I've noticed that, of the people I know in person (and not solely on the internet) who share my political views, I'm the only one out of about a dozen who actually pays attention to the news, gets involved, does something about "it", and only a couple others out of that dozen actually vote. I feel that this apathy, this sense that "I can't make a difference", is the single greatest threat that we face to our continued freedoms and liberties in the United States. It is a greater threat then the theocrats, certainly a greater threat then terrorism, and most likely a greater threat then a comet smacking the Earth, which we couldn't do anything about anyway.
I have a discussion group that I sort of moderate on the Air Force camp here. We're a group of 5 assorted Pagans and Wiccans and Druid who have an "informal Earth Religions Discussion Group". The reason it is informal is because we don't have a Distinctive Faith Group Leader approved by a DoD sanctioned approving body and by a chaplain, so we cannot meet for the purposes of having a religious gathering. We also can't advertise our discussion group. However, I don't think any of us really mind that. Well, we all have pretty much the same political views. Namely, we wish Bush hadn't been elected or re-elected, we wish the invasion of Iraq had never happened, and we think that religion should stay the hell out of the government.
But that's as far as the similarities go. The others are completely uninformed about politics, and current events. They have no idea that a Supreme Court justice retired, or what that could mean for the future. They have no idea that another is in line to retire, and it will be Bush who makes the changes. They haven't considered the ramifications of having a court with a majority of Christian activist judges. They don't see the Supreme Court as even being important to their lives. They're not happy that anti-Wiccan and Pagan sentiments have repeatedly been expressed by people in the administration, but they don't worry about it, because what could the government do? They aren't worried about the Academy religion scandal, because we have Constitutional rights, and even in the military they can't take those away, can they?
Well, they can. When you join the military, you simply have a different set of rights. In the civilian world, 5 Pagans who wanted to get together for a ritual would get together for a ritual and that would be it. They could, if they so wished, put signs up saying "Ritual tonight! Bring cakes and ale!", although since rituals are extremely private that is extremely unlikely. However, in the military, they could not have a ritual without having a Distinctive Faith Group Leader. The DFGL would need to have a letter from an approved religious group, for example the Sacred Well Congregation, saying that his views on Wicca are in line with their teachings, and he is okay by them to lead religious gatherings. The DFGL would then need to be approved by the chaplaincy of the base or camp or installation where he is stationed. Sure, it can be done, but the fact that it has to be done shows the difference between what a civilian has, namely Freedom of Religion, and what a servicemember has.
The only rights a servicemember has are those given by regulations and those not expressly taken away by regulations. Those rights also vary by location, branch of service, chain of command, and so on. Marines on Okinawa who are of a certain rank can only purchase bottles of beer, and a limited amount of those, and can't buy any hard liquor. Air Force, Navy, and Army going to the same store can buy a dozen bottles of Jack Daniels if they want. After a very embarrassing incident for the Air Force that happened on Okinawa recently, they instituted a curfew for certain ranks of Air Force personnel, limiting how late they can be off base. Of course, the Marines have had that for some time.
Being in the military means you fall under a completely different legal system, something a lot of people inside the military and out of it do not realize. There are several articles in the Uniform Code of Military Justice that would do not have any civilian counterpart to my knowledge.
Article 83 "Fraudulent enlistment"
Article 84 "Unlawful enlistment"
Article 85 "Desertion"
Article 86 "Absent without leave"
Article 87 "Missing Movement"
Article 88 "Contempt towards officials" (which, along with DoD regulation 1344.10 is the reason PFC Clark is having so much trouble right now a few miles away from me)
Article 89 "Disrespect towards a superior commissioned officer"
Article 90 "Assaulting or willfully disobeying superior commissioned officer"
Article 91 "Insubordinate conduct toward warrant officer, NCO, or petty officer"
Article 92 "Failure to obey order or regulation"
Article 98 "Noncompliance with procedural rules"
Article 115 "Malingering"
Article 133 "Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman".
In the civilian world, you can tell your boss to fuck off and you'll probably be fired. In the military, you could go to jail. In the civilian world, if an instruction manual says "Do step 1, then step 2" and you do step 2 before step 1, you might get fired or break something. In the military, you could go to jail. A military member has different rights then a civilian. The Constitution applies until somebody says it doesn't. Article 88 and DoD 1344.10 take away First Amendment rights from servicemembers in the name of military order. There's a reason for it, but it has happened. As a military servicemember, you agree to that.
