Army to EO Reps: “Discrimination Against Atheists OK”

[AJ9000]

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=25659

snip

"It was bad enough when Army chaplains and leaders like Chief of the National Guard Bureau Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum were disparaging atheists in the press. It was bad enough when my formal EO complaint was thrown away by the National Guard Bureau EO office. It was bad enough when the Department of the Army Inspector General’s office refused to follow regulations and send me a written response to my formal EO complaint. It was bad enough when I had to file for documents pertaining to my complaint under the Freedom of Information Act to discover its disposition. It was bad enough when those documents revealed that, despite the unlawful discrimination that had occurred according to Army Regulation 600-20, the Army concluded that “Lt. Gen. Blum’s remarks, though perhaps insensitive, did not rise to the level of an offense”.

Now the Army National Guard is telling its unit level Equal Opportunity representatives that it is OK to discriminate against atheists. They are using my formal EO complaint as a training scenario in which a Lieutenant files a formal EO complaint against a general officer for claiming that there are no atheists in foxholes. The Sergeant Major who conducted the EO training for Ohio’s unit level EO reps told them that “since atheism is not a religion, atheists are not protected by the regulation and it is acceptable for officers and chaplains to disparage their own soldiers”. This is, of course, a fallacy. To discriminate against a soldier because he has no religion is still discrimination on the basis of religion. The Army’s position on this is like saying that discriminating against someone because they are black is illegal, but discriminating against someone because they are “not white” is fine."

[trotsky]

1. That Sergeant Major should talk to a few select DUers.

They'll tell him how atheism is a "belief system" complete with "faith" and everything!

[RebelOne]

4. Atheism is a "non-belief" with no faith.

[cosmik debris]

2. Been there, done that.

And I learned that anyone with 5 years to waste and $100,000 to $150,000 can overturn this injustice. That is the price of religious freedom in a free country. :sarcasm:

[Evoman]

3. Yeah, I remember you telling that story.

Religions sucks ass.

[heidler1]

5. My brother was an Atheist and spent time in a fox hole. He never weakened.

He was 92 when he died and the priest who did the service (not in church) admitted to his views on gods. His wife and kids are all believers, but he still never weakened. His Daughter who was his favorite tried to convince me that he was autistic and I totally disagreed in our emails so she quit writing to me. I'm sure there was some of that crap while he lived. I saw this as a way to get around his view with no blame on his part. I'm sure his view on that would be one more reason to not believe this nonsense. And he still did not weaken.