Religion

As you might have noticed from the lack of non-book review posts here, I've been quite busy lately. Family was in town for a couple of weeks, plus I've had considerable work and school responsibilities lately, so I've had little time to keep up here.

A highlight tonight will be listening to Bart, better known by his Atheist Camel nom de plume Dromedary Hump, on The Infidel Guy Show this evening. Hump is a fantastic blogger I've mentioned before when I reviewed his unexpected gem of a book The Atheist Camel Chronicles. To listen to Hump on IG this evening at 8pm ET, go here.

Last night was another treat as I tuned into the first presentation from the Darwin Lecture Series. The presenter was the extraordinary history of science professor Everett Mendelsohn, who described The World Before Darwin with wit and excellent insights. I'd just read The Reluctant Mr. Darwin so I had some knowledge of the material, but Mendelsohn's presentation is engaging and enjoyable to absorb. An MP3 recording of the webcast is already available here, and a video copy will be up soon (check the Darwin150 site for more details).

A report on a new Bahamian law which was aimed at stopping marital rape (a law which has not yet been passed) has been making the rounds as outrage grows over the comments made by men cited in the report. Often using the Bible as proof that men cannot rape their own wives, some of the comments are straight out the Stone Age.

Elvis Russell told the Journal that he does not support the bill either because there is no such thing as rape within a marriage.

"Even if a woman says no to her husband it still can't be considered rape because she is his wife. He already paid his dues at the church and she already said 'I do,' so from then on, even if [a man] forces sex on his wife, it isn't rape," he said.

"I disagree with the bill because I disagree that a man can rape his wife. The Bible tells me that a man's body is his wife’s and her body is his. How could he rape her?" asked Ms. Sweeting.

"If a man wants to have sex with his wife he is supposed to [have sex with her] regardless of what the circumstances [are]. I don’t see why he should be charged with raping his own wife, she is never supposed to say no," said Ms. Clarke.

"If I were married and my husband wanted to have sex with me I wouldn't stop him, [because] I'm not supposed to, even if I was tired or feeling sick, I wouldn't tell him no."

There are some rational responses in the article, thankfully, but yet again, the Bible is used as a primary source for institutional evil, in this case belief that a husband cannot rape his wife. Does the Bible provide some people with inspiration for good? No doubt. But it also clearly provides some people with inspiration for evil.

If you look at the map above, you can see the countries which have outlawed marital rape (shaded in pinkish purple). What is striking is just how many places in the world still allow husbands to rape their wives. Many of these nations are undoubtedly religious and use scriptural doctrines to deny that marital rape can even occur. I don't know what China's excuse is, nor why many Eastern European nations have failed to enact laws protecting wives (what's up, Greece?). Regardless, the idea that wives are owned property may not be derived from scriptural sources, but this notion has absolutely been preserved in the literal interpretations of various scriptural passages, leaving millions of women the world over forced to endure marital rape. Welcome back to the Stone Age.

A judge on Wednesday struck down a 2006 state law that required the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to stress "dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the commonwealth." ...

Homeland Security officials have been required for three years to credit "Almighty God" in their official reports and post a plaque with similar language at the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort....

"This is the very reason the Establishment Clause was created: to protect the minority from the oppression of the majority," (Judge Thomas Wingate) wrote. "The commonwealth’s history does not exclude God from the statutes, but it had never permitted the General Assembly to demand that its citizens depend on Almighty God."

State Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville, a Southern Baptist minister, placed the "Almighty God" language into a homeland security bill without much notice.

Riner said Wednesday that he is unhappy with the judge’s ruling. The way he wrote the law, he said, it did not mandate that Kentuckians depend on God for their safety, it simply acknowledged that government without God cannot protect its citizens.

What follows in the blockquote is a statement made by an Army Officer concerning his experiences with religion in the military, which was originally posted on Ed Brayton's blog Dispatches (and I first heard of it from a post by Dave G). We've seen a lot lately about the religously-imposing nature of the modern US Military, from the Air Force imposing Christianity to West Point and the Naval Academy being home to similar problems. What this anonymous officer has to say is not new nor is it unique, but it should raise serious red flags for anyone who believes that freedom of religion has any meaning at all. I want to repost the message in entirity since it is important as a whole and because I believe doing so is consistent with the author's intents.

