By Kay Campbell
Religion News Service
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — In the midst of their fight to bring freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan, some American soldiers say they are finding their own freedoms threatened by the troops on their own side.
Though the U.S. Constitution mandates that the government apply no test of faith for employment (and presumably deployment), soldiers who are open about their non-belief can face harassment and ostracizing from fellow troops and their officers, some say.
“We didn’t let anyone know we were atheists,” said Steve Moore of Huntsville, who served two tours in Iraq as an Army staff sergeant.
Moore and his wife, Renee, also an Army veteran, were taking a break a couple of weeks ago from packing goody boxes for non-believing soldiers as part of Operation Foxhole Atheist, sponsored by the North Alabama Freethought Association.
“We didn’t want any stigma to thwart our career,” Moore said. “There is nothing more frightening than a radical fundamentalist with an assault rifle.”
Chaplain Maj. Rajmund Kopec, a veteran of Serbia and Iraq now stationed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, has seen it all — both the violation of military principles that call for respect of each soldier’s conscience, and the heroic support of it.
As a Catholic, he’s been assured of his own eternal damnation by some Christians, he said in an interview. He’s not surprised some atheists would rather keep their beliefs to themselves, though he remembers long conversations and friendly debates with one atheist stationed in Iraq.
“The soldiers reflect our society,” Kopec said. “We don’t come from the moon. By being a reflection of society, we also reflect the faith attitudes. We will have the militant factions.
“Should that happen? Of course not,” Kopec said. “But it doesn’t matter what the differences are. Sooner or later, you’re going to get it from somebody.”
What most soldiers do not get, however, are threats of “fragging” — military slang for death by friendly fire — because of their beliefs.
That’s what Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, 22, said happened to him after he organized a meeting of atheists at his base in Iraq in August.
The threats came after Hall filed suit last month against the Department of Defense and Maj. Freddy Welborn. Hall said Welborn told a group of atheists that their unbelief was disgracing their country, and threatened to bar Hall’s re-enlistment.
Since the threats, the Army has assigned a bodyguard to Hall for protection from his colleagues in arms.
“We’re fighting the Christian Taliban, pure and simple,” said Hall’s attorney, Mikey Weinstein, speaking by phone from his office in Albuquerque, N.M.
Weinstein is an Air Force veteran and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. His 2006 book, “With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military,” will be issued in paperback this fall.
Since he began his campaign for religious freedom in the military, Weinstein said he has received regular death threats by phone and e-mail. Dead dogs have been dumped in his yard. The front window of his home in Albuquerque has been shot out twice.
Weinstein’s foundation has received reports of religious intimidation from more than 6,000 troops, including from liberal Christians being harassed for not being “Christian enough.”
In a 2005 New York Times story on the growing numbers of evangelical and charismatic Christian chaplains in the armed forces, Chaplain Brig.
Gen. Cecil Richardson said, “We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched.”
The distinction is impossible to square with constitutional prohibitions against government-established religion, Weinstein said.
“Imagine what the furor would have been if he had said `to atheize’ or to `Muslimize,”‘ Weinstein said.
Other soldiers say the problem of an intimidatingly Christian atmosphere is not widespread in the service.
“Aside from an occasional rude comment, I haven’t had any problems from other soldiers due to my lack of religion,” Spc. Dustin Chalker, a medic from Mobile currently stationed near Tikrit, Iraq, wrote in an e-mail.
“Most of the guys in my unit are pretty apathetic — we have more important things to worry about than invisible men,” Chalker wrote, referring to invisible deities.
But Master Sgt. Kathleen Johnson, 40, a career soldier from north Florida who enlisted in 1985, said many soldiers do worry about invisible things and pressure others to do the same.
“Being an atheist in the military can be isolating and lonely — this environment is very much about `God and country,’ and patriotism and religion are closely linked in the minds of many,” Johnson wrote in a recent e-mail from her current posting in Iraq. “The biggest issue we
(atheists) have with discrimination right now is trying to assert our individual rights to live a religion-free life in the face of fundamentalist Christian commanders who see it as their duty to bring others to their worldview.”
Johnson said she has been threatened with failing a mandatory course if she didn’t bow her head during prayer. One military chaplain bragged to her about how he had stalled some Wiccan soldiers when they asked for a place to gather until they finally just gave up.
