Freedom Of Religion: A Myth
Reading Digg today, I found this particular digg interesting: Are U.S. troops being force-fed Christianity?
As many of you have known or heard from the mass media, the U.S. is supposed to be a free country, where freedom of speech and human rights are respected. People always talk about China, about its nonexistent freedom of speech, and about its human rights abuses.
But the U.S. isn’t exactly innocent. As can be seen in the digg above, here are just some comments from diggers:
For Mr. Weinstein – a former Air Force judge advocate and assistant
counsel in the Reagan White House – more is involved than isolated
cases of discrimination. He charges that several incidents in recent
years – and more than 5,000 complaints his group has received from
active-duty and retired military personnel – point to a growing
willingness inside the military to support a particular brand of
Christianity and to permit improper evangelizing in the ranks MORE THAN
95% OF THE COMPLAINTS COME FROM OTHER CHRISTIANS.The religious foundation Operation Straight Up (OSU), tried to send our
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan copies of a religious "video game"
called "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" in care packages. When it was
brought to light that the video game entailed "soldiers for Christ"
trying to convert non-believers and killing them, the Pentagon put a
halt to it. But, keep in mind, the Pentagon only put a halt to it after
America learned about it; not when it was proposed.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-aslan22a …Take, for instance, the recent scandal involving Christian Embassy, a
group whose expressed purpose is to proselytize to military personnel,
diplomats, Capitol Hill staffers and political appointees. In a
shocking breach of security, Defense Department officials allowed a
Christian Embassy film crew to roam the corridors of the Pentagon
unescorted while making a promotional video featuring high-ranking
officers and political appointees. (Christian Embassy, which holds
prayer meetings weekly at the Pentagon, is so entrenched that Air Force
Maj. Gen. John J. Catton Jr. said he’d assumed the organization was a
"quasi-federal entity.")
What’s so special about Christians?
You can’t force-feed someone an idea. You can show it to them all you
want, but they are entirely capable of rejecting it if they wish. Now,
if they’re being _forced_ to _practice_ the idea, and thus show
acceptance to it, then yeah, that’s not good at all (and certainly not
Christian).
Now, amen to that.
Let’s make sure we know it’s a very specific kind of Christianity
they’ve been forcing upon them. It’s sortof a militant dispenstionalist
christian zionist crusader kind of christianity. It’s not like they
just want them to get religion from anywhere. They are breeding a new
type of soldier, to later become cop, or blackwater employee that
believes in a spreading of the gospel through mass murder. You can’t
put all Christians into this class, although this is the brand they’re
pushing in the armed forces. They are not suggesting they become
episcopalian, or methodist, or catholic, or any type of old school
christianity. They are pushing them toward an authoritarian political
doctrine that has recently become a part of these evangelical churches,
whose memberships grow every day in this country. Essentially, they are
evangelizing people who are already some kind of christian, to become
this new kind of christian. It’s a political movement folks. It’s the
church of the military industrial complex.
Religion all over the world is being used for political purposes, and the U.S. is just one of them. Sadly, many people seem to think that their own religion is the only valid religion, and any other religion must be false. Many people force religion upon their own children, upon their own students, and upon their own subordinates. I think religion should never be mandated — it is something a person believes, and to believe something requires deep feelings. It’s not something that can be persuaded or forced upon. So people, look at your own religion. Does it advocate such persuasion on other people around you? Just as a reminder, I think you would need to reconsider some beliefs in your life.
This website is no longer a forum for discussion when phrases like
"Christian Filth" are used. A moderate and informed view of a topic is
the best way to approach change, phrases like the aforementioned will
do nothing but offend and alienate those you wish to inform.I am a devout Christian and I agree with many of the things people say
on this website but broad brush stroke offensive statements, and the
lumping all Christians and people of faith into one large category with
fanatics is certifiably stupid.
He’s right. Too many people bash a religion for its followers: we should think rationally, and not act on impulse. A knife is useful for cutting meat, but it’s also useful for cutting someone’s throat. It doesn’t make it illegal to possess a knife. Some people see Windows users as *novices*. Is it true? Far from it — even though I have quite a lot of experience with Linux, it doesn’t make me more "expert" than the Microsoft MVP next door.
Well after spending 8 years in the Army I can tell you that
Christianity is a little to prevalent, I am a Buddhist and when ever we
would have a function a Christian Chaplin would always lead a prayer.
This always made me feel very uncomfortable. I would not bow my head
and would always get dirty looks from others. I know if i tried to have
everyone sit and meditate i would have been laughed at sent away
Unfortunately the above does happen.
YES. It has been documented dozen of times. There was an atheist group
created in Iraq that was subverted by a Christian that attempted to
start a riot in the groups first and only meeting, and then report it
to higher command.Pat Tillman was an atheist, and it is widely accepted his death was a result of his "radical" view upon our world.
Is this a rumor? But yes, I won’t say it’s not true.
