Christian Flag Folding Ceremony Reveals Official Sanction of Church-State Violations in the Military

[Joanne98]

When American soldiers come forward with tales of divisive evangelism run amuck in the military--for example, proselytizing by commanding officers, coerced attendance at revival meetings, distribution of Bibles to Afghanis or Jesus coins to Iraqis-- one problem they face is that people find the stories too outrageous to be credible. A combat soldier being forced to pick hairs out of a latrine because he wouldn't pray? Another being told he's responsible if any of his buddies die? An Iraqi child post-IED given a tract that shows dead Iraqis going to hell and Americans (aka Christians) going to heaven? Some folks have accused the Military Religious Freedom Foundation of making this stuff up. Military officials insist that each event was the isolated actions of individual soldiers and lacked official sanction.

One recent scandal left little room for such framing. Soldiers flooded the MRFF (pronounced murf) with complaints about an obligatory "spiritual fitness test" on which freethinkers got docked points for their lack of religion, and some got referred to mandatory counseling -with chaplains. Two hundred twenty six have signed onto a lawsuit to block the test, which is required annually for active duty soldiers both at home and on tours of duty.

The military has gone to great lengths to insist that spiritual fitness is not a religious concept. Intermixed with images of bowed heads and identifiable Christian symbols is a repeated emphasis on spirit as a secular term, as in "team spirit." In fact, one of the spiritual rituals that appears repeatedly in the training materials is a time honored military haircut, which appears repeatedly in more or less iconic form in the spiritual training materials.

And even if it is about religion, the powers that be included a few Buddhist meditation poses and references to Judaism to provide an interfaith veneer to the project.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/2/8/22257/63244/Front_Page/Christian_Flag_Folding_Ceremony_Reveals_Official_Sanction_of_Church_State_Violations_in_the_Military

Pictures at link

[Enthusiast]

1. This is what anti-Americanism looks like.

Forcing religion on others, especially those in the military, goes against the very spirit of the constitution.

[crim son]

2. This is very interesting! n/t

[madrchsod]

3. i find nothing in these rituals that has anything to do with christ`s message

[amyrose2712]

4. K&R nt

[glinda]

5. This stuff needs to be ripped out of our Military and people need to be held accountable.