The separation of church and state is a founding principle of American democracy. Has this separation disappeared in the American military? This doctrine was established in the first amendment of our constitution.
Congress Shall Make No Law Respecting The Establishment Of Religion Or Prohibiting The Free Exercise Thereof.
One of the most common misconceptions is that a person has the right not to practice religion period. According to one online website?Military Religious Freedom.org, that is not the case in today’s American Military Complex.
As reported in,?The Real News.com op-ed piece by Matt?Palvesky, former counsel to Ronald Reagan Michael Weinstein, after his two sons were subjected to anti-semantic behavior by other candidate’s started the aforementioned website to reinstate the establishment clause of the first amendment to guarantee this religious freedom. The founder [Weinstein] stated the following existing problems:
- Christian Fundamentalist
- Premillennialism
- Dispensationalism
- Christian?Reconstructionist?
- Dominionism
- Evangelicalism
There have been some evidence that these type beliefs encompass about 12.6 percent of the American population.?Weinstein, points out that Hitler had only 8% that shared his viewpoints when he took control of Germany. These above mentioned viewpoints represent about 38 million people in America today. However,?Weinstein?stated that these percentages go way up in our current military to the tune of about 30 percent. The mindset of these Christian soldiers for lack of term, is they are apart of the ” The Great Commission.”
Basically, the position the U.S. Military is taking is that irregardless of the Constitution and Federal Law, they have the right to push this biblical viewpoint on the rest of the world.?Weinstein, goes on to say, that this biblical doctrine trumps all circumstances, time, place or manner. What is scary they view this as an absolute at the exclusion of everybody else. Moreover, the U.S. Military Complex has garrisoned over some 737 bases across the globe. What is concerning?Weinstein?more than anything, is on each of these military installations is two Christian organizations one for the officers called the?Officers Christian Fellowship, and one for the enlisted personal called the?Christian Military Fellowship.
Their own stated goals is to raise up a Godly army. This is their own words and not this writers viewpoint. These organization want to see a spiritually transformed army of offices and soldiers. They want to have ambassadors for Christ in uniforms. All which are to be empowered by the holy spirit. Their stated mission and?battle-plan?is to reclaim all the worldly territories from their enemies which are empowered by Satan.
What if you are an officer or enlisted person in today’s military and you are not down with their battle plan?
In short, “get out of my face, preacher man” is not an option for officers and soldiers who want nothing to do with the above mentioned organizations. According to Weinstein, over eight-thousand officers and soldiers have contacted their website, many who claim to be Christians themselves, reporting harassment from superiors,?” shoving this theological battle-plan down their throats.”?The reason this is dangerous is that we have people of this “conquer the world in the name of God” mindset with guns, bombs, and the access to push the button on a nuclear weapon. Because of this access to weapons of mass destruction, the Military Religious Freedom organization has filed a lawsuit in a Kansas City federal court against the?United States Dept of Defense?. The narrative of the organizations lawsuit is a pervasive, permissive, pattern and practice of unconstitutional actions against the religious freedoms of both our officers and enlisted soldiers. They call it the 4 P’s lawsuit. The Military Religious Freedom organization has put their money where their mouth is and has told anyone who has a problem with their lawsuit to in short,?” Tell It To The Judge.”
We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched.
The above comment was made by Brig.Gen. Cecil R. Richardson in a 2005,?New York Times op-ed.?Let’s stop and think about that comment. The mere fact that his statement suggests that men and women, both officer and enlisted alike, would be evangelized for being in their observation unchurched, is in essence a clear violation of the church and state clause. One of the basic standing operating orders in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was that our troops were not to be proselytized to or would our soldiers attempt to do the same to our enemies or the indigenous people of the these two named countries. According to Weinstein, the above mentioned military religious organizations have been guilty of doing the exact opposite of this standing directive from the Pentagon.
