Summary:
Soldier is openly discriminated against for not being Christian while on tour in Iraq. He sues the DoD and Secretary of Defense - but he's not suing for money, he's suing them to change their policies on faith in the service.
While I applaud him, I really do, I can't help but think this will prove ultimately ineffective. The DoD does not condone what was done to him. The Secretary of Defense does not condone it either. However, because each individual command has a near autonomous control over it's personnel, commands separately develop "climates." This means that while one base appears to be full of bitter, system-bucking, party-animals another command might literally be polar opposite. This culture takes years to build and does not change quickly. Policies and directives are a start, but they only go as far as they are enforced. And when it comes to Faith, some Commanding Officers follow the policies and directives differently then others. It isn't right - but it happens.
It happens a lot because the normal tight-lipped soldier will say nothing. He isn't stupid. His supervisor, his supervisor's supervisor, and so forth all answer to a Commanding Officer who has decided to enforce Christianity at his command. If he raises the issue on this, he knows he will be contending with - literally - his entire command against him while the very slow wheels of military bureaucracy roll into action possibly years later. While those wheels are starting to roll, his career is over, he's getting the absolute worst assignments, and he has his entire chain of command actively searching for a reason to take disciplinary action against him. It's a courageous fight to raise an issue like this - but have no doubt, this soldier is a pariah at his command now.
I don't know how to fix it. As an atheist, I saw some of the same things he brings up in this article, but not to the extent he advertises in his case. I had to swear on a bible. I had to listen to prayers over our announcing circuits. I had to stand watch on Sunday morning (not forced, just sorely encouraged) so that Christians could go to church.
I only hope something good - something effective - comes out of this. Because this soldier has already given up his career to start the ball rolling.
7 comments:
You kidding me! I thought a professional army standardized these things- they really are up to the whims of company commanders?
I didn't realize the military was so... chaotic. Why is it like that?
It's a culture. The commanding officer, by the very nature of his position and responsibilities, has an immense amount of input into his command. Also, because CO tours are relatively short, senior enlisted in the command play a very big part in shaping how that command behaves, especially among the enlisted.
Well baby fuckin' Jesus, I see your having to deal with Sye TenB and his theories of absolute here too, that's too bad.
Ask him what absolute means (he'll say it means "NOT RELATIVE"). After that, tell him to prove that absolutes exist without human experience (afterall if they're not relative, then they exist outside human experience and are not contingent upon you're existance). Since he can't prove that, he'll ask you more bogus questions in an effort to avoid you're question to try and lead you back to thinking absolutes exist. But again, he'll never prove it himself, his tactic is simply get you to question yourself. It's absolutely comical, well maybe not absolutely so, as in "not relative"
By the way, I'm not absolutely certain I just typed all that.
Understand that the question, "does absolute truth exist", applies only to logic. The answer is a negation. The question itself does not apply objectively, which is to say you cannot substitute it for God or little green men. If you fall into the trap of saying it doesn't exist,,, well, you know the drill.
And by the way, newtonian Physics and Gravity are no longer valid and thus an example of a natural law that was not absolute (but he didn't seem to know much about physics). Newton did not take into account relativity at the time, and thus did not know that time, space and mass varied with velocity.
True is what works by way of belief my friend. he belives in absolutes, I guess that works for him.
Good post, Rob, I'm linking it...
Sarcilege,
thanks for you comment. If you'd like, you can find Sye currently posting at Ray Comfort's blog:
http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/
And at the raytractors:
http://raytractors.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-just-puked-in-my-mouth-little.html
He has already been debased, but if you'd like to join in and kick him in the nuts too, feel free.
The irony is that Sye the Blogger of Evidence Lost, seems to be a pretty popular guy.
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