Religious Groups Worry about Possible Military Purge

Air Force meets with folks who want those who proselytize court-martialed

Religious liberty groups have grave concerns after they learned the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to "rape" and advocated that military personnel who proselytize should be court martialed.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is calling on the Air Force to enforce a regulation that they believe calls for the court martial of any service member caught proselytizing.

President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a "tidal wave of fundamentalists."

(Hat tip to Francisco d'Anconia)

Comments

[Sevo]

Looks like the smoke put the fire out.

[Steve G]

This is one of the dumbest article I've read in a while. As a former (2x) AF commander, this is a non-issue. While court martial is a possbility, I don't seet this ever getting to that point, much less a "purge" from the military. Here's the scenario: dude wants to share his new-found joy with Jebus Crikes with his buddies. Dude is told to stop. Dude continues and is then counseled (officially). Dude continues and is then reprimanded. Dude is stupid enough to keep doing it, then is probably hit w/ non-judicial punishment (below court martial). Thennnnnn it arrives in court martial territory. This is just a bunch of right-wing nuts afraid of the evil atheists...

[ant1sthenes]

Or just people concerned about the already aggressively authoritarian left trying to create a hostile environment to right wingers in the (right-leaning) military in order to drive them out and wield greater influence.

The military is one of the few institutions the prog/fascist elites don't completely own, and any theories about the result of a popular anti-government revolt tend to assume some fraction of the military will defect rather than slaughter Americans. If successful, this could change that calculus.

Although, I expect semi-autonomous combat drones will have the same effect, assuming you just a small cadre of Party loyalists controlling them on a virtual battlefield in RTS fashion.

[Steve G]

I might buy that if this article appeared anywhere but the christian post. The bias and selective sourcing is overwhelming. Did the pentagon meet with anyone on the other side of the issue? We don't know since the article doesn't tell it. The only real thing that happened is this "rabid" atheist group gave input to the policy. That's it. Also, there's no "widespread problems" with fundamentalism in the military. These 'new' regulations are several years old and came out of the AF Academy pseudo-scandal. There are no "attacks" on religion in military, just some folks who'd like freedom FROM religion. Finally, there's a big difference between talking about god and proselytizing.