Group Alleges U.S. Soldiers Pressured To Adopt Fundamentalist Christianity

Associated Press:

A foundation that has sued the military alleging widespread violations of religious freedom said Tuesday that it has evidence showing that soldiers are pressured to adopt fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

The photos and videos of religious materials and activities are part of a lawsuit filed by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, an atheist, against Maj. Freddy J. Welborn and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Read the whole story: Associated Press

Comments

[madnana]

12:33 PM on 12/20/2007

I have been told by friends of mine who have been in combat that the most important thing they needed to rely on was the loyalty and comradeship of their fellow soldiers. If we permit the kind of proselytizing that divides soldiers into those who believe "correctly" and those who don't, we do terrible damage to the morale and safety of our fighting forces. It is amazing that we display a face to the world of an empire-desiring, materialistic nation and then preach Christianity.
And like the those who burned Jews or Catholics or Protestants or even alleged witches at the stake, we look like fools.

[jay1975]

11:29 AM on 12/20/2007

I have eleven years active Army and am now in the National Guard. I was never once forced or even encouraged to go to church or become a Christian. This Specialist Hall is full of you know what and is probably looking for a way out. Hey, the Army is not for everyone, I know that, but this seems ridiculous. The Army takes the individuals right to choose to practice, or not to practice, their faith seriously. When the Chaplains wish to have a "Prayer Breakfast", they set the times seperate from regualr meal times so that those who do not wish to pray or attend can enjoy their meal without hearing the sermon. My faith is my own and I never once even told my Soldiers what my faith was unless they asked. Further, I have never known the religion of any of my commanders, as I have never asked them, nor do I care. Now Specialist Hall may have had an over zealous commander who was pushing his Soldiers to turn to his faith, if so, it should have been a complaint that should have been brought up the chain of command. Senior Officers tend not to like controversy that will make the news. Hall could have been moved to another company, or if enough Soldiers filed an EO complaint, that Officer would have been relieved of duty. This seems more like show boating rather than using the proper channels of communication that the US Army has established.

[FlaExRepub]

10:59 AM on 12/20/2007

"Military Ministry, part of Campus Crusade for Christ International, teach soldiers that the U.S. military and government are instruments to spread the word of God."

Well, I guess that about sums it up!

[Northlite]

09:43 AM on 12/20/2007

I have discussed this issue with the Romney campaign at great length. Mitt is committed to increasing access to our soldiers on the part of Christian missionaries, but only if Mormon missionaries are included. He will be submitting a bill to increase missionary access to all branches of government. Further, he reinforces my own belief that regular Church attendence is an appropriate criteria for consideration in the promotion of officers and that top officers in particular must be observant Christians.

We are a Christian Nation. No new taxes. Go Mitt!!!!!

[sonofloud]

09:00 AM on 12/20/2007

A friend of mine is in the military and has told me similar stories.
They also blare "Fox News" at top volume 24/7.

[geobushono]

08:46 AM on 12/20/2007

think about the benefits:
you're walkin along and in a microsecond you become 190# of hamburger.......if you are the right kind of christian, you go straight to heaven AND meet jesus THAT DAY.
...and you meet god.
...and you get ANY car or motorcycle you want.
(that one is important, because at 18 yrs old, you probably hadn't had a chance to buy that Camero.)
....moving on,
there's no stopping at 72 virgins....in christian heaven, the number is INFINITE virgins....more is better remember you were an american....you deserve it.

...don't worry about Mary or Suzy, she'll always remember you.

.....and we'll pay you through the end of the payperiod...usually about 2 weeks.

[StillAmused]

06:46 AM on 12/20/2007

Maybe this is a brilliant Pentagon strategy designed to make our troops more effective in dealing with those OTHER religious fundamentalists...

Junior DIDN'T misspeak when he originally called his war crime in Mesopotamia a "crusade".

Are those evangelofascist hallucinations in color? Are they accompanied by a choir of angels?

How much more of this metastasis can America take before we're "pronounced" in the ER?

