Rights of the Nonreligious in the Military
February 28th, 2011 | Posted by: Chris Stedman
Check out the latest important release from my friends at Religious Freedom USA:
Dear Friends,
All you want to do is fight for your country and protect the freedoms it represents. Yet because of your religion – or lack thereof – you may be given some unsolicited advice from the Army after taking its new spiritual fitness test: “Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal.”
As National Public Radio reported on January 13, 2011, after determining that one soldier did not score highly on the assessment, the computerized test even recommended that he “take a long computerized training module to teach him about different forms of spirituality, including prayer, meditation and attending church.”
While we honor the Army for defending our society, we affirm the freedoms of the society it defends, notably freedom of religion. The military should not be in the business of talking to its members about spirituality – much less providing them with recommendations about how to “improve” theirs. That the test is now mandatory in the Army is beyond explanation.
Atheists, agnostics, and people of all religions who have a tremendous commitment to the United States but little desire to have their spirituality evaluated by the Army they serve must not be required to take the test. In fact, it is unclear that the Army should ever have invested in making it in the first place, especially given that it presumes spirituality is needed for ideal military service. The Army should evaluate its soldiers based on their actions, not their beliefs.
Best,
March 2nd, 2011 at 1:34 am
Hmm, very interesting. I like the idea of encouragement and counseling for the army–after all they are going through such hard things and deserve to be cared for spiritually just as much as physically and emotionally. But what an interesting line to toe. Perhaps those services could be on a “choice” basis and the chaplains can take it from there? It seems ridiculous to restrict the freedoms of the people fighting for ours.