An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question:
The ACLU has asked the U.S. Naval Academy to end prayers at mandatory meals, and yet all branches of the service employ chaplains. What is the proper role of religion in the military?
Speaking realistically, patriotism can't be divorced from religion. Every war is fought with God on our side -- on both sides. And the prevailing notion is always that the enemy is godless. The ACLU may prevail legally, on the basis of separating church and state, but psychology works massively against them. Soldiers know that they may die in battle, and the armed forces must create an ethos that protects their psyches from the impending danger of the conflict. Team spirit and protecting your buddy is one aspect of feeling safe. Trusting your weaponry is another. But so is the idea that God approves of your cause and implicitly will take you to Heaven if the worst befalls.
The entanglement of personal duty, troop morale, patriotism, and religion isn't simple. The ACLU's lawsuit will antagonize anyone on the inside -- besides the "us versus them" mentality about the enemy; there is an "us versus them" attitude toward the civilian public. And rightly so. No one on the home front can understand the searing experience of frontline fighting. Since Vietnam, an additional element has entered the situation: the resentment by soldiers that nobody appreciates their sacrifice. "Vietnam vet" has become synonymous with a new kind of forgotten man -- unsung, alienated, often psychologically scarred for life -- and society seems to feel the same way about Iraqi vets. One sympathizes with their plight; it would be inhuman not to.
That said, it is disturbing to know how deeply fundamentalist Christianity has sunk into the ethos of the armed forces. First noticed with alarm at the Air Force Academy, hard-core proselytizing is apparently rampant. Soldiers pray as they go into training exercises as well as into battle. Atheist and Jewish soldiers are ostracized or hit hard with pressure to convert. The simple notion that fighting for your country is the same as fighting for Jesus is endemic. Yet here, too, the solution isn't clear. Weeding out chaplains who encourage right-wing fundamentalism may do some good, but if cadets and enlistees come from the same Christian background, they have rights, too. Even though one may suppose that young men and women barely in their twenties, if that, are too susceptible to peer pressure and religious indoctrination, we consider them mature enough to go to war. Splitting the difference won't work.
In the end, this feels like a minor point of discord. The Army and Navy are adult institutions, not grade schools, and the admission or exclusion of prayer can be handled by each soldier as he or she sees fit. The armed forces should be left to develop their own ethos. Until we have a draft that puts war on a democratic footing and enlists a broad swath of the population, all of us are outsiders who contribute almost nothing to the Iraq war other than a flurry of words. American militarism is a serious problem that needs radical solutions. Pulling God out of the mess hall is beside the point.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/
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Chris Rodda: Soldiers Forced to See Chaplain After Failing Spiritual Fitness Test
If ,Christians, for example, were to actually believe in the teachings of Jesus, to the point of acting on them, the situation would be entirely different.
The malaise of our society has reached a point where "thou shalt not kill" and "love thy neighbor as thyself" and "turn the other cheek", to quote but a few, can be seen as naive, even treasonous, by many of those who claim to "believe" in the Christian teachings.
On a logistical level, if we kept religion and god in the military we definitely need equal time (and holy preachers) for all religions and gods. If we took the many flavors of just our three jewish/christian/muslim religions that could mean a holy preacher per flavor. Then we add the eastern flavors and we could have a huge army of holy preachers (funded by the tax payer). Further, with that many holy preachers who is going to do the slaughtering.
In my opinion, slaughter with or without gods "blessing" is plain old slaughter. If we need gods blessing to slaughter, in my opinion, that is even worse than slaughter.
The US army no longer see religion as a strategy in war. They complicate matters when they become insensative to the religious needs of other ethnic groups.
The first problem, is in buying into the notion that GOD is being removed. That cedes an assumption that the fundamentalist Christian god is THE God.
Everyone who is not a fundamentalist Christian would be subjected to extreme stress. Remember, the fundamentalists' goals are not the military goals; their goal is primarily to gain converts and accumulate power.
The second problem is evangelizing fundamentalists, especially those in positions of power.
Imagine the added stress on every person who isn't a fundamentalist. Imagine the number of gullible, stressed young people who would fall prey to that pernicious cult. Imagine the effect of extremist religious influence on the soldiers' performance. And consider the question of loyalty ... to whom will their allegiances go if there is a perceived difference between the goals of their commanders, their country, and their "religion."
The third problem is the potential for zealotry. Some of the most horrendous atrocities in civilization were performed in the name of fundamentalist religion. Allow that into the military and you have a recipe for excess and extremism. When someone "fights for God," the enemy is "Evil," and people are much less recalcitrant about visiting indignities and atrocities on "Evil" than on other human beings
We do not HAVE to throw out principle and civilized behaviour just because we are at war. But if one is fighting "demons," that is exactly what will happen.
If the armed forces are going to have official religion, perhaps they should be reading Bhagavad Gita, at least the narrative isn't discordant from the so called christian message.
Sinclair Lewis, 70 years ago, said if Fascism came to America its symbols would be the Cross and the Flag. Sure enough, here we are.
It's too much to plan for armored vehicles and personal protective equipment, but there's a chaplain in every trench.
Retro me, Satanis!
Religion then was everyone's personal choice, not something forced upon one. It is, in my opinion, degrading and unAmerican to have someone else's religious beliefs forced down your throat. Those who would do these things should be disciplined, up to and including expulsion from the military, if necessary.
I find it difficult to express the disgust I feel over the practice of pressuring anyone to the point that they would find it acceptable to pretend to be of someone else's religion.
I'm in the military, have been for 22 years. I have to go to mandatory formations where one religion is represented and supported. I have to stand in silence while christians share a benediction. The saddest thing I see at the formations is that everybody except me is bowing their heads for the prayor. I know that many in the formation are Jewish, and a good number are practitioners of other religions and some others are like me, athiest. Yet all are pressured to pay homage to the christian god. No particular belief system should be forced on the members of the military. In fairness, the majorrity of the military is christian. I don't begrudge them their chaplain, I merely wish to be spared their rites and dogma.
With respect,
Mike