[MRb1000]

06:11 AM on 12/20/2007

Yeah, there are some fundamental Bigots in the Air Force. Many Black chaplains are leaving the Air Force. The Air Force has changed a lot. Fill the squares and self severing people. No such thing as doing the right thing when no one is looking anymore. All they care about is making rank and they do not care if they have to stab their best friend in the back to get the rank. They took all the power from the Chief. So the Chiefs are spineless. Some of them heads are so far up the commander behind you can see the bottom of their feet. Commander do not care about what is right. They only care about what their boss say is right. Nobody cares about the rules anymore. Well, this is the reflection of the Commander in Chief.

[MajorKong]

09:46 PM on 12/19/2007

I find it disturbing that the chaplain corps has largely been taken over by the evangelicals. The Air Force Academy has been turned into "Rocky Mountain Bible College".

It's definitely not the Air Force I joined in 1984.

[PaxChristi]

09:17 PM on 12/19/2007

*

One cannot carry the Cross and the sword!

[Birdman]

08:26 PM on 12/19/2007

I remember a long while ago at work a born again Christian tried to convince me to go to church, I told him on many occasions that I thought religion was a personal thing and it was none of his bussiness. He used to say I would go to hell etc. Then one day I found out he was living with a woman who was not his wife, so daily I would say to him you are a sinner, and he might e going to hell with me. He finally gave up trying to convert me, christians can be pretty funny especially when they are hipocrits and I have yet to see one that is not in some way.

[Birdman]

08:14 PM on 12/19/2007

Apparently the Military has come a long way well actually have gone back a long way. MMM wait I do not remember the Military ever doing this. Funny thing is I just went through harassment and discrimination training at work, and guess what these are all direct violations of discrimination based on religion. One might say well atheism is not a religion but by definition it is, even being a vegan can be considered a religion based on the legal definition, which states any strongly held beliefs are considered under th ediscrimination on grounds of religion and thsi fits that definition. So they are in violation of discrimination laws based on the fact they are giving preferential treatment to Christians over any other religion.

[Quaoar]

07:30 PM on 12/19/2007

Sounds like they want to make sure that there really are no atheists in foxholes. Or Jews, Muslims, Pagans or Buddhists either.

[GoodwithWood]

07:20 PM on 12/19/2007

This has been going on for years. It has been reported on for year and it has been ignored by the MSM the military and government for years. This one will be thrown out of court just like the last one.
If you think that the military will protect us from the Brownshirt Christians of Blackwater well think again. This country is slowly being taken over by Christian Supremesits. Open your eyes America.
Pat Tilman was an atheist who’s Commanders and most of his fellow soldiers were of this Reich wing religious machine And look what they did to him.

GWW

[GeoLee]

07:06 PM on 12/19/2007

I certainly questioned the evangelistic, conservative influence last August when visited the United States Air Force Academy during parent's weekend. The guide referred to parts of the Academy Protestant Chapel in words that even seemed to discriminate from mainline protestant terms. For example, the use of the word "altar" was changed to some euphemism my evangelical friends told me was common in their churches but as a mainline Priotestant I had never encountered. There were groups of people proselytizing on campus wearing green vests with some pretty fundamentalist wordings on them all over the campus. They were allowed to hand out all kinds of gifts to the students. I am not sure that was necessary or even appropriate at any of our military academies. As a taxpayer, I felt it was inappropriate and that it created a subtle message to all the students as to what was the preferred religious orientation, expecially considering that the year of two before a Jewish student had appealed to his representative when he felt he was being overly pursued to convert. It makes me think that when our future military leaders feel compelled to worship in a particular way or they might not rise in the ranks, we are forming the basis for taliban like military rule. When we visited the other houses of worship at the lower level I learned that the Roman Catholic Chapel was for the Catholics, but that the Jewish synagogue area which had been funded by private groups and built with items from Jerusalem and other parts of Israel was shared with the students of Moslim faith and with students of Eastern Asian religions. it seemed like a defilement of each of theother religions to not provide each with their own space rather than to expect the groups to haul in and haul out their specific religious icons. The major service in the protestant chapel is the evangelical service and the mainliners such as Episocplaians have the early service. How times have changed from the first time I visited the chapel 35 years ago or so.