As the military director for American Atheists, Johnson founded the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers to provide education to chaplains and soldiers about respecting and protecting the beliefs and unbeliefs of others.
Kopec said he considers it part of his calling as a priest to minister to soldiers on their own terms, whether they are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, atheist or something else. He says he is always careful when praying at mandatory gatherings on behalf of a retiring commander or a fallen soldier. He prefaces his prayers with a statement of support for soldiers who prefer to pray silently in their own tradition or not at all while he prays in keeping with the beliefs of the soldier being honored.
Ideally, Kopec said, the military’s forced camaraderie of strangers, the compression of various groups together for a common cause, can create a better soldier and a better society.
If a soldier comes to him for counseling, he said, he asks about a soldier’s own beliefs — not to change them, but to find out what tools the soldier brings to the problem at hand.
“It’s kind of fascinating when you hear how people talk, how they come to certain solutions, how they live their lives,” Kopec said. “I’m not in the conversion business — that’s His (God’s) work. I can help, but I hope the way I live my life may be some inspiration for you in your life.”
(Kay Campbell writes for The Huntsville Times in Huntsville, Ala.)
Copyright 2007 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted October 10, 2007 at 6:09 pm
As a Christian I find this information of what has occured for some Atheists disturbing, something like from a fiction story, presenting the radical religious people’s behavior when faced with others who don’t believe as they do. Until Clergy can behave as the Priest Kopec does and meet each troop as he finds them with respect, and consideration they should relieve these Clergy and Officers from duty, until they understand what is required of them by special training. You would think that being American they would know that, but I guess until the Armed Services can get everyone on the same page it’s too much to expect from the radicals. All troops should also be trained to respect each other, and if they can’t then they should be relieved of duty.
posted October 10, 2007 at 7:06 pm
The armed forces are now totally filled with volunteers. It seems that even atheists join to protect and fight for this country (but not for GOD and country). So how is this unpatriotic? What I don’t understand is why some Christians have a problem with a soldier NOT believing in an invisible being. That soldier is in the same danger as the Christian one is, and will be just as dead as the guy/gal who is Christian!
Why do some Christians feel it is necessary to evangelize EVEN in the military. Chaplain Brig. Gen.Richardson is frightning when he says he reserves the right to evangelize the unchurched!! The atheist has the right to tell him to “stuff it”, and then be left alone about god.
Mickey Weinstein seems to have summed it up correctly when he says they’re fighting a “Christian Taliban.”
posted October 10, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Some Christians enjoy thinking they are in danger because of their beliefs. These people appear to actually be in danger because of their beliefs.
This whole idea of “God and country” is dangerous for a variety of reasons, one being that the dimmer of the soldiers may confuse fighting for their country with fighting for their god. And officers that participate in that should be thoroughly trained or canned.
And it seems to me that in a real war that was vital for the US to win, the troops would pull together better. But I could be wrong on that.
posted October 11, 2007 at 10:36 am
Stories like this make me totally embarassed to be associated with an institution like “christianity” (little “c” intended, they have been acting too disgracefully to earn a big “C”). It is abundantly clear that they have missed all the important lessons completely and have focused on minutae that is mostly meaningless. Any chaplain that promotes this sort of behavior ought to not only be tossed from the military, they should be defrocked, excommunicated, shunned, and blackballed.
THE PROBLEM is that our current administration loves to use people like this, whose single minded focus is so easily manipulated and twisted. Bush/Cheney care little about God and Country and are far more focused on Me and Mine. They rely, like parasites sucking life from their host, on people like these wan’na be christians to protect them and offer a smokescreen so they can continue to pillage the national budget, plunder the resources of other countries and people, and lilfer whatever they can from their “fellow citizens”.
What is as embarassing as anything else is that these people are so eagerly duped!
posted October 11, 2007 at 11:44 am
This war and this behavior is a reflection of the Bush administration pure and simple. These people do not reflect most Christians, but unfortunately they are the loudest and most obtrusive so the insinuation remains.
posted October 11, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Nationalism is scary enough without adding God to the equation.
posted October 11, 2007 at 12:41 pm
So when did this happen ,that our soldiers are so thin skinned?
How is it some (a minority )I.m positive of this, are worry about their acceptance? I served 4 years in the early 60″s in 4 different locations ,and if anything they were a wild group.
