Group: Protect military’s nonbelievers

[unhappycamper]

Group: Protect military’s nonbelievers
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 14, 2008 14:49:26 EST

President-elect Barack Obama is being urged to provide freedom from religion for service members who claim no religious faith.

The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers and the Secular Coalition for America have sent a joint letter to Obama asking him to prevent religious discrimination against the 21 percent of service members who have no religious affiliation.

“What we are asking is that nontheistic service personnel be extended the same institutional protections and support that traditional faith groups enjoy,” said Jason Torphy, president of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

To do that, Torphy said a new military directive should be issued that “explicitly” identifies nonbelievers as a protected class of personnel.

In a letter sent Nov. 10, the two groups ask Obama “to consider the documented problems of religious discrimination in our military that you will inherit from the Bush administration.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_religion_nonbelievers_111408w/%2e