Showing posts with label freedom of religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom of religion. Show all posts

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Atheist Seeking U.S. Citizenship, Told To Join Church Or Be Denied?

Margaret Doughty, Atheist Seeking U.S. Citizenship, Told To Join Church Or Be Denied
The Huffington Post
By Nick Wing
Posted: 06/19/2013

Margaret Doughty, an atheist and permanent U.S. resident for more than 30 years, was told by immigration authorities this month that she has until Friday to officially join a church that forbids violence or her application for naturalized citizenship will be rejected.

Doughty received the ultimatum after stating on her application that she objected to the pledge to bear arms in defense of the nation due to her moral opposition to war. According to a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by the American Humanist Association on Doughty's behalf, officials responded by telling her that she needed to prove that her status as a conscientious objector was due to religious beliefs. They reportedly told her she'd need to document that she was "a member in good standing" of a nonviolent religious organization or be denied citizenship at her June 21 hearing. A note “on official church stationary [sic]" would suffice, they said.
read more here

Friday, November 2, 2012

Air Force Academy Religious Respect Program May Go Servicewide

As a Chaplain, the only thing that matters to me is someone needs help. After they are respected as a human in need, what they believe is secondary. If I am talking to a Christian, I talk to them about Christ and what He said. It doesn't matter to me what denomination they were trained to believe. If I am helping someone of a different faith, I have a basic knowledge of what they believe and I don't try to change that. If I talk to someone with no beliefs at all, it is the same way. It is not up to me to covert them any more than it is to condemn them if they do not believe as I do. Usually people laugh when I tell them I won't hit them over the head with a Bible or try to convert them especially when I am Eastern (Greek)Orthodox. If I have the right to believe what I make the choice to do, so do they.

That is what Religious Freedom is all about. No one faith has the right to force their views on others. Even if you accept the claim the US is a "Christian Nation" whenever you hear someone say that, you need to ask them what one they are talking about. Don't forget there are so many different denominations of Christians it is hard to keep track. Even within groups, there are divisions so all people should be able to have their rights to use their own God Given Freewill to make their own choices in life. No one should have the right to have what they believe forced on anyone else. This is a step in the right direction.

AFA Religious Respect Program May Go Servicewide
Nov 02, 2012
The Gazette
Colorado Springs, Colo.
by Erin Prater

An Air Force Academy program to teach cadets to respect the religious beliefs of comrades will soon go to all Air Force bases and schools, if academy chaplains have their way.

While a target date has not been set for the program's expansion, chaplains hope to transition the Religious Respect Training Program throughout the Air Force as soon as possible, chaplain Maj. Shawn Menchion said Wednesday at the conclusion of the academy's Religious Respect Conference.

"It may reach basic training for enlisted airmen before it reaches the officers," Menchion said.

The program was launched in 2010 at the recommendation of senior academy leaders after several years of religious-related controversies, Menchion said.

Initially, it was a one-hour training session on the First Amendment's clauses that relate to religious freedom, and was taught by academy chaplains to the class of 2014 at cadet basic training.

Last year, the academy and its partners, including the Anti-Defamation League, developed three additional lessons that will be taught at other times: one-hour lessons during sophomore and junior years, and a two-hour lesson during senior year, Menchion said.

The training teaches cadets "to become allies to other cadets when they witness respect infractions," he said. "We're giving them avenues to address those issues. We emphasize addressing those issues at the lowest level."

"This is something new," Menchion said of the program. "No other military members are getting this training except for the cadets."
read more here

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Senators Bill proves they don't know what religious freedom is

If you just read what these Senators had to say, you'd think that religion is under attack, but you'd have to have lived under a rock to believe that. Every time they come out with something like this it is one more reminder of the basis of this nation. If we do not defend everyone's right to make their own choices, decide what/who they want to believe, feel as free as anyone else to do so, then we all lose.

INHOFE AND WICKER:
Lifting Obama’s gag order on military chaplains
Military Religious Freedom Act defends conscience

By Sen. Jim Inhofe and Sen. Roger Wicker

Friday, October 5, 2012

Our Founding Fathers spoke much about the importance of “freedom of conscience” and its underpinning of all other freedoms. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson said, “We are bound, you, I, and every one to make common cause even with error itself, to maintain the common right of freedom of conscience.”