I was in the US Army in 1986 - 1989. During my 13 weeks in basic
training I (we) received one day somewhere in the middle called a "Free
Day" where there’d be no training — we can do whatever we want. Well,
as it happened — none of us had a car on base, so most of us pretty
much stayed in our barracks. But the excitement was building for later
in the evening when we’d all be bus’d to a church, thats right — a
church off base. Well, I told my loving Drill Sargent that I really
wasn’t interested in going to a Church but was open to Mc Donald’s.
This comment turned his smile upside down and he took it upon himself
to chastise me in-front of everyone (a good time.) Basically saying
that I either go to the Church or stand 24 hour guard. I chose
church… it was nice after all getting off the damn base! How bad
could a little Jesus be, I thought. We got there late… seemed like an
hour long bus ride… I sit through the all cult talk and cool music…
standing, sitting, kneeling, whatever… I’m just happy as a pickle in
my Drill Sargent’s ass to be off the base… or so I thought.Out come the Converters like an army of ants approaching a pile of dog
shit. They select a couple of us and disperse throughout the Church
where they begin "converting"… whispering a kinds of Jesus stuff our
ears, their voices are so soft and pleasant… quite a departure from
my Drill Sargent. I made my converter speak to me for about 30 minutes
simple because I found is voice soothing and relaxing … it was like
he was massaging my brain. Well after that I said "Nah… oh, look –
the bus is boarding. Lateron."I suspect my Drill Sargent got a "report" on my lack of Jesus
motivation and found myself running around the barracks for no rational
reason — for about an hour, then doing push ups in front of his office
for another hour. The whole time wondering if Jesus ran or did push-ups.I suspect the DOD uses the break down process in Basic Training to
further grab control of trainees by trying to grab their minds and
"souls." What better solder than one who will die, if not for his
country, in the name of Jesus.
This is my favourite one! "I really
wasn’t interested in going to a Church but was open to Mc Donald’s" — that’s a nice one. Well, I’m not a Christian, so I might have to look out for these Converters in the future. The truth is, as I said above, many people think that their religion is the only valid religion, and then try to force it upon others.
As a member of the U.S. Army I’ve only been in for 3 or so years, but
Ive NEVER seen or heard anything from anybody regarding anything your
stories seem to portray. At basic training you were never "forced" to
go to church. You either went to your denominational service or you sat
in the barracks. The barracks had to be cleaned, but those who cleaned
usually volunteered because you were allowed to listen to the radio (a
privilege you’d enjoy only if you cleaned). If you did neither then you
usually did laundry or sat in the training area and read the newspaper.Christianity was never "force-fed", in fact they accommodated
all religions including Islam. I went to basic with a guy from Iran,
and it happened to be during the month of Ramadan which they (the drill
sergeants) were happy to drive you to each Sunday to celebrate. One of
my best friends at basic was a Pagan, and he never once complained
about how prevalent Christianity was. The truth is that a good amount
of service members practices some form of Christianity, and chaplains
exist to help you practice your religion.Chaplains exist not
only for you to exercise your faith, but also they are trained to be a
type of counselor to help you though tough times you’ll face oversees.
I have not encountered a single chaplain that has tried to "force-feed"
his religion on anybody else. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but that
they’re the exception and not the rule. Our Christian Chaplain in our
unit here in Iraq had to give us a briefing on the Islamic faith and
their holidays while we were in Kuwait. He never once tried to defame
or "make fun of" any of their religious practices or traditions.
Instead he encouraged us to honor their religion and its worshipers.As
for these fundamentalists trying to convert service members abroad,
this doesn’t surprise me. I used to be part of a church that would do
similar things, fortunately i left because i believe they interpreted
the Bible too legalistically. Overall I just wanted to point out that
these happenings are the exception and not the rule, the Army as a
whole is very tolerant when it comes to religions. And even as a
Christian myself, it angers me to see other Christians try to force our
religions on other people through threats and belittlement.
Well, I agree that not all Christians forcibly convert people. After all, a religion that is forced upon someone will have no foothold — it will wither and die. I don’t know whether the forced preachings of Christianity are the exception or the rule, and I won’t talk about it because I don’t have the statistics. But this comment shows us another side of the story, since we should never judge anything based on just one kind of opinion.
The problem with many Christians is that they think their religion is the only valid religion. I would say that is just plain wrong, because most of them have never learned about other religions. I was once a Christian, but now I think "God" is just a product of human reasoning: "God" exists because humans need an explanation for some unexplainable things. Again, that’s just my opinion, so I don’t force it on anyone.
To those Christians, especially in Indonesia: do you really think your religion is the only valid one? Do you think your faith is not misguided? The Bible talked about bad fruits coming out from evil seeds — look at the U.S. and tell me what you think of it. Most Indonesian Christians have never considered other religions: they grow up in Chinese homes, but without proper education on religion at home; they go to Christian schools, then become Christians and bash their parents for not being one. Talk about being filial! Even the Bible says that you have to honour your father and your mother. But they’ve never seen the world in another light: what about those Atheists (like me?), those Muslims (they’re everywhere), and those Jews (you share the root of your religion with them!). Please think about it.