I am a United States Army Captain. On a spring day at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York several years ago, I took a solemn oath to support and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic as an officer in the United States Army. I took a legally altered oath which omitted the words "So Help Me G-d." When I submitted my first signed copy, with those words neatly crossed out and initialed, I was informed that it was not valid. When threatened with the prospect of not graduating and being refused a Commission, I stood by my refusal to sign the Oath as it read. I could not in good conscience do so because I was deeply disturbed by fusion of religion and military service. I could not reconcile the suspicion that the Oath itself was establishing religion in a way which contradicted the spirit of the Constitution with the intensity of my commitment to defend same. I believed, and still believe, that my personal metaphysical experience of the universe must be separate from my role as a military professional. In the passing years, I have come to the unsettling conclusion that the sentiment in the Oath which so disturbed me is a practical reality in my United States Army.

Based on my alteration of The Oath, you may be tempted to label me "non-religious." I find this odd, because religion has broadly influenced my life and values. I was born into a mixed Jewish and Catholic family. The family I belong to now is mixed Buddhist and Agnostic. I attended Catholic high school where I excelled in my religious studies. I was one of a literal fistful of non-Christian students voluntarily attending a religious institution, and I never once felt pressure to conform. In our mandatory religious classes we studied Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Quaker, Mormon, Jewish, Protestant, Wiccan, and other religions and we were taught that mere "tolerance" was abhorrent and basic "acceptance" was the absolute minimum standard. I learned during my second semester as a Plebe (freshman) at West Point that even lowly tolerance is a privilege not to be bestowed on all Soldiers in the United States Army.

During my second year at the West Point, my Squad Leader for summer training expressed disapproval on numerous occasions with my being Jewish, and, during one mission, he grabbed my MRE (a military meal) as we sat down for lunch and handed me another. He ordered me to eat the pork chop and I reminded him that I refrain from pork for religious reasons. He told me that I could eat the pork or eat nothing. One of his peers, a female Jewish cadet, urged me to obey him and not to make him angry; I declined. The next day, my cadet Platoon Leader presented me with a written counseling statement detailing my signs of "anorexia" and a "troubling" refusal to eat which was detrimental to my health and indicative of "incapacity for leadership." I was filled with righteous indignation. I went through the Cadet and Commissioned Chain of Command and my rebuttal culminated with a conversation with the Active Duty Major in command of the summer training. When I explained the events in detail, he told me that my Cadet Chain of Command was right to be concerned, and spoke words I will never forget: "the Army is not in the business of catering to people like you." Those words have haunted me throughout my career as an Officer. They were the turning point for me--when I finally understood the message several of my leaders had been expressing to me all along: the Army has no place for people like me: dissidents who stray from the unofficially mandated military religion; conservative fundamentalist Christianity.

Throughout my service, I have been inundated by reminders of the tenacity of this "Army Religion". On a regular basis, I am confronted with being forced/coerced to partake in involuntary prayer. At change of command ceremonies, promotions, retirements, banquets, mandatory Officer/NCO call, the list goes on. What do I do when this happens? I see no reason why I should have to bow my head to participate in this involuntary prayer. But if I stand at attention, I am still showing that I am subject to religion in my professional duties. I have discovered that any other movements or fidgeting are viewed as disrespectful to those who wish to pray. Army leaders send the message out that prayer is voluntary, and that Soldiers do not have to participate. As a Platoon Leader serving in Iraq, my Squad Leaders and I were ordered to attend a mission briefing with the Battalion Command Team's security squad. The briefing concluded with a Soldier being ordered to lead the group in prayer. I was disturbed because I knew that there were Soldiers on this team who did not share the specific, sectarian Christian religious beliefs being expressed. I was standing at the edge of the formation, and chose to quietly walk away. I was later counseled by my Commander and informed that the Battalion Command Team had heard of the incident and recommended I be relieved from my duties as Platoon Leader. My Commander explained that, by not bowing my head in blatantly Christian prayer with the others, I was sending a message that I "want my Soldiers to die." These words penetrated my core. What leader can imagine a worse accusation? Who wouldn't doubt herself or himself when confronted with this message? The threat of being relieved was completely overshadowed and, again, I was an outsider, incapable of leadership because I refused this unconstitutional perversion of Christianity synonymous with the Command.Could I not, would I not be an effective combat ready officer/leader/warrior without first very publicly and repeatedly demonstrating my singular loyalty to Jesus Christ? Could I not lead brave military women and men into combat for my country without being an avowed fundamentalist Christian? I stopped practicing my own religion; I disassociated myself from Soldiers who were similarly persecuted; I lost hope.

