Monday, April 20, 2009

Christianity +Military = Forced

My article is titled “Questions raised anew about religion in Military” and it looks at the debate surrounding what the proper role of religion should be in the military and whether a pro-Christian culture permeates the armed forces? According to the article there have been complaints of religious bias and proselytizing in the military. In an effort to keep the line between religion and secular issues separate, the military has enforced tougher restrictions. For example: Chaplains are encouraged to ascribe to pluralism. Military officials have also declared in memorandums that the military is a neutral place when it comes to religious beliefs all in an effort to distance itself from the accusations of religious bias. Regardless of these measures taken by the military many personnel and activists feel that there is forced religion in the military; due to the fact Christian groups like the Officers Christian Fellowship and the Campus Crusade for Christ’s Military Ministry have a great deal of influence on bases. Some groups have taken their negative view of religion in the military to the courts. The leaders of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a non-profit group brought a lawsuit against the Pentagon accusing them of a pattern of improper religious influence such as: Official military retreats at off-base churches, displays of crucifixes at military chapels in Iraq and Afghanistan, and much more. Reading this article I got the sense that leaders of the opposition to “forced religion” in the military want to completely remove any displays of Christianity at the military bases. It is good to want religious freedom, but it seems that they want it at the cost of surpassing another religious group. One of their complaints is that there are crucifixes at military chapels, if that is such a huge problem then there can be formal requests to place other religious symbols of other groups in the chapels. At the end of the day everyone has a right to practice their religious beliefs. Unfortunately for these opposition groups, the reality is that majority of Americans in one way or the other identify with the Christian faith. Like the military officials said it is up to the chaplains to implore a plurality approach in their teachings. But I feel that groups like Military Religious Freedom Foundation are overreacting. Can't we all just get along?

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