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It seems that some of these smart-aleck monkey worshiping atheists who join the U.S. CHRISTIAN Military are starting to wake up and smell the burning brimstone. THIS secular story reveals how terrified they are of turning their backs on Jesus.
Honestly, what is the point of being in the military if you reject Jesus?
Atheists: "Do Troops Have Our Backs?"
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."
"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.
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."
"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.
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