Christian Flag Folding Ceremony Reveals Official Sanction of Church-State Violations in the Military

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http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/2/8/22257/63244/Front_Page/Christian_Flag_Folding_Ceremony_Reveals_Official_Sanction_of_Church_State_Violations_in_the_Military


When American soldiers come forward with tales of divisive evangelism run amuck in the military--for example, proselytizing by commanding officers, coerced attendance at revival meetings, distribution of Bibles to Afghanis or Jesus coins to Iraqis-- one problem they face is that people find the stories too outrageous to be credible. A combat soldier being forced to pick hairs out of a latrine because he wouldn't pray? Another being told he's responsible if any of his buddies die? An Iraqi child post-IED given a tract that shows dead Iraqis going to hell and Americans (aka Christians) going to heaven? Some folks have accused the Military Religious Freedom Foundation of making this stuff up. Military officials insist that each event was the isolated actions of individual soldiers and lacked official sanction.

One recent scandal left little room for such framing. Soldiers flooded the MRFF (pronounced murf) with complaints about an obligatory "spiritual fitness test" on which freethinkers got docked points for their lack of religion, and some got referred to mandatory counseling -with chaplains. Two hundred twenty six have signed onto a lawsuit to block the test, which is required annually for active duty soldiers both at home and on tours of duty.

-snip describing what the 11 folds of the flag mean christian wise - which will make you want to throw up-

Soldiers who call themselves "foxhole atheists" have had enough. In response to the Spiritual Fitness controversy and an equally controversial series of evangelistic revival meetings on military bases, they've decided to organize--in a characteristically millennial sort of way. Leaving the heavy lifting (and litigation about constitutional violations) to MRFF, they aim to focus on social networking. A network called Military Atheists and Secular Humanists -you got it--M*A*S*H has chapters sprouting up on bases across the country. Sgt. Justin Griffith at Fort Bragg, is spearheading a secular tent revival, called Rock Beyond Belief on the base parade grounds for an unspecified weekend in March or April, the same grounds where an Evangelical revival happened last September. He has enthusiastic commitments from a long line of freethought celebrities including biologist Richard Dawkins, Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Jen McCreight (Blaghag, Boobquake); Eugenie Scott (National Center for Science Education), and Hemant Mehta, who sold his soul on Ebay. (It was bought by Seattle minister, Jim Henderson for $504, and the two wrote a book together about what they subsequently learned from their encounter.)

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glad to see the foxhole atheists fighting back - more power to them

[LiberalFighter]

1. Good for them.

They probably need to expand their responses. Like if they use religion in any activity they should say "god is evil" or something like that.