Recent decisions by the Obama administration and Pentagon leaders threaten this common right, and their assault on freedom of conscience raises new and serious concerns — especially for our servicemen and women. Our armed services were created with an apolitical framework, and this unique platform has helped maintain Americans’ trust and respect for the military. Since repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, however, the administration has looked to the military as a way to advocate a liberal social agenda and challenge Americans’ freedom of conscience.

Last year, the Department of Defense (DOD) said state laws would be acknowledged and upheld when it came to marriage and civil unions. Now, in a heated presidential election season, DOD and the Obama administration are pushing the limits on their promise and the rule of law for the sake of politics. A prime example of this occurred in May, when the first homosexual marriage-like ceremony took place in a chapel on Fort Polk in Louisiana.
read more here


This will give you an idea of Christians usually mentioned when a politician talks about "freedom of religion" but all too often fail to mention how many believe differently. So which faith is under attack? What about Jews, Muslims, Hindu, Buddhists or any of the other faiths or branches of these faiths? That's the point. We are all supposed to be able to decide on our own, not be forced to acknowledge any other faith but to be tolerant of all of them equally including the citizens of this nation when they chose to not believe at all.

I've heard soldiers say that they went to see a military Chaplain for spiritual issues and ended up being told they were going to hell because they were not a member of the Chaplain's faith. Is that right? Is that what these Senators want to defend?

I've read complaints about how Atheist soldiers, willing to die for believers, being forced to attend religious events and forced to hear someone pray. Is that what these Senators consider religious freedom?

Gay rights are not about religion. No one is forcing any religious body to acknowledge these rights under the law. They are not forced to welcome gay married couples under the law. They are not forced to break their own rules. Is that what these Senators think is going on?

Do they even know what a Chapel is? There are denominations of Christians where gay members are equal in their eyes. This is not something that elected officials should be trying to get involved with unless they really want to begin a nation where no one is free to make their own choices. These men are Senators, elected to serve the citizens of their states and that means all of them.

Let's take a look at what they have not gotten done for the sake of the people of this nation that would have mattered to everyone and compare that to the rights they want taken away from others.

Jobs? No they didn't have time for that issue. They want to end the Affordable Care Act, but came up with no plan of their own to take care of the people in this nation unable to afford to pay for health insurance. There is no issue these folks were capable of taking on when it mattered to everyone in this nation but they spent more time complaining about what has not been done by them. Nice work and they get a pay check to do it on top of everything else.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Bible verse on M-4 rifles puts troops in danger

No fix for 'Jesus rifles' deploying to Afghanistan
By Kari Huus
NBC News

When the so-called "Jesus rifle" came to light in Jan. 2010, it sparked constitutional and security concerns, and a maelstrom of media coverage. The Pentagon ordered the removal of the secret code referring to Bible passages that the manufacturer had inscribed on the scopes of the standard issue rifles carried by U.S. soldiers into battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nearly three years later — despite the military's assertion that is making "good progress" — the code remains on many rifles deploying to Afghanistan, which some soldiers argue is endangering their lives by reinforcing suspicions that the United States is waging a crusade against Muslims."I honestly believe that this is a dangerous situation. It literally could be a matter of life and death for a soldier if he fell into the wrong hands," said an Army officer who spoke to NBC News from Fort Hood, Texas. "The fact that combatant commanders are not following (rules set by Department of Defense) commanders is very disturbing to me."

The officer, who asked not to be named out of fear of reprisal from commanders, provided a photograph, taken on Tuesday, of the code on an M-4 rifle assigned to a soldier who is slated to deploy to Afghanistan in coming weeks.

The code stamped into the metal of the soldier’s ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) ends with the model number with "JN8:12." which refers to the New Testament passage, John 8:12, which reads: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
read more here

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Organizers prepare atheism-themed Fort Bragg event

Organizers prepare atheism-themed Bragg event
By Tom Breen - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 29, 2012 13:41:13 EST
RALEIGH, N.C. — It has been more than a year in the making, but organizers of the first concert at a U.S. military base aimed at atheists and other non-religious service members and their families say they’re putting the final touches on the Fort Bragg event.

“Rock Beyond Belief” is scheduled for Saturday, March 31, and plans to feature bands and speakers, including Richard Dawkins, the famed British scholar and atheist author. It will be the highest-visibility event so far in a growing effort by military personnel without belief in God or religions to be recognized by their peers and the Pentagon.