How would anyone know you were a atheist,or any belief, unless ,unless, unless you were making a point of it to others by grandstanding it!
When I,m hurt and injured in a tight spot, I want that befief system to pull me thru ,because sometimes that all you got!
posted October 11, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Doesn’t sound like its the athiests who are “thin skinned” to me. What are you saying, only Christians get to talk about their beliefs and congregate?
posted October 11, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Sopwith
With all the emphasis on proclaiming one’s faith, I think th eatheists stand out only because they do not share in the whole vehement religion thing. If they simply say they are not interested they open themselves to ridicule and rejection, as mentioned in the article. I agree with Sagenav that the thin skinned folks are the adamant, arrogant “christians” who work so hard at making other people feel excluded.
posted October 11, 2007 at 2:56 pm
nonsense, no Christian is thinking fragging anyone atheist or not. this sounds like a ploy for just what they are getting publicity, and to get weak Christians to be ashamed of their faith and become ineffective and even for some to align themselves as atheist allies. By the way most thin skinned people jest, and sage, resort to name calling, (adamant, arrogant?)
It is a rally point no more no less. Rally on atheists, semi-Christians and others.
posted October 11, 2007 at 3:52 pm
cknuck, what’s a “semi-Christian”?
posted October 11, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I believe the concerns raised are valid ones. The US Armed Forces is dominated by Christians, including some hostile ones, who feel that being involved in armed combat is justification to dispense their own brand of Stoning on anybody they don’t like. This is accomplished by intimidation, denial of civil liberties (such as allowing non-Christians to practice their faith – look at the pending lawsuits against the Air Force) and outright murder.
Don’t believe me?
Google: CPL Ciara Durkin
She was a lesbian officer serving a desk-job in Afghanistan in the middle of an army compound. Shortly before her murder she warned her family that if anything happened to her they were to investigate. A short time later she was found on the army compound, steps from a Chapel, murdered execution style with a bullet in her head.
The army has not disclosed her autopsy results to the family, despite telling them they would. The army has also not responded to the family’s request for an independent autopsy.
But I’m sure her sexual orientation had nothing to do with her murder, just like I’m sure the charges against the Air Force by non-Christians denied their Freedom of (and from) Religion are cooked up nonsense aimed at ‘shaming’ the poor, persecuted Christian minority in this country. /Sarcasm
posted October 11, 2007 at 4:19 pm
cknuck:
WHY would someone make this all up just for publicity? There is fact to this. Chaplain B.General Richardson thinks it is his job to “evangelize the unchurched”. Not really. If someone wants to hear what he has to say, they’ll show up to hear it and accept or reject it. Actually with his attitude, he should be out of the Army. Chaplains are supposed to be there for the troops that want them, not to PUSH their beliefs on them.
Having not been in the military (I know you have) would I really care what someone believed about a god if I were being shot at? No, just that the man or woman next to me was covering my back just like I’d be covering his/hers. I wouldn’t be asking them if they were Christian, Muslim, Catholic, Jewish or atheist….I’d be doing my job and hoping to live to see another day.
posted October 11, 2007 at 4:44 pm
ck
pagansister has it exactly right. The corps of Chaplains is there for the troops, not to promote their brand of religion. It is mostly a pastoral job, with only slight hints or prophetic. If they want to be prophets, they have to lose the uniform, get their hair blow dried, and find an empty TV studio.
By the way,
they earn the titles Arrogant and Adamant. These are adjectives, not nouns. Anyone on the chewing end of some rabid “christian” will agree with this description. I rag on these folks because they have worked hard for the attention.
posted October 11, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Sage, ck’s semi-Christian means anyone that doesn’t believe like he does. Like me, my family, and my church.
Thank you Nightlad for bringing up the murder of Ciara Durkin in Iraq. It’s a terrible thing and if other organizations have to get involved to get this crime righted I hope they do so soon. I’ve read two articles so far about this family.
