Contrary to the popular phrase, atheists do exist in foxholes, according to an organization fighting to support the nonreligious in uniform.

Atheists and others with no religious affiliation comprise 21 percent of the U.S. Armed Forces, according to a recent joint release from the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, or MAAF, and the Secular Coalition for America.  These organizations are calling on President-elect Barack Obama to vet new appointments and promotions within the administration to ensure candidates are committed “to fostering a secular military that protects the religious liberty and freedom of conscience of our soldiers.”  

The group also wants the incoming secretary of defense to require all military branches to update regulations banning the promotion of religion over nonreligion, proselytizing, discrimination, and ensuring chaplains counsel and support all equally.  It wants a survey to determine what problems may exist, and it is asking for a commission to create channels for reporting violations of regulations in the matter as well as recommend improvements to training and regulations “ensuring diversity among the Chaplain Corps.”  The complete policy memo is available at www.secular.org.

These organizations contend that the changes are needed because the rights of the nonreligious are in jeopardy.  Jason Torpy, executive director of MMAF, said if Equal Opportunity offices view atheists as nonreligious then these soldiers lose certain protections.

“That means that all the rights to exercise freedom of conscience aren’t extended to them the way those rights are given to religious service members,” Torpy said.  “It also means that if a nontheist loses a promotion because they’re a nontheist, it must not, by definition, have been because of religion, so they have no recourse under religious protections.”

Torpy said that’s wrong.

“Nontheism is a real category in real life, and it affects how people are treated, but if it’s not a category on paper, nontheists have nowhere to turn when their rights are denied.”

 

Torpy and other members of his organization claim a religious bias exists in the military, thus creating the need for more protections.

“When I was in Iraq, a chaplain was promoting prayer at the commander’s staff meeting in the unit next to mine,” said Torpy.  “This chaplain was a major. When I asked him about whether it was appropriate to insert prayer into this meeting, he told me it was his mission to win souls for Jesus.”

Torpy said, “Chaplains from evangelical denominations believe it is their duty — not to country, mind you, but to their god — to make sure everyone they meet accepts Christ as their savior.

“Chaplains are the officers charged with running programs like Strong Bonds, which is heavily funded and not advertised as religious in nature,” he continued.  “At our press conference, Major Laurel Williams described one Strong Bonds seminar she attended in Orlando where everyone was given a Bible, and the other literature handed out was biblically based. It was all about loving your family like Jesus loved the Church and how finding Christ will make you a better spouse. The materials were packed into a special camouflage design box that had ‘New Life Ministries’ printed on it; the box was called ‘Every Soldier’s Battle Kit.’”

Reviewing the Strong Bonds Web site, not one word mentioning God or religion could be found.

At the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School, the Web site (www.usachcs.army.mil) proclaims “Religious Support Starts Here.”  The official song of the U.S. Army Chaplaincy is “Soldiers of God,” and the center’s crest reads “Pro Deo et Patria,” or “For God and Country.”   Religion is not mentioned, however, in the center’s mission statement or vision statement.

Torpy says chaplains have an obligation to attend to all without proselytizing.

“At the MAAF Web site we have posted the regulations that outline what military chaplains’ professional obligations are, and only a portion of their duties relate to performing religious services,” Torpy said.  “Chaplains’ duties are actually largely secular, like maintaining unit morale, advising the chain of command on the religious climate and morale, and counseling service members on things like family relationships (and) financial decisions.”

Torpy said it’s not a matter of avoiding chaplains if you are an atheist or even nonreligious for certain services because chaplains have protections such as confidentiality.

“It would be functionally impossible to establish a new organization that has the respect and confidence of the chain of command that chaplains now do,” Torpy said of creating another corps. “It’s most practical to work with the structures already in place.”

Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Carleton Birch, strategic communications for the Army’s Chief of Chaplains, said he always respects the faith and non-faith of soldiers he counsels as do the other chaplains he knows.

“We have 2,600 part-time and full-time chaplains and they work very hard to represent their faith community well and serve the religious needs of all soldiers and their commands,” Birch said.

Birch said he has not had a soldier complain to him about being disrespectful of their beliefs — in fact, his experience has been rather the opposite.

“I’ve had atheists and Wiccans thank me for respecting their belief systems,” Birch said.

As of press time, Birch said his office was not prepared to release an official response to the MAAF’s press release or policy requests.

In the MAAF’s recent press release it stated two current cases of alleged discrimination, writing, “former Army First Lieutenant Wayne Adkins resigned his commission in the Ohio Army National Guard in 2006 because his superiors refused to hear his formal complaints after the Army systematically thwarted his efforts to lodge a formal complaint against a general who opined that there are no atheists in foxholes; Adkins contends this statement qualifies as unlawful discrimination under current Army regulations.  Army Reserve Major Laurel Williams has served in Military Intelligence since 1985, both active and reserve, including a yearlong deployment during Operation Enduring Freedom. Williams is pursuing a complaint against a military chaplain who used a family counseling event to proselytize.” 

A call to the chief of Army Chaplains in Washington, D.C., went unreturned.