Candace
Talmadge
Read Candace's bio and previous columns
September 29, 2008
Atheists in Uniform
Fight Back Against Religious Radicals in the Ranks
U.S. Army medic Dustin
Chalker, a decorated Iraq combat veteran and atheist, last week sued the
U.S. Department of Defense and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, claiming
he was forced to attend military events where fundamentalist Christian
prayers violated his constitutional rights.
Chalker’s experience
with religious coercion by his chain of command is pervasive in today’s
U.S. military under the George W. Bush Administration, according to
Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom
Foundation.
Weinstein says
extremist Christians are engaging in a widespread pattern of
unconstitutional sectarian activity in all branches of the military, the
Coast Guard, and reserves like the National Guard.
As of mid-September,
the MRFF had collected more than 9,100 reports about such activities at
a rate of 80 to 100 per week. By far most of those complaining – 96
percent – come from other Christian service or reserve members who are
being targeted because “they are not Christian enough,” in Weinstein’s
words.
In fact, sectarian
activities in the military pose a domestic national security threat that
the country ignores at its peril, Weinstein warns: “What will it take to
get Americans to wake up and see what’s going on?”
The religious
extremists involved are known as Christian Dominionists and Christian
Reconstructionists, among other names. They do not acknowledge any
separation of church and state, and aim to remake this country as a
Christian theocracy – the Christian counterparts of the Taliban/Al Qaeda
nexus. Weinstein says they are active on all 737 U.S. military bases
around the world.
“Dominionist Christians
want to waterboard everyone into accepting their worldview,” adds
Weinstein, a 1977 honors graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Albuquerque, N.M.-based
MRFF is a partner in this new lawsuit, as it is in an earlier and
similar legal action involving another Iraq war veteran, Spc. Jeremy
Hall. The plaintiff in the latest case, Chalker, joined the Army in 2002
and earned the Combat Medic Badge and a Purple Heart in Iraq.
According to the
Chalker lawsuit, on May 16, 2008; February 7, 2008; and December 5,
2007; the medic was ordered to attend a barbecue, a change of command
ceremony and a formation upon returning from Iraq, respectively, where
sectarian Christian prayers were offered. The suit states that Chalker
has asked his commanding officers to be relieved from attending such
events without success.
Forcing Chalker to
attend events where sectarian prayers take place “was and is contrary to
clearly established law and has the effect of denying plaintiff Chalker
his constitutional right to be free of sectarian religious practices as
guaranteed by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment,” the suit
argues. It also asserts that mandatory attendance at sectarian
activities amounts to a religious test as a qualification for duty as a
soldier and, as such, violates Chalker’s rights under Article 6, Clause
3 of the U.S. Constitution.
Both the Chalker and
Hall cases are being heard in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas. The
Hall lawsuit alleges that while the specialist was in Iraq in 2007, an
Army Reserve officer prevented Hall from convening a meeting of atheists
and other non-Christians – an activity that is protected under military
regulations. The lawsuit also claims that the officer, Major Freddy J.
Welborn, threatened to take action against Hall, that Hall was denied a
promotion after returning to Fort Riley, N.C., and that Hall continues
to be harassed simply for being an atheist and for taking part in the
MRFF lawsuit. The Department of Defense has filed a motion to dismiss
that case.
The MRFF and its
co-plaintiffs are not very popular among the targets of their legal
actions. Earlier this month, Hall found on his cell phone a message
laced with sexual and racial obscenities in which the caller threatens
to kill Hall and rape his wife and mother.
Weinstein is only too
familiar with the pattern. “I get eight to 12 death threats a week,” he
explains. “The tires of my cars have been slashed, the windows of my
home have been blown out. I find dead animals on my porch.” His house
and family are under constant security protection. “I’m at war right
now.”
Although the MRFF has
not yet reached the point of proposing remedies, Weinstein says he plans
to ask the court to mandate education about the separation of church and
state during basic training for all branches of the military and
reserves. Then he wants about 400 courts-martial for “the highest
ranking officers to the lowest – basically for being fundamentalist
Christian predators in uniform.”
Onward Christian
soldiers? Not in the U.S. military. Not if Mikey Weinstein wins his war
in court.
© 2008
North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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