Arrogant and Adamant is not enough to describe the behavior of these Evangelical people in this article, they are behaving radically. Weinstein says his foundation has over 6,000 troops that have reported various intimidations! Some in service may think this is just a drop in the bucket, why not? its not happening to them. If it isn’t stopped it will spread, and threats from Officers to the troops that they will not be advanced in rank because they don’t meet Fundamentalist Religions requirements will continue. An adult female troop is an Atheist and she was told to bow her head when the Chaplain noticed she didn’t. Is she a retard? Is she a non-entity? My husband said if anyone had said that to him in the 50′s when he was fighting in Korea he would have punched that guy in the nose! When he was with the Navy Air for many, many years, he never heard such disrespect through the 70′s, 80′s, and into the 90′s. It sounds as though some of these Fundamentalist Christians are completely brain-washed as badly as any cult I have ever heard of. It’s time to be de-programed people.
posted October 11, 2007 at 8:43 pm
I speak for myself and not in any official capacity with the US military. I was a chaplain assistant in the Army. I have served overseas, mobilized at the onset of Operation Enduring Freedom. I have encountered numerous soldiers of numerous faiths, and have a strong familiarity with the Chaplain Corps. I knew of CH Kopec, but I don’t think I ever actually met him. I served under Chaplains that Catholic, evanjelical, Orthodox Jewish, Reform Jewish, Mormon, Christian Orthodox, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc. I worked for officers from shiny butter-bar lieutenants to full-bird colonels. In my service, the chaplain has always functioned in the capacity of special staff. Each chaplain is endorsed by a specific denomination (or denominations), and each has the equivilent of a three-year masters degree in divinity or their religion’s equivilent. Have some of them been there to make new believers? Not necessarily, though as each chaplain is a clergyman in their particular denomination, it is there prerogative to “evangelize.” However, I’ve never encountered a chaplain who used patent coercion to make new converts. Likewise, the chaplaincy must make religious accomodation, regardless of religious practice, as the mission permits. Chapels or routinely “neutralized” so that the building may be used for whomever wishes to use it. In iraq, catholic mass was routinely held when a priest could be obtained. Since there are a lot of protestant chaplains in the army, protestant worship services are common, and definitely NOT compulsory. To accomodate wiccans and their particular reituals, they were given a secluded (secure location) and glow sticks to serve as “candlelight.” The chaplaincy is mostly filled with good officers and, incidentally, religious men, who know the limitations placed on them. I’ve also worked for some really bad-apples, which is unfortunately a reality. Typically, most of these chaplains who violate the rights provided to soldiers through the UCMJdon’t last long. Some do. CH (BG) Richardson, BELIEVE ME, KNOWS that proselytizing (sp?) is a no-go. However, within bounds, has duty as a chaplain to reach out to all soldiers. I have NEVER encountered a chaplain being pushy or coercive about church or prayer. Many of the athiests/agnostics that I have served with (and they were surprisingly common) have held their chaplain in high regard based on his personality and meeting all religious needs of the soldiers in his/her unit. Usually, grumblings were the result of one of the aforementioned bad-apples. The issues reported here are not to be dismissed or taken litely, HOWEVER, I cannot help but wonder personally (based upon my own personal experiences) if the issue here is sensationalized: make a huge deal out of a small but pertinent issue and you draw the attention that should have probably been there in the first place. In my experience, soldiers IN GENERAL were open to ridicule and mockery regardless of their faith (or lack of it) IF their practice/nonpractice was conspicuous… people IN GENERAL can sometimes be insensitive jerks. And finally, promotions for officers and enlisted soldiers are based upon information contained in their respective evaluation reports. A poor OER or NCOER can kill a promotion or a career, and the military is unique in that there is a chain-of-command that can be utilized… as well as equal-opportunity POCs, JAG officers… and chaplains… sorry this isn’t the most articulate presentation, but it’s my 2 cents to the conversation.
posted October 11, 2007 at 8:45 pm
For the most part these are kids with automatic weapons. They are barely beyond their teen years, and all that that entails. But now that we have handed them these weapons we expect sophistication and abilities at discernment that are not fairly theirs. So as a nation we look to the chaplains to help them work through all the range of questions and concerns. Instead they are fed pablum that means nothing more than if-you-ain’t-with-us-your-against-us. This pre-masticated excuse for theology only serves as a greater means for division within the ranks of our own units. It is for that reason that the Chaplains are being questioned and challenged.
posted October 11, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Michael I don’t doubt your experience is accurate; I hope it is, and things aren’t worse. But that’s not to say all the occasions described in the article and even perhaps all the 6,000 incidents reported to the MRFF, aren’t true; it’s a big military.