The most prevalent example of the military's control over the rights of servicemembers is General Order 1, which applies to all military personnel serving in Iraq and pretty much the rest of the Middle East. It limits the following:
Possession, manufacture, importation, distribution or consumption of alcohol
Introduction, possession, transfer, sale, creation or display of any pornography or sexually explicit material. This includes but is not limited to photos, videotapes, movies, drawings, cartoons, books and magazines. "Sexually explicit" means depiction or description of nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious or lustful way. The exceptions are magazines and videotapes lawfully obtained by AAFES, AFRTS, and the MWR center (like a DVD of "Wild Things")
Adopting mascots caring for or feeding any type of domestic or wild animals
Proselytizing (preaching) or attempting to win converts to any religion, faith, or practice
Now, I do not disagree at all with General Order #1. In fact, I also don't disagree with many of the military restrictions in place on Okinawa. They're well thought out and they've got a reason, and the people making the decision have the authority to do so. I've seen what happens when you get a bunch of drunk military personnel, and I have no desire to add tanks to that equation. I also have no desire to see holy rollers going outside the wire to preach the good news to the Iraqis. Kinda depressed about the porn part, but I do know that without it you'd get a black market set up where servicemembers are selling copies of Playboy to local nationals for ridiculously inflated prices. It's happened before.
No, I bring up General Order 1 to show that the military controls the rights of it's servicemembers. If you're a civilian in the U.S., not only do none of those rules apply to you, the government could never make them apply to you. But in the name of good military order and discipline, they apply to the military. What's my point?
In the name of order and discipline, the military can take away whatever rights it wishes
There is a whole lot of encroachment on religious freedom that goes on, on a day to day basis in the military. Fighting it takes legal action and money and attention. Legal action does you no good when the theocrats have the courts. Money is a big enough problem but not insurmountable. Lack of attention, well, without that you don't have the first two.
Is it unlikely that the military could say personnel are prohibited from being openly Pagan? Yes. Is it impossible? No. Would the theocrats love to see Christians the only soldiers in their military? Hell yes. How would it happen? Dunno. I could put a couple of scenarios out there, but the important thing is to keep it from being a possibility. That happens when people pay attention to politics. Theocrat control over three branches of government makes it a hell of a lot more likely that you'll see a "General Order 2" for "religious practices prejudicial to good order in the military" or something like that. Theocrat control over three branches of the government became possible through that threat I listed above, "apathy". The 2000 and 2004 elections were all so close that it would not have taken a significant percentage in any of a few critical states to swing things the other way, and I'm sure someone can post the exact numbers it would have taken.
The problem of Apathy does not limit itself to the military. I have used the military so far as an example because I'm a member of it and have been for all my adult life, I enlisted when I was 17. The problem of Apathy is that it causes people like my 4 fellow neopagans to not vote or follow politics, because they are quite frankly badly uninformed, and because of it they don't see any difference between Democrat and Republican, they don't see how politics could have any effect on their lives, and they assume that their Constitutional rights are unassailable. Apathy is, in addition to being our greatest enemy, is the greatest ally of the theocrats. It facilitates everything they do. The theocrats have shown that they do not have any problem with apathy, because they're able to rally a fanatical fundamentalist voting and lobbying bloc. By speaking up, by sending the money in, by following the news with an eagle's eye, the theocrats have put themselves in control of the Republican party, and put the Republican party in control of the government. Through not having apathy on their part, but instead having a truly religious fervor to their activities, they have come close to succeeding in achieving their vision for One Nation Under God. I fear that, before we can effectively fight the theocrats, we need to fight the Apathy. The hard part about that is that apathy is a personal decision. People decide not to care, they decide not to follow the news. What we have to do is show to our ideological brothers and sister the importance of voting, the many cases and examples of theocrats wishing to control our country, the times where freedoms and rights have been stepped on, even in the civilian world, because of theocratic control. I've got more then a few contacts in the online porn industry, and porn in America has been taking a hit recently. With the theocrats controlling the FCC, they're going after internet porn, magazines, videos, DVDs, and so forth, on obscenity charges. And many times they're winning. Our rights have been going out the window in this country, and more are poised to leave, and we have to point this out to potential allies, we have to talk to our friends and our coworkers and show them what's been going on, wake them up, open their eyes. At the end of the day, it's up to them whether they want to get involved, but it's up to us to say "Hey, you know, your rights aren't as secure as you think, and here's why."
When we can beat Apathy, we will be on track to ensure our rights don't ever get stolen from under our noses.