Are U.S. troops being force-fed Christianity?

[babylonsister]

Are U.S. troops being force-fed Christianity?
A watchdog group alleges that improper evangelizing is occurring within the ranks.
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 4, 2007 edition


At Speicher base in Iraq, US Army Spec. Jeremy Hall got permission from a chaplain in August to post fliers announcing a meeting for atheists and other nonbelievers. When the group gathered, Specialist Hall alleges, his Army major supervisor disrupted the meeting and threatened to retaliate against him, including blocking his reenlistment in the Army.

Months earlier, Hall charges, he had been publicly berated by a staff sergeant for not agreeing to join in a Thanksgiving Day prayer.

On Sept. 17, the soldier and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) filed suit against Army Maj. Freddy Welborn and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, charging violations of Hall's constitutional rights, including being forced to submit to a religious test to qualify as a soldier.

The MRFF plans more lawsuits in coming weeks, says Michael "Mikey" Weinstein, who founded the military watchdog group in 2005. The aim is "to show there is a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense."

For Mr. Weinstein – a former Air Force judge advocate and assistant counsel in the Reagan White House – more is involved than isolated cases of discrimination. He charges that several incidents in recent years – and more than 5,000 complaints his group has received from active-duty and retired military personnel – point to a growing willingness inside the military to support a particular brand of Christianity and to permit improper evangelizing in the ranks. More than 95 percent of those complaints come from other Christians, he says.

more...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1004/p13s02-lire.html

[IntravenousDemilo]

1. Yes, Christianity is the "C" in C-rations. n/m

[Parche]

2. Krishtuns is the K in K-rations

:rofl: :hi:

[monktonman]

3. Fight a holy war over there

So we dont have to fight one here.

[hfojvt]

4. it's just payback

for all the children who are force-fed atheism in the public schools. :P

[sutz12]

5. "More than 95 percent of those complaints come from other Christians"

That is the most telling statement for me. Maybe some Christians are starting to wake up to the fact that Freedom of Religion means nothing if it does not include Freedom from Religion.

The various Christian sects need to realize that the fundies trying this massive takeover bid have little or no love for fellow "Christians" that don't adhere to their rather narrow and strict ideology. Historically, many of the most vicious religious wars have occured between people who profess the same general religion, but differ in seemingly minor doctrinal ideas. Currently we have the Sunni/Shi'a fight among Muslims, but look back a couple of short centuries and you see how the Catholics and Protestants nearly depoplulated Germany in the 1600's. The Catholic/Protestant split is what kept Ireland in flames for most of the 20th Century.

The idea of turning our military into some kind of Christian Crusaders is abhorrent to me, and I would hope to most rational people.

[damntexdem]

6. No, they're being force fed a vary-narrow Christian evangelism.