What Role Does Religion Play Within Our Military?

There is an old saying. There are no Atheist in foxholes, Especially when heavy artillery is inbound.

I voted no on this, because there was not a fourth option for NOT in its current form.

Religion is a deeply personal issue. The military should take no role in a person's spiritual path regardless of what that may be. The Chaplain Corps is ineffective as it is. If you are go to see a Chaplain, you get the duty Chaplain. If you are lucky, the Duty Chaplain is of your beliefs. If not, you have a person who is trying to help you, but does not have the tools to do so.
You could not send an infantry man into battle with an M-16 and .9mm rounds with a reasonable expectation of success. Nor can you send a Jewish Chaplain to assist a Muslim with a problem and have similar expectations. It is not fair to the service members or to the Chaplain.
In the movie "The Tuskeegee Airmen," there is a line about handing someone a fixed deck, and then asking why they can't win. It is the same thing with the Chaplain Corps. The problem is that there are too many different religions. None is more valid than any other, but the military does not, and cannot from a logistical aspect provide religious guidance to them all.
The system needs to be changed. There either needs to be no Chaplain Corps, or a Chaplain Corps that caters to the needs of all service members. Unfortunately neither one of those is possible.
The most feasible solution would be to have a spiritual hall with no religious symbology on it that groups of like minded service members could use for their spiritual growth. As for the Chaplain Corps itself, the process for becoming a military chaplain needs to be re-evaluated. Additionally, if the military cannot provide a chaplain for each religious group, they should invite clergy from those religions that they cannot provide for to come and assist those of their faith.
If it is a true spiritual leader, they will jump at the opportunity to help our service men and women. I know I would endure any background check, paperwork, and red tape if it meant providing for the needs of those who fight for our freedoms.

Sorry for the rant.

I don't force my beliefs on anyone. You ask we can have a DISCUSSION on it. If there is prayer tell me how this is a bad thing. My squad leader is a PAGAN. I still respect him in his beliefs and is achievements in the military. He is a SSG and a good person. He has had several combat(hand to hand) missions in the early years of the war. He is a good leader. Does that effect my role as a team leader to follow his orders me being a christian. No. I look at him as a military leader. I don't agree with his religious views. He doesn't agree with mine. We have a job to do and we get it done. There is no animosity between us. I pray and do my job. Why is it that people want to take away my rights because you think that it is fringing on YOURS. The fact that we where built on the a fore mentioned belief then why is it so hard to let everyone worship the way they believe. I the Chaplin comes by and wants to pray with any believer then how does that effect you, in any way. You mentioned that it effects mission readiness, how is that. every time we held prayer on previous deployments it was in enough time to do PCC's, PCI's and PMCS before the mission. So there for your point is mute!

The old saying goes "There's no atheist in a foxhole"

When I was in Afghanistan, the chaplain would always have a voluntary prayer circle before every mission. I would venture to guess that 90% of the Marines and Corpsman would be huddled around praying.

Those who didn't join in never complained that we had these prayer circles.

Should religion play a role in the military? No. Should religion be freely practices by military members IF THEY CHOOSE? Absolutely. It's a 1st Amendment right under the Constitution. Restricting it has no benefit towards mission accomplishment or good order and discipline. Let's not confuse having a role with being practiced.

I get why we, as service members, don't have complete Freedoms of Speech and Expression. I can't get in front of my Airmen and say the President and our Commander are worthless, stupid, traitors, etc. That is foul and destroys the credibility of the entire chain of command. If I did this, I fully expect to get backhanded by the UCMJ.

Religion, however - nah. If I were practicing, I shouldn't be afraid to tell people that I was practicing. HOWEVER - I should be MAKING people attend church with me or believe what I believe. I get it...it happens and it's wrong and we need to put a stop to that nonsense. You won't necessarily put a stop to it by saying "you can't do anything or say anything that has anything to do with religion at all, ever". That is a severe unlawful order. The freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution can't be completely removed just because we want to add more value to "separation of church and state" than was intended.

It all boils down to tolerance. Again, I am a non-practicing Christian. I believe in God and Jesus...but I haven't been to church in forever and haven't read a bible in longer than that. I don't mind Atheists or Muslims or Jews or Pagans. If someone said to me "Blessed Ramadan" - I'd THANK THEM. They respect and care enough about me to wish a blessing from what they believe upon me. I think that is great. Why people get offended by it - it amazes me. If I, as a Christian, wish someone a Merry Christmas or I say "God bless you" - I am not attacking you, I am not trying to convert you, I am not saying in code that "You must go to Catholic church with me or I will deny your promotion chances!". I am wishing good tidings and respect upon you based on my beliefs.

