Stories of discrimination against non-believers in the US military are rampant. There are big ones that make national news like the “spiritual fitness” requirements, or the sponsorship of blatantly proselytizing on-base festivals, or the faith-based training for nuclear missile operators and the Air Force Academy’s attempt to pretend the subsequent orders to suspend specific religious elements of all training maybe didn’t apply to them; and there are the smaller, personal stories, like the one recently shared about the marine who was arrested for not attending church services.
There’s a new attempt to draw attention to these problems. The White House has added a petition system to its web site; any petition that gets a significant number of signatures (either 5,000 or 25,000 – there’s a bit of confusion about the numbers right now) within 30 days will get an official response. So if you’d like to help drag this issue into the political spotlight, head on over to the White House’s “We the People” page and add your name to this petition:
End the Military’s Discrimination against Non-Religious Service Members
If you’ve experienced discrimination in the military for not being a believer, or not being the right kind of believer, please go share your stories with the folks at Rock Beyond Belief. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is another good resource. The kind of religious coercion that goes on in military environments is not just unconstitutional, it’s unconscionable. People who have volunteered to put their lives on the line in defense of our national ideals never deserve to be told they’re not fit to do so because they have the wrong opinion about about the magic invisible man in the sky.