Any one incident is serious and some could turn fatal. Also very serious is any time such an incident is reported and not seriously investigated, or when an officer uses his power to try to force a religion on his troops.
So this is hopefully somewhat rare on a percentage basis but nonetheless happens way too much and is a problem the military needs to take seriously and solve.
posted October 12, 2007 at 12:52 am
Michael,
I have to agree that every military chaplain I have met has been a person of high standards and excellent personal conduct. It sounds as if there has been undue influence over a small group of them. There have been rumors circulating about the proximity of the Air Force Academy and Focus on Family (Dobson) in Colorado Springs. I would not be surprised to learn that is in fact the center of the problem.
Certainly no chaplain worthy of the rank and respect would not turn away any personnel who seeks to make a genuine conversion. However, I have not heard, until recently (and independent of this article) of chaplains who encouraged any but the most exemplary behavior. Some of them are so focused on winning souls that they will say and do anything to close the deal. This can lead to a large number of misunderstandings. It is these chaplains that are the concern, not the entire corps.
posted October 12, 2007 at 9:19 am
Dont tell me there are people out there who actually think
you have to be a Christian to serve the country.
Soldiers are to protect our country and pastors and preachers
are the ones who usually feel they are called upon to “serve” God.
Can we not keep anything simple?
My God loves everyone regardless of what or who they are, or how they think.
His message was of unconditional LOVE.Its man who comes along and judges others for their beleifs.
posted October 12, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Welcome moonpathgirl! Where have you been?
posted October 16, 2007 at 12:14 pm
The solution is simple: reinstitute the draft, and allow only hard-core Christians to “serve their country”.
posted October 17, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Ciara Durkin is not the only one to die outside enemy fire. Pat Tillman was an atheist who apparently did not kowtow to the fundamentalist xtians. He was killed by three M-16 rounds so close together in his forehead that the weapon must have been fired from only about 30 feet away.
A line from the article about Pat Tillman on Wikipedia:
>>Top commanders within the U.S. Central Command, including former Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) General John Abizaid, should have been notified by the P4 memo,[17] which described Tillman’s “highly possible” fratricide, four days before Tillman’s nationally televised memorial service during which he was lauded as a war hero for dying while engaging the enemy.[18]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Tillman
Also, check out Maj. Freddy Welborn’s MySpace site: http://www.myspace.com/freddywelborn Just a bit more than chilling.
Maj. Freddy Welborn, I must assume, felt perfectly justified in his busting up the atheist meeting and threatening its participants. He is a “Warrior for the Lord Jesus Christ,” you see.
posted October 18, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Wow… that’s horrible. And the thing is, it’s not just atheists. When he was a governor, GW Bush tried to take away the religious rights of pagans serving. That, and all the other religious discrimination that still goes on today scares me more than anything.
posted October 21, 2007 at 11:14 am
I a proud Atheist Marine (0311) with 11 years of service. I have never shied from the subject of religion for those who wish to broach the subject with me. I do not initiate religious conversations in uniform. I have never met with discrimination while serving here in the states or while deployed. I do not dispute this article, but this kind of discrimination is not everywhere in the service.
posted October 21, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Loupeznik:
It is good to hear that you haven’t been discriminated against due to your beliefs. I’m sure it isn’t everywhere in the service, but it should be ANYWHERE in the service.
Thank you for serving.
posted October 21, 2007 at 4:34 pm
BIG CORRECTION to above at 4:32 PM.
Should say: “………., but it SHOULDN’T be ANYWHERE in the service.
posted November 1, 2007 at 4:26 pm
i’m a veteran of the first gulf war, and i can say from personal experience that many in the military make things difficult for ANY non christian, not just atheists. i can’t recall how many times i was called a satanist just because i did not hold beliefs in any supernatural beings. i was stationed with a muslim (i’m sure he thanks his god he got out before 9/11!) that was constantly harassed because of his beliefs. these radical theists must be stopped, it is they who are ruining this country.
posted November 1, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I served in the Army as a medic. I served one tour in Iraqi Freedom before I got out. I came to my realization of atheism while I was in the Army. Like many of you I kept it a secret, at first. Then I found it to be a source of pride. I even attempted to get it put on my dog tags, but I eventually gave up. It seems that no one can spell it right, for some strange reason. Ok, well I just wanted to share that with everyone.