Atheists - I respect you. You don't believe and that's fine. I am a Christian and I in no way care to attempt to put Jesus into your life. I don't look down on you, I don't distrust you, and I certainly am not going to threaten you. However, if you overhear me talking about religion or if I say "Merry Christmas" - don't jump down my throat. Take it for what it is REALLY meant to be and at the very least just say thank you if not wish me one back. It's called respect. This is what true tolerance is all about.

Religion is important to some and those individuals should be allowed to celebrate their religion and have their own feelings. I have issues with being prostelized to at every major function. Your desire to believe and my willingness to appreciate your beliefs does not mean I should be forced to have to accept it for myself. Live and let live.

It's obvious you take a very dim view of religion and likely a left wing view of politics as well. I personally value Chaplains of all denominations. While Christian Chaplains are the most common, I've seen everything from Jewish to Buddhist Chaplains within our ranks. I'm not sure which religion you find to be underrepresented, but I wouldn't have an issue with commissioning a Norse Pagan or other uncommon religion if the individual wanted to fill the role. A line would need to be drawn with religions that actively promote violence or evil, but that should be common sense.

I'm not sure what an Atheist "Chaplain" would accomplish, since religious services are only a part of the duties of a Chaplain. Any Chaplain worth their salt will be there for every Soldier in the formation, regardless of affiliation. You being unwilling to engage them due to their religion is your problem, not the Chaplain's.

Ultimately this is where I think the flaw in your argument is: Chaplains have been around since the beginning of the Continental Army. If religion within our ranks is so antithetical to what our founding fathers intended for this country don't you think they would have eliminated Chaplains then?

SGT (Join to see):

There are a couple short points I want to remind you of, facts you appear to be missing or confused about.

1) monopoly on truth and morality.

Now, are you claiming a monopoly on truth that America was established secular? ("nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof" comes to mind, along with "endowed by their Creator")

Do you believe that every religious belief is false? That is itself claiming a monopoly on truth.

Are you claiming absolutely that 2+2=4 and doesn't equal anything else? I mean, you don't want to claim a monopoly on truth, right?

2) the hatred of those who don't proselytize.

Welcome atheist Penn Jillette, and his complete lack of respect for those who DON'T proselytize.

A Gift Of A Bible: https://youtu.be/6md638smQd8

3) most horrendous acts in history.

Actually, it's atheists, and specifically Jesus-mythers, who have committed the worst atrocities in history.

Professor R.J. Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii and talks on how "free thinkers"/atheists have caused the most harm in all history of any ideology (doing the math from the research on his site shows that atheism has been involved in killing ~30 times more than all religions in all history, even counting ALL the most absurd and falsest ones, COMBINED).
----
Q: Haven’t established religions been the greatest killers?*
A: Most contemporary democide, far greater than any historical cases, has been by free thinkers, i.e., those who believe that the established religions are superstitions, and one should be scientific, objective, rational, etc. Communism is a case in point, where out of the 174,000,000 murder 1900 to 1999, about 110,000,000 were by communists, who are professed atheists.

Q: Do you feel that countries with a secular government generally have a better way of life compared to countries ruled by religion?
A: Historically, secular governments have also been very repressive and murderous. All communist and fascist governments (Hitler, Mao, Stalin, etc) have been secular, and also murderous. The worst of all such governments have been atheistic and communist, and murdered overall around 110,000,000 people in the 20th Century.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/QA.V2.HTML

4) overly PC

I would remind you of George Orwell, 1984. The politically correct movement is nothing more than newspeak and doublethink. Be careful that you don't fall into the same bigoted trap you accuse Christians of.

5) atrocities

So, I'm assuming you think William Wilberforce, SGT Alvin York, William Booth, Operation Mercy Ships all committed horrible atrocities as a result of their religious beliefs, yes?

What a bleak outlook on life. And quite anti-factual, anti-historical.

Let me leave you with this final question: what makes you think your religious beliefs of atheism (after all, you are trying to impact the religious practices of others with your beliefs right now) are right? And, please, don't hold a monopoly of truth from the rest of us. Share why you are right, and everyone else is wrong. After all, if you were wrong, and they were right, you wouldn't be telling everyone to reject truth, no?

While I don't believe that religion should play a role in the military; if religion plays a role in your personal life... Awesome. I encourage you to love and follow your personal choice of religion or non-religion in a peaceful, tolerant, and respectful manner.

Just understand that not everyone should/will have the same viewpoints nor does anyone have to be a part of it or believe it. =) The true meaning of "Coexist".

It definitely does. In the personal home, bed, cot, sleeping bag, or room of the individual soldier or in an optional group gathering.