“We just want an equal place at the table,” said Sgt. Justin Griffith, primary organizer of the event and the military director of American Atheists.

Griffith is also trying to gain official recognition at Bragg for a chapter of the Military Atheists and Secular Humanists, which would give it the same privileges enjoyed by Christian denominations and other religious groups at the post. An active duty officer stationed at Bragg is applying to be the first humanist recognized as a “distinctive faith group leader” by the Army, a position roughly equivalent to a lay leader in a religious group.

Organizers hope the concert, with its high-profile speakers and openness to the public, will be the first large demonstration of the extent of the military’s non-believing population. They expect a crowd of 5,000 for an event initially planned as a rejoinder to a Christian event called “Rock the Fort” held at Bragg in 2010 by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
read more here

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Dispute over cross casts light on four fallen Marines

Dispute over cross casts light on four fallen Marines
The controversial hilltop memorial at Camp Pendleton honors two enlisted men and two officers, three of whom helped erect a cross there in 2003 before going to Iraq.

By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
January 3, 2012
Scott Radetski, 49, a retired Navy chaplain; Sgt. Josue Magana, 32; and Staff Sgt. Justin Rettenberger, 31, work to secure a cross at Camp Pendleton on Veterans Day. A constitutional scholar says that because the crosses are only visible from Camp Pendleton they could be viewed as a memorial rather than having a religious purpose. (Rick Loomis, Los Angeles Times / November 11, 2011)
Reporting from San Diego— In the early days of the U.S. battle with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, the four Marines from Camp Pendleton were among those troops on the front lines in Anbar province.

The two enlisted Marines would not survive those violent days in the spring of 2004: one was killed by "friendly fire" when a mortar round went awry and one was mortally wounded while hurling a grenade to repel an enemy assault, bravery for which he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.

The two officers survived, only later to be killed in other battles in other parts of the country: one by gunfire while leading a raid in Baghdad to kill or capture a "high-value" target in 2007 and one by stepping on a buried bomb while scouting an attack position near the Syrian border in 2005.

Now the four — Lance Cpls. Robert Zurheide and Aaron Austin, and Majs. Douglas Zembiec and Ray Mendoza — are the focal point of a legal dispute about how best to honor their service and sacrifice, and that of other U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Here's a way to show support for Marines Camp Pendleton Cross

Camp Pendleton Cross Up Close [Poll]
The newly-erected cross on Camp Pendleton has become a source of much controversy.
By Daniel Woolfolk

Since Veterans Day, a 13-foot cross has stood atop a San Onofre Mountain peak overlooking Camp Horno. At its base are rocks painted with messages, dog tags and offerings of whiskey for fallen Marines.

Last month, a group of Marines and civilians carried the fire retardant cross up a steep and slippery climb and erected it as a memorial to four Marines who died in Iraq. However, they did so without permission from Camp Pendleton officials.

Members of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers quickly demanded it be taken down. An opinion piece in The Huffington Post by Chris Rodda, senior research director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, countered arguments by supporters of the cross.
This was the count after I voted.
Should the Camp Pendleton cross be kept up or taken down?
Keep it up

578 (59%)
Take it down

390 (40%)
Other

5 (0%)
Total votes: 973 This is not a scientific poll

read and vote more here

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

US Navy rescinds ban on Bibles for patients at Walter Reed hospital

This is good news. It shows that the public does have some power in the decisions the government makes. Imagine being a religious person, wounded while serving your country, sent to the military hospital to be tended to, only to be told you cannot have anything religious given to you. (Even by your own family.)

Spokesmen for the Navy quickly announced that the policy had been rescinded. The intent of the memo, they said, was not to prevent military patients from receiving desired religious items, but to deter pamphleteers from leaving unwanted material with patients.

Intent is one thing but translation is another. While the command chain may have wanted it to be this way, down the line, no one was off the hook. A trip I made to the old Walter Reed proved that one. Non-religious items were fine for me to give out, but religious book markers and prayer cards were not. The hospital Chaplain was the only one able to give them out, so I handed them over. Now I'm wondering if the hospital Chaplain gave them out or tossed them out.

US Navy rescinds ban on Bibles for patients at Walter Reed hospital
December 06, 2011

Under heavy pressure from Congressional and religious leaders, the US Navy has rescinded a policy that forbade visitors from giving Bibles or religious articles to wounded troops at the nation’s leading military hospital.

