Yes! to a NON-RELIGIOUS Military

On December 13, 2006, Salon.com's headline article was about the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The MRFF seeks to enforce the all the regulations that expressly forbid military members from endorsing any political, religious, or business interest as representatives of military or government. This organization was founded by a retired Air Force Jag Officer, Michael L. Weinstein after one of this son's was harassed by evangelicals students and officers at the Air Force Academy in 2005. The Weinsteins are Jewish, but the foundation cites that the majority of military personnel seeking assistance are Christians. http://www.mrff.org/

The reasoning behinds these military rules and regulations is sound. Our armed forces are to serve and protect all Americans, not just those of a particular belief structure. This goes back to the the sharp division of church and state mandated by the nation's founders. The use of authority or official representation to assert religion is inappropriate, degrades the order and discipline of the force, and is in violation of the uniform code of military justice.

Additionally, the military mandates an equal opportunity and harassment-free environment for all its members and, has at least with respect to race, succeeded. The interjection of evangelism into the workplace is an infringement of a First Amendment Right to exercise ones right of religion.

This is not to say that Evangelical Christians cannot be members of the armed forces. The issue is that they are infringing on other people's right to be in the military and not be Evangelical Christians. It has been reported that rank and taxpayer funds are being used to proselytize or pressure subordinates to convert by among other things, conditioning promotions on conversions and or being evangelical, seeking to exclude non-evangelical others from activities because of their faith, and to top it all, prevent others from doing the same thing they are doing. If it is wrong for them to do it, it is wrong for all.

To quote Capt. John Smith "It's about the insidious and pernicious social pressure to adopt a particular religion-- in this case, evangelical Christianity. It's pretty common knowledge that if you want your career to advance inside the Air Force, you have to at least pretend to adhere to these beliefs. So, in a sense, Evangelical Christianity becomes the unofficial official religion of the armed services. That goes well past simply "praying." It's religious coercion, and it's evil, and, oh yeah, un-American."

This is yet another step toward a theocracy. While a theocracy can be considered a wonderful thing as long as it's your clergy that control the authorities including the police and the judicial branch. It is also very helpful if you are on good terms with those in power in such regimes. If not, bad things happened to you and yours. Just ask anyone that had had the misfortune to live under one such as a moderate Irani or Afghani.