The story of Army Spc. Jeremy Hall is a particularly frightening one. While most Kossacks are aware of the Christian Extremist views of Erik Prince, the head of Blackwater, many may not be aware of the apparent pressure average U.S. soldiers receive to be Christians. Those members of our society who value religious freedom and tolerance should be particularly interested in how those soldiers who are not Christian are being threatened and maligned. We send our soldiers into combat to defend the Ideals of our country, one of which is religious freedom. To have those soldiers serving abroad subjected to death threats and devastating profession consequences if they are not Christian is simply not acceptable. Jeremy Hall is one of those soldiers.
The story of Jeremy Hall exploded onto the national scene with his landmark lawsuit, filed on Constitution Day, September 17, 2007 US District Court in Kansas City against Major Freddy Welborn and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Hall who has served two combat tours in Iraq, cites multiple instances of discrimination in his lawsuit. As quoted from the Plantiffs brief,
On July 31, 2007, plaintiff Hall attempted to conduct and participate in a meeting of individuals who consider themselves atheists, freethinkers, or adherents to non-Christian religions. With permission from an army chaplain, plaintiff Hall posted flyers around COB Speicher announcing the meeting. The meeting attendees included plaintiff Hall, other military personnel and nonmilitary personnel.
During the course of the meeting, defendant Welborn confronted the attendees, disrupted the meeting and interfered with the plaintiff Hall's and the other attendees' rights to discuss topics of their interests. During the confrontation, and because of plaintiff's actions in organizing the meeting, defendant Welborn threatened plaintiff Hall with an action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and further threatened to prevent plaintiff Hall's reenlistment in the United States Army.
The suit recalls an additional incident that occurred Thanksgiving 2006 while stationed outside Tikrit. Hall was invited to, and subsequently declined to, join in on a prayer before the meal. A senior ranking NCO staff sergeant enquired why Hall had declined. Upon learning of his Atheism, the staff sergeant became irate and demanded that Hall eat at a different table. Hall refused and finished his meal.
While these two incidents are disconcerting they could, in theory, be attributed to only two overzealous superiors. What cannot be explained away are the consequences that have followed Spc. Hall subsequent to his suit. Jeremy Hall has become the target for not only severe harassment but also threats of death. These threats were made on several civilian and military blogs and involved the idea of "fragging" Hall. "fragging" is a term used to describe deaths by friendly fire. Essentially, advocating his murder under the guise of an accident in combat.
Things degraded to the point where Hall was removed from Iraq and stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas because the Army could not ensure his safety even with a full-time body guard. Hall is currently awaiting resolution of his suit.
Jeremy Hall is not alone in his treatment at the hands of soldiers, intent on maintaining or creating a properly Christian military. The organization supporting Hall in his suit is the Military Religious freedom Foundation (MRFF). Mikey Weinstein is the founder of MRFF and a former Air Force judge advocate general who also served in the Reagan administration. Weinstein is on record claiming to have collected nearly 8,000 complaints, mostly from Christian members of the military tired of being force-fed a narrow brand of evangelical fundamentalism.
The increase in Extremist Christian presence in the military was documented by the NYT in July of 2005. The Times focused on the transition of the Air Force Chaplain core from certain denominations to others. Most notably this reduction was in the liberal faiths who have many issues with the military. These factors include the general shortage of Catholic priests in America, the liberal denominations' discomfort with military interventions abroad. This is stark contrast to the high support for the military coming from the evangelical faiths.
The change in the faiths represented in the chaplain core has also created a shift in the style of ministry. While the chaplains take an oath to minister to people of all faiths many apparently refuse to compromise their faith. This has a large impact especially when the evangelical style of ministry might not best serve the needs of every faith.
Evangelicals administer "Bible-centered care" in which "the notion is that the religious message is core, and you bring everybody to it and that's how you create healing," Ms. Leslie said. If someone is struggling with a supervisor, a spouse or depression, an evangelical chaplain urges them to turn their life over to Christ and look for answers in the Scriptures, she said.
That is fine for a church setting, Ms. Leslie said, but what is required in a diverse religious environment like the military is the "pastoral care" approach: "You walk with the person in the midst of their brokenness, using the resources of their faith to help heal them."
Not all news regarding religion in the military is bleak though. The dangers of religious politics are being felt by some of those same evangelicals who stick to using their own faiths for situations when the faith of the particular soldier should apply.
In the Navy some evangelical chaplains say they are the ones discriminated against. Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, of the Evangelical Episcopal Church, says he was warned by commanders that his approach to the ministry was not inclusive enough. When a Catholic sailor on his ship died, Lieutenant Klingenschmitt said he preached at a memorial service and emphasized that for those who did not accept Jesus, "God's wrath remains upon him."
After that and several other incidents, Lieutenant Klingenschmitt's commanding officer recommended that the Navy not renew his chaplain contract.
Snip...
"There's a pecking order in the Navy chaplain corps," Commander Wilder said, "and at the very top is the Roman Catholics and just below them are the Episcopals and Lutherans. And if you're an evangelical non-liturgical Christian of some type you're down on the bottom."
However, more often the story sounds more like this one from Master Sgt. Kathleen Johnson, 40, a career soldier from north Florida who enlisted in 1985,
"Being an atheist in the military can be isolating and lonely -- this environment is very much about `God and country,' and patriotism and religion are closely linked in the minds of many," Johnson wrote in a recent e-mail from her current posting in Iraq. "The biggest issue we
(atheists) have with discrimination right now is trying to assert our individual rights to live a religion-free life in the face of fundamentalist Christian commanders who see it as their duty to bring others to their worldview." (http://pewforum.org/news/rss.php?NewsID=14308)
Aside from the Constitutional reasons for reducing a fundamentalist Christian military, there are also pragmatic ones. We have sent our forces into the heart of the Muslim world. Having an army that loves to revel in crusader mythos is not the safest nor smartest idea. We need soldiers who are willing to tolerate and understand the differences between Sunni and Shia. We need to create an environment in the military where the soldiers can eliminate worries that emanate from being an Atheist or Hindu or Muslim etc. Soldiers like Jeremy Hall need to be free to serve their country without fear of being killed by their own because they refused to prey at Thanksgiving. As one soldier put it
Moore said, "There is nothing more frightening than a radical fundamentalist with an assault rifle." (http://pewforum.org/news/rss.php?NewsID=14308)
For more info
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/
http://www.nytimes.com/...
http://www.tampabay.com/...
http://www.wildhunt.org/...
http://pewforum.org/...