In a memo regarding visits to patients at Walter Reed hospital, chief of staff C.W. Callahan wrote: “No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.” The memo, as written, would have made it impossible for relatives or chaplains to give wounded troops Bibles, Rosaries, or other religious items.
read more here

ALSO

Water Reed rewriting policy on religious items

Decision comes after guidelines were questioned by lawmaker
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Dec 7, 2011 12:33:36 EST
Visitors guidelines at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., are being revised after an Iowa congressman complained Dec. 2 that the rules kept family members, priests, ministers and others from bringing Bibles, rosaries or other religious materials to patients.

A section of the guidelines designed to protect patients from proselytizers was rescinded last week after Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, discussed it on the House floor, asserting it violated the First Amendment protecting free exercise of religion.

The guidelines, signed by Walter Reed-Bethesda’s chief of staff Army Col. Charles Callahan, stated that “No religious items, (i.e. Bibles, reading materials and/or facts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.”

The intent was to respect patients’ religious practices and preserve their privacy, explained hospital spokeswoman Sandy Dean. She said patients often are visited by volunteers from benevolent organizations as well as strangers, ranging from celebrities, politicians and well-meaning VIPs, and the guidelines were developed to respect patients’ own beliefs.

“If the family, if friends, wanted to bring things in, it was fine,” Dean said. “The way the policy was written was incorrect. … We are rewriting the policy,” she said.
read more here

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Removal of Cross From Army Chapel in Afghanistan Stirs Controversy

When I wrote about another cross, Keep the Cross at Camp Pendleton it was obvious I had a strong opinion. On this one, I am torn.

Removal of Cross From Army Chapel in Afghanistan Stirs Controversy
By Michael Gryboski
Christian Post Reporter
The U.S. Army has removed a cross that was prominently placed on the front of a chapel located at the remote base of Camp Marmal in Northern Afghanistan.

Although soldiers at the Central Asian base considered the cross to be an inspiring symbol, officials said that having a permanent sectarian image on the chapel violated army regulations.

As Army Regulation 165-1, 12-3k reads in part, “The chapel environment will be religiously neutral when the facility is not being used for scheduled worship. Portable religious symbols, icons, or statues may be used within a chapel during times of religious worship.”
read more here

Friday, September 9, 2011

Bill protects Constitutional Right to Freedom of Religion for Veterans

The law has managed to protect the rights of the Westboro hate group to say whatever they want, show up at military funerals, tell the family members they are thankful for the death and spewing hatred against them. To think that a separate Bill has to be written to protect the rights of our veterans needs to be done is deplorable.

CONGRESSMAN POE INTRODUCES THE VETERANS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT
Bill protects Constitutional Right to Freedom of Religion for Veterans

Washington, Sep 8 -

WASHINGTON, DC— This week Congressman Ted Poe (TX-02) introduced the Veterans’ Religious Freedom Act in response to the alleged religious censorship taking place at the Houston National Cemetery.

This legislation will prohibit the Veterans Administration from limiting the free speech of any member of a veteran service organization or any person who else who has been invited to speak at a funeral service of a veteran. It will also require that within 90 days of the passage of the bill, all VA cemetery directors must be veterans. Finally, it will mandate that the VA inform families of veterans all options available to loved ones when they are planning funeral services.

“It is the constitutional duty of the federal government to protect speech and religion, not prohibit it. Government censorship of funeral services for our veterans is unacceptable, unconstitutional and un-American. The policy of the director of the Houston VA Cemetery is anti-Christian, anti-religion and anti-veteran. What has reportedly taken place at the Houston VA Cemetery is inexcusable, and Congress must take immediate action to protect the rights of those who have fought and died for our country.”
read more here

Monday, December 29, 2008

Lawsuit on religion in military expanded

They all serve equally. They all wear the same uniform, serve under the same commander, the same flag but we forget that while they act as a unit, a family, they are also very different. Different backgrounds, different lives and different thoughts. Along with their individuality, there is also different beliefs. They need to be treated as their faith is a private matter just as if they marry or not is a private matter. It has nothing to do with their duty or their skills. No one should ever decide the faith of someone else or force it upon them. When they do, especially when it comes to the men and women serving this nation, it deludes the reason they serve. Religious freedom should be held highly but too many find no problem with this line being crossed.
Lawsuit on religion in military expanded
By John Hanna - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 29, 2008 18:29:13 EST

TOPEKA, Kan. — A newly expanded federal lawsuit alleged Monday that the military doesn’t take complaints of religious discrimination seriously enough and allows personnel to try to convert Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan to Christianity.

