First up from the God machine this week is an update on a report from February on the uncomfortable intersection of religion and the U.S. military. One soldier who is not religious has faced considerable pressure from those who are.
When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending.
But minutes into the talk, the officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, began to berate Specialist Hall and another soldier about atheism, Specialist Hall wrote in a sworn statement. “People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!” Major Welborn said, according to the statement.
Major Welborn told the soldiers he might bar them from re-enlistment and bring charges against them, according to the statement.
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.
Hall’s experience is not at all unusual. Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force lawyer who created the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has documented about 6,000 incidents like these.
As the NYT noted, “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.”
Maybe now would be a good time for the Pentagon to revisit its religion guidelines?
Also from the God Machine this week, yesterday was apparently quite an interesting faith-based day in Birmingham, Alabama.
Mayor Larry Langford declared Friday as “It’s Time to Pray Day” in Birmingham and will mark the event with a prayer service at Boutwell Auditorium.
Langford made the proclamation Tuesday during the City Council meeting. “We’re going to pray for a change in this city,” he said.
During the service, participants will be given sackcloth to wear and ashes to put on their skin. The practice is mentioned in the Bible of the Bible as an act of repentance and humility.
Langford ordered 2,000 of the sacks.
“Even if you get upset, we’re still going to have it,” Langford said. “This city needs to humble itself.”
It’s as if the notion of church-state separation doesn’t exist at all.
And slightly further south, state lawmakers in Florida are considering a faith-based license plate for residents.
Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion.
The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.”
Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, said people who “believe in their college or university” or “believe in their football team” already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with “something they believe in,” he said.
If the plate is approved, Florida would become the first state to have a license plate featuring a religious symbol that’s not part of a college logo. Approval would almost certainly face a court challenge.
The problem with the state manufacturing the plate is that it “sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state” and, second, gives the “appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, initially argued that his proposal is just about allowing Floridians to express themselves, though he later acknowledged that if atheists came up with an “I Don’t Believe” plate he would probably oppose it.
How open minded of him.