As an atheist in America, there are a lot of religious ideas my country communicates that I disagree with. Ideally, the constitutional separation of church and state should make this a non-issue, but in a similar fashion to Iggy Pop not being recognized as the true king of rock and roll, there is often a large disparity between what should be, and what is. How this impacts us at home is important, but what fascinates me more is how religion in America informs the perception of our nation abroad.
The image America projects is not nearly as God-centric as it used to be in the days when the government worked tirelessly to differentiate us from the “godless communists”, and with such recent developments as President Obama declaring that America is “not a christian nation” to the world, our image is continuing to shift in the right direction. There are still several aspects of our country though that falsely perpetuate the notion of our rights and freedoms as being the effect, not the cause, of religious practice in America. The facet of this I will explore here is religion in the U.S. military.
It would be naive to say that there is no religious pressure put on young men and women serving in the military. Several of us working on the blog and podcast are no strangers to the presence of religion in the armed forces and can attest to it personally. Assertions that there is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole (there is actually) help to make religion, rather than freedom from it, the social norm.
I remember my first day at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot where we were stripped of everything that made us individuals and given new clothes, titles, routines, and a shiny new pocket sized bible and a rosary for any catholics. This didn’t irk me significantly. It’s not as if anyone had much down time to ever read it. On Sundays we were offered to go to one of several different religious services offered for recruits. These are enticing to recruits both religious and otherwise as a means to escape the drill instructors for an hour.
In the fleet, religion is still always present. Each unit at the battalion level has a commissioned officer who is ordained in a religious faith serving as the unit chaplain. In the entire four years I served, only twice did I see one of these that wasn’t a Christian (one Jewish and one Muslim). Besides counseling services that would be much better handled by a mental health professional, performing religious services, and the occasional charity function, they serve little practical purpose.
This does have several unintended consequences as well ranging from indirect discrimination against atheists in the military to emboldening hostile forces who perceive conflicts with America as being religious in nature. The image of the American Crusader (a term invoked both by Bush and Bin Laden) has damaged relations with other nations and emboldened our enemies.
What do you think? Do you perceive the US military as having an overly religious element? What do you think should be done about this?
Loading ...
4 comments
anderson says:
November 17, 2009 at 10:02 pm (UTC -8)
I agree 100% with you. I was also in the Marine Corps. Growing up I was always agnostic simply because i thought i was too young to know enough about eternity. While I was in the Marines I actually had a “revelation” and decided to try out religion. I had no clue why. I am now a through and through atheist and look back at my little journey into christianity with amusement. After reading your article I wonder if all of the religion and especially christianity that I was bombarded with had anything to do with my momentary conversion. Looking back I remember thinking, “why not?” and it seemed as if it felt right. of course it felt “right”, in the military you are different if you are not christian.
Lord scarab says:
November 18, 2009 at 12:41 am (UTC -8)
Whoo! I was wondering when a new article would be posted.
As an Australian I have to say in the popular media there is little to no mention of religious elements in the American military ATM. But that says nothing about where it counts like say Afghanistan or Iraq, and you know the nutty elements who hate all westerners are going to play it up no matter what
Bammy says:
November 18, 2009 at 7:43 pm (UTC -8)
Yeah Mr. Pop really is the king of rock and roll.
Mark says:
November 20, 2009 at 1:35 pm (UTC -8)
Here in Germany, America is considered religious and values-conservative (or divided on that issue), but there is never any talk of religion in the U.S. military. I didn’t see any of the “scandals” on the German news – the Air Force Academy thing, the baptism issue in Kuwait or wherever it was. The German media is quick to blame the U.S. for some things, and does do some hostile reporting not only about foreign policy, but also about culture. This issue is not on their list, however.