The Military Religions Freedom Foundation and a Fort Riley, Kan., soldier suing Defense Secretary Robert Gates now allege that a bias toward evangelical Christianity pervades even the Army’s suicide prevention manual and the Air Force’s sponsorship of an evangelical motocross ministry.

The Defense Department said complaints about religious discrimination are relatively few and pointed to military policies against endorsing any religious view.

Spc. Dustin Chalker and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed their amended lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan. They filed the original lawsuit in September.

Chalker, a combat medic, is an atheist whose original complaints included being forced to attend military formations where Christian prayers were given. The foundation, based in Albuquerque, N.M., says it represents about 11,000 military personnel, almost all of them Christians upset about what they view as discrimination by more conservative and evangelical personnel. click link above for more

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Do you know what freedom really means?

Catholics have statues in their churches. Greeks have icons. Presbyterians have banners. Christians cannot agree on everything. They never did and they never will. Some denominations believe we are all saints and we are already chosen to enter into Heaven. Others believe it comes from simply accepting Christ into their lives and never having to do another thing. Some actually believe that lying is not a sin for them, but one for other people. Others believe that we are to live our own lives according to the teachings of Christ and doing all we can to follow how He said to treat others. (This happens to be the one I belong to.)

When it comes to the government, many in this country find it unacceptable that they are supposed to be representing all people, of all faiths equally. No one is above or below the law, or at least that's the way it's supposed to be. We are all supposed to be able to walk into a VA clinic, since the government runs them, and know our faith is equally honored as anyone else's no matter what the faith is or even if they have no faith at all. The government is supposed to stay out of it.

When it comes to the military, we need to remember that they are just like the rest of us when it comes to their own private choice of faith. A VA chapel is supposed to be there for all veterans seeking a place to pray as they see fit, not as some well meaning person chooses to have surrounding them when they do.

If Bible's are supplied, then which ones are chosen? We do not all follow the same Bible. There are many different versions of it and we cannot even all agree on the Apostle's Creed. Who gets to decide? Who gets to decide if any other religious book is there for the Jewish veterans? Or the Muslim veterans? Or the Buddhists? Or the Hindus? Any idea? Do they supply the Rosary beads for Catholics and the worry beads for Greek Orthodox people using them to calm down? Do they supply crosses with Christ on them for the faiths that do hold that image of Him, or do they supply the Celtic cross with the holes or the other plan ones with no Christ on them? Who decides that? What about the saints? Do they use the word "saint" when talking about the heroes of the Bible or do they use just the names as some faiths do?

Not so simple when you actually think about it instead of just using gut instinct. Our faiths are just as complicated as we are. We make the choice of what faith to practice or practice none at all. We decide it all freely. So do the troops and the veterans.

When I read this article, I read the words;
Wieters says he has not been able to find out who is behind the suit, but he is adamant that the floor is no place for the Bible and the cross. So he has decided to fight the policy and stand up for the freedom that millions of veterans have fought for over the years.


and wondered if he actually thought about what those words mean.

Does he understand the freedom to choose our own faith as Americans is one of those freedoms they were defending? Does he understand that the freedom of religion and the free expression of it means that one cannot be regarded as holy while dismissing all others?

I have been in synagogues and respected their faith. When you think of walking into a VA chapel and seeing Christian images, you need to know they would feel uncomfortable. All others would feel uncomfortable in a place where they are supposed to be able to sit and pray as their own faith dictates or simply to touch their own spirit communicating with God or their Higher Power. This is not a matter of Christianity being pushed out but one of not having other faiths pushed away.

I am a Chaplain. I don't work for the VA but I work with veterans. I take care of them no matter what faith they have or even if they have no faith at all equally. I carry a Bible in my car in case someone needs it and Holy water along with a Rosary even though I'm Greek Orthodox and do not use a Rosary. I do not pull these things out unless someone asks for them. So what would be wrong with having them there in the Chapel out of view and pulling them out if someone asks for them? Otherwise they are acting as if they have the power to judge non-Christians. It also means that the government is supporting one branch of Christianity over other dominations.


As I said, Mr. Wieters seems well meaning but he is not thinking about how other veterans can feel about what he thinks is a good thing to do.


