ON YET ANOTHER DISCRIMINATION FRONTIER

MILES TO GO

This front-page story titled "Soldier Sues Army, saying his atheism led to threats" in the New York Times today highlights yet again our need to deal with religious discrimination as a nation.  It goes on to tell the story of a U.S. soldier in Iraq, who faced a hostile reaction when refusing to participate in religious ceremonies because of his views on the subject.  It lead to the following state of affairs:

"Last month, Specialist Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, filed suit in federal court in Kansas, alleging that Specialist Hall’s right to be free from state endorsement of religion under the First Amendment had been violated and that he had faced retaliation for his views. In November, he was sent home early from Iraq because of threats from fellow soldiers."

The piece goes on to lay out the broader issue:

"Specialist Hall’s lawsuit is the latest incident to raise questions about the military’s religion guidelines. In 2005, the Air Force issued new regulations in response to complaints from cadets at the Air Force Academy that evangelical Christian officers used their positions to proselytize. In general, the armed forces have regulations, Ms. Lainez said, that respect “the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs.”

To Specialist Hall and other critics of the military, the guidelines have done little to change a culture they say tilts heavily toward evangelical Christianity. Controversies have continued to flare, largely over tactics used by evangelicals to promote their faith.

Perhaps the most high-profile incident involved seven officers, including four generals, who appeared, in uniform and in violation of military regulations, in a 2006 fund-raising video for the Christian Embassy, an evangelical Bible study group.

“They don’t trust you because they think you are unreliable and might break, since you don’t have God to rely on,” Specialist Hall said of those who proselytize in the military. “The message is, ‘It’s a Christian nation, and you need to recognize that.’ ”

This historic election season has brought us face to face with the underlying biases that many feel against Presidential candidates on gender or racial grounds. 

Many of us thought we were long past the issues of gender and race as a nation, but now realize that we still have a long way to go.

The issue of religious discrimination is another frontier we need to start thinking about and discussing a lot more as a country with Religious Freedom has one of it's founding principles.

And yet, deep down, we may have barely started on the issue of religious discrimination.

We may yet see a time in American history, possibly within our lifetimes, when an openly atheist and/or agnostic Presidential candidate becomes a serious contender for the highest office in the land. 

It will put us to the ultimate test of really living up to a Constitution we all hold so dear, with or without a Flag pin on our lapels.

Comments

[Carmen]

You're right Michel.

There's an organization dedicated to maintaining pluralism and ferreting out religious intimidation. It is called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Check it out at www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org