Also, I really like this “Foxhole Atheist” thing. I used to hate hearing people say that.
posted November 3, 2007 at 8:43 am
One step back closer to the dark ages, again.
posted November 3, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I am happy that the Christians responding do not support the persecution of others. Many seem surprised. When I see responses like this I wonder have you ever read the Bible? Haven’t you ever met an atheist hating wants gays and liberals dead looking forward to Armageddon wants abortionists dead all science teachers and TV news people are liberals FUNDIMENTAL BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD Christians? They are all over around here.
Some Bible:
Like the Tailiban
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)
Cursed be he who does the Lords work remissly, cursed he who holds back his sword from blood. (Jeremiah 48:10 NAB)
As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?” (1 Cor. 14:33b-36 NIV).
These are just a few. Christians scare me for the same reason Muslims scare me. Many Christians want Armageddon to happen because it will follow the return of Jesus.
http://www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com/
http://www.evilbible.com/
posted November 3, 2007 at 8:04 pm
As a member of the military I have encountered individuals “surprised” to know that there are Atheists in the military. I’ve encountered a few of the “there are no atheists in foxhole” comments, to which I promptly reply “thats because we are the ones outside of it doing the fighting.” I don’t ever going looking for confrontations or discussions about the subject, although they generally arise because someone sees the fact that I have ATHEIST proudly stamped into my dog tags.
Let me point out that the next statements are not meant to be disrespectful, but are overall my personal experience. Due to the type of job that I have, I work joint service often. With that said, I find that most of the bigotry and ignorance comes from our Army brethren. I can only assume it’s because of the following reasons: that they have lower recruiting standards, leadership not enforcing the standards, or not enough training on what the policies are. DOD policy makes it very clear what the guidelines are, so all the services should have the same rules for the most part. I know that my branch makes it very clear that intolerance of any kind will be quickly dealt with.
With that said the Army assigning guards to people is unacceptable. The real solution is to identify the individuals that have the religious tolerance problem and deal with their issues on a case by case basis.
posted November 4, 2007 at 5:48 am
The military reflects the society it comes from, in America’s case, violent and obesessively religious. I was in the British army for some years and such behaviour came nowhere near the surface anywhere. I met many Christians and many did try to evangelize their comrades but they were generally just good-humorously ignored, depending on how they tried to evangelize. The average British soldier didn’t know what they were talking about, especially the English ones. Being the nation it is, the British tend to be relatively low-key even when fervent.
posted November 8, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I wouldn’t be suprised that there are some christian fanatics in the military. Here we are in the middle east and they think they’re the knights templar in the crusades. When it comes down to it, it seems atheists have more tolerance then christians. I don’t think Jesus would be a christian. But is anyone really suprised with religious fervor in the military? “The LORD is a man of war, the LORD is his name.” Exodus 15.3
Many of my friends in the military are atheists. Actually all of them that I know of. I was going to be a marine my senior year in high school. Met with my recruiter and took the preliminary tests. Sadly no branch will accept me due to past history and medical issues. If I was in the military i’d proudly display ATHEIST on my dogtags. I’d risk being ostracized, because by serving you’re also fighting for your own rights and own freedoms, not just others. If people are afraid to express their freedom, are they really free?
posted December 31, 2007 at 3:19 am
My brother was in the Marines from 1958-1962 and said there was not ant attempt to force religion on them as there is today. He was an atheist as I am. Our mother taught Methodist “Sunday School”. I was the one who led in studying the Bible and at 65 now still have my fo9ur large notebooks of notes. We reject it as obvious myth and many entirely unbelieveable and highly offensive “morals” plus very numerous stories that were written by a very uninformed ancient culture compared with the knowledge we have able to acquire in the last 300 years with Christianity holding knowledge back through its comstant intial opposition. Freethinkers over centuries have informed the Christians to where they gradually even came out opposed to slavery in opposition to what the Bible clearly supports. Rationalism brought “liberal” approaches top Christianity, but we have a lot learn. The most recent polls show close to 8% or 29 million American claim “no religion’ in scientific based polls. When I consider that people have to struggle to learn in a culture that has not been very open or fair in allowing unbelievers to have access to radio, tv, or newspapers. Instead constant discrimination. Thank You!