Bible, cross bumped from altars
OneNewsNow - Tupelo,MS,USA
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 12/24/2008


It's not acceptable, says a retired employee of the Veterans Administration, that Bibles and crosses are no longer being placed on the altars of VA facilities across the country.

Bob Wieters is a Vietnam veteran who retired from the VA in 1996 after more than 32 years of federal civil service. The Pineville, Louisiana, man was appalled when he learned what happened to a fellow veteran at a VA facility in North Carolina.

"He was arrested because he...kept placing the Bible and the cross back on the altar at the VA in North Carolina," Weiters relates. "[S]o when I heard that, I went to our local VA here -- and sure enough, I found the Bible and the cross on the floor next to the altar."

Wieters says he learned that the VA is apparently giving in to the demands of someone who does not want the Christian items displayed at VA chapels.

"There was a lawsuit that was filed against the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it is currently in some sort of court litigation," says the war veteran. "But in the interim...the VA as a whole [has decided] to remove the cross and the Bible from all altars at the VA nationwide, which I think is completely wrong." click link above for more

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination

Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination
Story Highlights
Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist but is now an atheist

His sudden lack of faith cost him his military career and put his life at risk, he says

Hall sued the Defense Department; claims military is a Christian organization

Pentagon official: Complaints about evangelizing are "relatively rare"


By Randi Kaye
AC360° Correspondent


KANSAS CITY, Kansas (CNN) -- Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist.


Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God.

He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural.

Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist.

His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety.
click post title for more


Should the military support the faiths of the troops? Absolutely. That's why there are Chaplains in different faiths to meet the spiritual needs of the troops. Notice the plural? There are Muslim Chaplains as well as Christian ones. Whatever the faith they have, they should be equally served. Should they face a crisis of faith, then they should be served if, and only if, they seek it. Sometimes they have to work through it on their own. Faith is a personal issue. The troops are just like the rest of us with different beliefs and should be treated like the rest of us, with the ability to choose of our own free will.

Hall became an atheist while deployed into the horrors of combat. How did this change the job he was willing to do, the fact he was willing to risk his life for the sake of this nation formed for religious freedom?

If you need any more evidence that forcing someone to believe was not what God wanted, then you have not read the Bible lately or skipped over the parts you didn't like.

I am a Chaplain, not in the military but in the service of God. I am required to serve all people with the love of Christ within me and meet the needs of people where they are and what they are. After all, that is what Christ did. When the Roman Centurion went to Christ to have his servant healed, Christ did not ask him to renounce his pagan Gods first. He did not ask the Roman to do anything more than what he did. He went to Christ with the firm belief Christ could heal his servant.

It was not my practice to pray in public and I still have a hard time doing it, but there are times when I have to do it. Faith to me has been so sacred that I feel too inadequate to verbalize it. My family did not pray at meal times on a daily basis, yet we felt blessed with what we had and prayed for what we lacked. I still pray in the morning, throughout the day and at night, but I pray silently communicating with God thru my spirit. Even at that, I cannot count the times when my faith was so challenged that I wondered what was the point of praying. My faith has been challenged, tested and tried my entire life. While I have not renounced God or Christ, I can understand how others can be brought to that point in their own lives. You cannot force faith back into them.

CNN - Mother Teresa: Angel of Mercy
Mother Teresa: Angel of Mercy. A tribute to the "Saint of the Gutters". Mother Teresa 1910-1997, From Macedonia to Calcutta

Mother Teresa had many times when she doubted God. When looking back at her life, what she witnessed and lived through, it's not hard to see how this could happen. What was truly remarkable about her was that she did not stop doing the work she felt called to do.

Hall did not stop wanting to do the job he felt called to do when he enlisted. Trying to force faith back into him was not the job of the military. If anything it may have prevented him from finding his way back on his own.

Trying to force atheists to believe in God or accept Christ will not work. Christ did not try to force anyone. You cannot guilt them into love. You cannot make their lives so miserable they want to seek what you claim to have. It does not work. What it does do is push people who may be leaning toward accepting God away from doing it. When was the last time you heard Billy Graham tell his volunteers to drag someone up to the front to accept Christ into their lives?


So how can it be that this nation, the safe haven for Pilgrims seeking a place where they could worship God according to their own calling, has become a place where anyone who does not worship a certain way, is treated like this?