shooting two men who supposedly tried to carjack him.

Yet perhaps Kyle’s most perverse lie is the claim that the U.S. government sent him into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to shoot looters. Kyle often repeated the false claim that the U.S. government perched him atop the Superdome, boasting that he shot at least 30 looters in one night.

Kyle was raised as a Christian, and often referred to his Christian faith. Indeed, Kyle’s faith was and is often used to promote the supposed American hero.

Kyle’s father was a deacon and his mother was a Sunday school teacher. According to his widow, Taya, Kyle was “a man of faith.”

In a 2013 article for The New Yorker Nicholas Schmidle wrote:

Like many soldiers, Kyle was deeply religious and saw the Iraq War through that prism. He tattooed one of his arms with a red crusader’s cross, wanting ‘everyone to know I was a Christian.’

Indeed, Kyle used his Christian faith to justify his killing in the Iraq war, and expressed a distinct disdain for Muslims. In his book, after being accused of shooting a man for carrying a Koran, Kyle writes that he told an Army colonel:

I don’t shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.

In fact, Kyle was certain that everyone he killed was “evil,” writing:

I believe the fact that I’ve accepted Jesus as my savior will be my salvation. But in that backroom or whatever it is when God confronts me with my sins, I do not believe any of the kills I had during the war will be among them. Everyone I shot was evil. I had good cause on every shot. They all deserved to die.

Kyle was shot and killed at a Texas shooting range in 2013. (“And Jesus said: ‘For all who draw the sword will die by the sword'” Matthew 26:52).

Bottom line: Kyle serves as a microcosm of the perverse nature of conservative Christianity in America, a Christianity which rejects the teachings of Christ in favor of a war-mongering, mean-spirited ideology that valorizes violence and guns over peace and pacifism.

Update: A Navy review has determined that Kyle did not earn a second Silver Star for valor as he claimed in his bestselling book American Sniper. The Navy did state that Kyle earned a single Silver Star and four Bronze Stars during his ten years of service.