Who can you talk to about something like this? Certainly not my Chain of Command- my immediate supervisor/rater and senior supervisor/rater had threatened to relieve me. Obviously my counseling statement wouldn't address mandatory prayer, but what did it matter what it said if both my rater and senior rater agreed I was "unfit" and there were no other Officers who I worked with or around? I later contacted the Equal Opportunity Office to make an official anonymous report about the noxious, compulsive Christian, command climate. Shockingly, the NCO I filed the report with wasted no time in contacting my Battalion Commander directly, in complete violation of the privacy regulations and guarantees of protective anonymity attendant to such hyper-sensitive filings. I later became a member of an Installation Inspector General Team and observed firsthand the impotent, incapacity of the IG to affect any meaningful change. The difference between lower enlisted Soldiers and myself is this: they suspect that they have nowhere to turn in order to escape this unbearable religious persecution--in contrast, as an officer, I do not suspect. I know.

Looking back over all my time in the Army and at the United States Military Academy at West Point, I know that there were so many good memories, so many wonderful opportunities, and so many outstanding leaders of character I met along the way. Yet, the time is painfully tainted for me by a long shadow of bitter religious persecution by zealously righteous Christians essentially universally extant throughout the United States Army command structure.What has most surprised me about this struggle is how utterly powerless I am as a Captain- a Command level Officer- to stand up for my rights and for the Constitution and Country I love. I am a great Soldier, a great leader, and a great person, and I am a victim. It is not comfortable to admit one is a victim; I believe that admitting it takes a certain type of personal strength. The first day I met my current military superior/rater, he was playing Christian gospel music in his office while he called me in to talk. Perhaps it was an innocent oversight on his part, or perhaps it is another hint of the sinister nature of the current "Army Religion". There is no safe way to find out. My experiences have shown that the inundation of invitations for fundamentalist Christian prayer and fellowship, "spiritual growth" and "moral development" that target fellow Soldiers tends to thinly mask an undeniable and comprehensive underlying propensity for aggression, hatred, and ambition to subjugate the United States Army to an official religion; fundamentalist Christianity. The result for the American military is a total destruction of esprit de corps, teamwork, morale, good order and discipline. The result for the fundamentalist Islamic enemies we fight is an immeasurable bonanza of emboldenment for their recruitment, propoganda and insurgency efforts to maim and kill our soldiers down range in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was there. I saw it. I lived it. I am still living it.

When Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation describe this catastrophe of fundamentalist Christian usurpation of the command and control of our armed forces as a "national security threat of the gravest magnitude", they are precisely correct. It is injuring and killing our brave military members, specifically. It is desecrating the magnificent Constitution we swore an oath to, generally. And it is destroying our military's solidarity of purpose and ability to accomplish The Mission, completely.

Oy. Literally.

For anyone interested, a couple of links. First, check out the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (and the list from the maaf of actual Atheists in Foxholes, contrary to the incorrect common wisdom). I had the pleasure of meeting and listening to a talk given by former Army Captain Jason Torpy at the 2009 Secular Student Alliance conference a couple weeks ago and I strongly urge supporting this vital group's efforts. Second, join the Freedom From Religion Foundation which, in 1999, erected the Atheists in Foxholes monument in Lake Hypatia, AL. Co-President of FFRF, former evangelical Christian, and author Dan Barker was also at SSACon09, and his group is strongly supporting efforts to remove religious bullying in the military and politics.