Patriotic Religion?

In his article, Questions Raised Anew About Religion in Military, Eric Lichtblau discusses the current prevalence of religion in the military and whether America’s Christian-based society should affect the Armed Forces. Although many attempts have been made to keep the U.S. military a secular institution, there remains a sense of “forced religion” among some officers in the midst of groups like “the Officer’s Christian Fellowship and the Campus Crusade for Christ’s Military Ministry”. Terry Bradshaw, in a recent appearance in a video aimed at helping soldiers deal with depression, cited his faith as a way of avoiding depression and suicide. Lichtblau provides quotations from military personnel who have been offended by the presence of religion in certain aspects of their service to further his argument that we, as a nation, must eliminate “improper religious influence” in the military.

The issue of religion in the military is simply a more specific simplification of the large-scale issue of the separation of church and state. While conservatives may argue that their faith is a huge motivating factor for service in the military, and therefore, it is unfair to eliminate its influence, others support secularism because they feel uncomfortable incorporating a religion they do not believe in into mandatory ceremonies and practices. The debate over how much religion should influence state matters has caused so much tension in the past that the polarization of sides on this particular topic is to be expected.

William Martin’s book, With God on Our Side, documents the rise of the Religious Right in America, which reinforced religious beliefs along with patriotic sentiments in their private schools. The blending of religion and military patriotic seems to have been planned by the Religious Right in the mid-1960’s. Therefore, it is inevitable that many officers of the Armed Forces identify strongly with Christianity. But does that make it right to reference Christian prayer in military ceremonies just because a majority of the personnel are Christian?

Although Martin endorses the presence of faith in politics and government matters, the separation of church and state still remains to be a widely held belief. It is simply unconstitutional to force a certain religion on a group of people, especially in the military; therefore, like in all other aspects of the religion in politics issue, we must find a balance between how much religious influence is acceptable and how much is improper.