The United States Marine Corps Officially Declares 'Lack of Spiritual Faith' a Sign of Instability

[Rob H.]

Excerpt follows. Full article is here.

...Several days ago it was brought to our attention at MRFF that the United States Marine Corps (USMC) maintains in its doctrine that a "Lack or loss of spiritual faith" is just cause to increase scrutiny of any given Marine. This clause is present in at least two USMC publications, including Marine Corps Base Quantico's Headquarters and Service Battalion Order 5100.29 and Training and Education Command Order 5100.1.

"Lack or loss of spiritual faith" is included as a "Guidance/moral compass issue" in both of these documents under a list of risk indicators for use by "leaders at all levels" to "identify and address risky behavior or events that may lead to risky behavior, as soon as possible." This apparent character flaw is juxtaposed with such things as "lack of courage," "history of psychiatric hospitalizations," "past or current substance abuse history," and being "anti-social." In the simplest terms, it is the current official position of the United States Marine Corps that those who do not profess a religious belief or choose to leave their religion are to be considered a potential hazard to themselves and the Corps and be placed under greater scrutiny than their peers.

The documents go on to include directives on how to convene a "Force Preservation Council" with the mission to evaluate and assist Marines that are identified as high risk through the checklist of undesirable traits (such as lack of religion).

...

In the same manner we dealt with the Army's Spiritual Fitness Training, the insistence by chaplains that non-believers make inferior warriors, and the never ending message of hate leveraged by certain seditious officers, MRFF will not stand down until our Marines are free to serve without having their reliability brought into question through unconstitutional policies of religious testing.

So believing there's an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do (especially when you're naked) is perfectly normal, but not believing that is a sign of mental and emotional instability?

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Unconstitutional

Are they defending our way of life or trying to destroy it?

[AtheistCrusader]

2. loooooool

"Spiritual fitness may be an area of difficulty... You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and to others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your beliefs, principles and values...Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal.""


Because unquestioning faith in your beliefs, principles, and values never ever backfires...
You're damn skippy I question my beliefs, principles, and values all the time, every day. It's how I find weaknesses and better myself.

Edit: I have to say, I'm severely disappointed in Cornum. I have stood up, time and again, for equal opportunity for women in the military, without question, and in fact, used her as a practical example why. Very disappointing she won't stand up for another (a-religious) minority, in a slightly different context.

[pscot]

3. I officially declare joining the Marines

is a sign of instability.

[rexcat]

5. That has been know for some time!

When I was in the service we avoided anyone in a Marine uniform. We never felt safe around Marines. They had a tendency to want to fight anyone in a military uniform that was not a Marine uniform and then that was a crapshoot.

[LostOne4Ever]

4. As usual

I see the right wing theocrats have no issue with trying to insult us or homosexuals, but act as if THEY are the persecuted party for calling them out on it.

Then they are advocating pushing us out of planes without parachutes in the comments section of the non-believers story. Ah, Right wing Christian love and morality. Its like all the postings on God on Facebooks page where they want him to burn in hell for making jokes.

Yes standing up for yourself or trying to make people laugh is totally worth being killed over or suffering eternal torment.

Fundies...reaffirming my belief that Conservative Christianity is a load of shit each and every day.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. Jesus Fucking Christ.

Instable? A threat to myself? Lack of courage? Psychotic? Anti-social?

And I always considered myself to be rather normal. Who knew.

This sort of thing is what makes me more militant than I ever thought that I would be about this issue. I have long thought that belief in a god was an emotional problem. Now, I think it is getting to the point of psychosis.

[defacto7]

7. I suppose you could look at it this way,

If you can't believe without question in a supernatural being that has been fed to you by a group of spiritual superiors, how could you be trusted to act without hesitation upon every command fed to you by a superior authority without question?

I would imagine the religious absolutist would make a soldier of unquestioning faith --> in their superior officer.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. I think you've gotten to the heart of it.

[sammythecat]

13. You got it

They don't want conflicted Marines. They want Marines eager to obey orders with full confidence everything they do is worthy and right. If you kill, they needed that. If you die at 21, well, you get to go to heaven. It all works so nicely if you just don't think too much.

[Zoeisright]

9. That's disgusting.

Those who hear voices in their head are the unstable people.

[sakabatou]

10. Dafuq?

[onager]

11. Thanks! I was in the Corps for 6 years...

...and never heard of this BS. Of course, I was in many years ago, so this may be a newer policy.

I certainly knew plenty of Marines who had undergone a "loss of faith." They were Vietnam combat veterans who couldn't square what they saw over there with all the "loving omnipotent god" stuff they had been raised to believe. As I remember, the Corps didn't want to talk too much about that variety of faith-losing.

When I was a Drill Instructor, we used to discourage chapel attendance on Sunday morning. Boot camp is high-intensity and run on a very strict schedule, and the recruits always had more important things to do, in our opinion.

Unfortunately, we were a victim of our own success. One of the Resident Magicians (i.e., chaplains) noticed the drop in attendance. We soon got an order to make sure at least 50% of each platoon was in church every week.

[Fearless]

12. It is a lack of instability

... In their ability to control how you think and what you do. An atheist is able to look at things more rationally and see scientific and logical truth. The Marines Corps don't really want thinkers. They want followers.