The trouble started there when he would not pray in the mess hall

[NNN0LHI]

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hj_WduJSd-7xIcenAGMSPeoCsImQ

US military accused of harboring fundamentalism

1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Since his last combat deployment in Iraq, Jeremy Hall has had a rough time, getting shoved and threatened by his fellow soldiers. The trouble started there when he would not pray in the mess hall.

"A senior ranking staff sergeant told me to leave and sit somewhere else because I refused to pray," Hall, a 23-year-old US army specialist, told AFP.

Later, Hall was confronted by a major for holding an authorized meeting of "atheists and freethinkers" on his base. The officer threatened to discipline him and block his re-enlistment.

"He said: 'You guys are being a problem and problems can be removed,'" Hall said. "He was yelling at us and stuff and at the very end he says, 'I really love you guys, I want you to see the light.'"

Now Hall is suing the major and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, accusing them of breaching his constitutional rights. A campaign group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is waiting for the Pentagon to respond to a lawsuit filed in a Kansas federal court on Hall's behalf.

It alleges a "pernicious pattern and practice" of infringement of religious liberties in the military.

The group's founder, former Air Force lawyer Mikey Weinstein, said he has documented 6,800 testimonies by military personnel -- nearly all of them Christians -- of sometimes punitive or humiliating attempts to make them accept a fundamentalist evangelical interpretation of Christianity.

[Dhalgren]

1. Ain't America great! We have so jumped the shark. As I read

on here yesterday (to paraphrase): fork.us.done.

I also like, "Where are we going, and why are we in this hand basket?"

The late, great USA...it was good while it lasted...

[WinkyDink]

3. I lived through the Beatles and American Democracy! Cool beans!

What a time it was.

[hobbit709]

2. If they tried that with me, there'd be trouble with a capital T

[Stuckinthebush]

4. Onward Christian soldiers

...marching as to war....

[Bandit]

6. I wanta kill ~ I wanta kill ~ I wanta kill ~ I believes in Jesus

Hallelujah....

[0007]

13. ........and if you don't pray now, you'll pay while being water-boarded

Love to see this schmuck water-boarded.

[alfredo]

5. This has been going on for a long time. I was punished for refusing

to go to chapel on Sunday. I had to crawl on my belly from one end of the company to the other while the rest were at chapel. Half of that distance I had to crawl was large gravel that left my knees and elbows bleeding. This was in 1965.

[tbyg52]

10. Less harsh, but same general thing in 1975

You could go to church or clean the barracks. Your choice....

[alfredo]

12. The green weenie.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Truly amazing how our country was transformed and everything

that once made sense was denounced by this administration's cronies. And we're not better for any of it, are we?

[ThomCat]

8. Our country is everything we hate in other countries.

:(

[AnneD]

9. That is the same problem they have ....

in Pakistan. Too much religious fundamentalism puts a whole new spin on a mission.

[Ernesto]

11. Pretty much, the same shit happened to me.....

Because my dog tag had "no preference" stamped on it instead of a the name of a religion.