I guess that I just don't understand some people. I read the bible at home, but I don't particularly care for church services because of the political bent to many church services. I don't really understand the various groups and organizations that intend to suppress all mention of any sort of religion out of all aspects of public life.
One or two years ago, there was a bit of a fuss at SeaTac International Airport. A rabbi, seeing a large Christmas tree at the airport complained. He wasn't complaining about the presence of the tree, rather he thought that a Jewish symbol to celebrate Hanukkah should be displayed along with the tree. This seemed to be a pretty legitimate point of view. The Port of Seattle responded by removing the Christmas tree. The rabbi felt bad about it and said that this was not his intention and that they should put the tree back up. I think the rabbi was being very reasonable in his request, but the hyper-sensitivity to this sort of complaint caused a huge overreaction.
I don't understand how come people feel repressed because a courthouse chooses to display the Ten Commandments or because their child has to utter the word God when they say the pledge of allegiance. I always write these attitudes off to people that go out of their way to be offended by something. For me, if something offends me, I tend to ignore it.
When I was in the navy, I never felt particularly threatened by people that attended services on the boat. When I was stationed on a sub tender, they used to have an evening prayer. Many ceremonies had an invocation prayer. I don't know of anyone that was offended by it. I certainly never felt that there was any sort of overt effort to pressure me into joining in something that I didn't believe in. The tender even had Wiccan services. I thought that the people that participated were a little goofy, but to each his own.
Apparently, not all military members share my point of view and they see a more malevolent side to religion in the military. There is an article in Stripes about a group protesting against the huge amount of religious discrimination in the military. I would guess that if anyone in the military were to be discriminated against on a religious basis, it would be Muslims. I was wrong, though. The biggest targets are atheists, at least according to this group.
One or two years ago, there was a bit of a fuss at SeaTac International Airport. A rabbi, seeing a large Christmas tree at the airport complained. He wasn't complaining about the presence of the tree, rather he thought that a Jewish symbol to celebrate Hanukkah should be displayed along with the tree. This seemed to be a pretty legitimate point of view. The Port of Seattle responded by removing the Christmas tree. The rabbi felt bad about it and said that this was not his intention and that they should put the tree back up. I think the rabbi was being very reasonable in his request, but the hyper-sensitivity to this sort of complaint caused a huge overreaction.
I don't understand how come people feel repressed because a courthouse chooses to display the Ten Commandments or because their child has to utter the word God when they say the pledge of allegiance. I always write these attitudes off to people that go out of their way to be offended by something. For me, if something offends me, I tend to ignore it.
When I was in the navy, I never felt particularly threatened by people that attended services on the boat. When I was stationed on a sub tender, they used to have an evening prayer. Many ceremonies had an invocation prayer. I don't know of anyone that was offended by it. I certainly never felt that there was any sort of overt effort to pressure me into joining in something that I didn't believe in. The tender even had Wiccan services. I thought that the people that participated were a little goofy, but to each his own.
Apparently, not all military members share my point of view and they see a more malevolent side to religion in the military. There is an article in Stripes about a group protesting against the huge amount of religious discrimination in the military. I would guess that if anyone in the military were to be discriminated against on a religious basis, it would be Muslims. I was wrong, though. The biggest targets are atheists, at least according to this group.
"When they say 'there are no atheists in foxholes' it's slanderous," said Wayne Adkins, a former Army first lieutenant who served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. "To deny their existence is to deny that they serve."If a person considers the phrase "There are no athiests in a foxhole" offensive, they must be the same sort of people that go out of there way to feel offended. I also think that they are completely missing the point of the phrase. I sure don't think that this phrase was ever intended to deny the existence of athiests.
Anyway, maybe I was just blind for 20 years. Did anyone else feel that they are (or have been) discriminated against for religious reasons while they were in the military?
2 comments:
Nah. The only guy I ever was offended by was a Scientologist on the Parche. It wasn't even the religion part of it that bothered me. It was just that he was a jerk and never shut up about it.
There isn't usually universal agreement on Subs but everybody thought he was a jerk.
There weren't many religious on the old Seawolf. The enlisted ones that were, Catholic, protestants, Jews, Mormons all would get together in the lower level of the torpedo room and have prayer meetings and confess their sins.
It was kind of cute. It bothered me a little but only because my rack was down there and sometimes I was trying to catch a wink.
It was Easter Sunday, and we had just finished running eight hours of engineering drills "to get ready for ORSE."
I was supposed to be studying for the Prospective Engineers Exam. But I had broken out my bible and was reading about easter from the gospels.
The Executive Officer and Engineer came in and the XO shit on me for "not studying for the engineer's exam." I told them that on easter I figured we could have a little religion on the boat.
This got out to the jeezoids on the boat and I picked up some "attaboy"
points for zinging the XO. And to think I was and am an atheist.
Post a Comment