Christian Bigot Shuts Down Atheist Meeting in Iraq, Atheist Sues

Spec. Jeremy Hall, a soldier assigned to Fort Riley's 97th Military Police Battalion, tried to hold a meeting of atheists and freethinkers at his base in Iraq but was stopped just as it was beginning. An Army Major who reportedly lied by first saying he was a freethinker objected to the idea of atheists being organized and public. Apparently a fundamentalist Christian, this "defender of the Constitution" decided that the presence of atheists was too objectionable to accord them any rights under the Constitution and threatened all the attendees with retaliation for having the gall to expect equality in the military.

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which is helping Hall with his lawsuit, said it is the first of many. "We're going to expose the pernicious practice and pattern of these massive violations of the Constitution," Weinstein said. "That we had to go to this extent is just a heinous disgrace that defies any possible explanation."

Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a Defense Department spokesman, said that he wasn't aware of the lawsuit but that the military places a "high value" on the right of military personnel to practice their faith. "It is DoD policy that requests for accommodation of religious practices should be approved by commanders when accommodation will not have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, standards or discipline," he said.

The lawsuit claims Hall was forced to "submit to a religious test as a qualification to his post as a soldier." Hall and the foundation are asking the court to block Welborne from establishing "compulsory religious practices" and order Gates to prevent Welborne from interfering with Hall's free speech rights.

Source: Newsday

Here is how the incident was described when it occurred in August:

One of our members, a young Atheist enlisted soldier, thought he would like to see if he could generate some interest in MAAF meetings at his Forward Operating Base (FOB) here in Iraq (not the base I’m at, by the way). He got things coordinated and started hanging flyers, and after weeks of having to re-hang his flyers almost daily because some vandal kept tearing them down, he finally succeeded in having a small MAAF meeting. I wasn’t there because the meeting wasn’t on my FOB, but I knew he was holding it and was expecting to hear from him after the meeting. Keep in mind that this young soldier did everything right - he went through the Chaplain’s office and jumped through all the hoops it takes to legally hold meetings that are religiously or philosophically based. Four soldiers attended this meeting - all of them very junior enlisted soldiers with the exception of one Major (an O-4), who claimed to be a “freethinker”.

Well, to make a very long story a little shorter, the Major turned out to be a fundamentalist Christian who verbally berated the other attendees, accused them of plotting against Christians and disrespecting soldiers who have died protecting the Constitution, and threatened them with punishment under the UCMJ for their activities (said they were “going down”) and said he would do whatever it took to shut the meetings down. Keep in mind that by this point, he had two of the attendees (one soldier fled when the shouting started) standing at the position of attention so that he could yell at them, berate them, and humiliate them. This apparently went on for several minutes at which time the Major shut down the meeting by saying he wasn’t some “push-over Chaplain” and that he would not tolerate the meetings to continue.

Source: No God Blog

It should simply go without saying that the behavior of this major was completely unacceptable, out of line, and perhaps even illegal. There shouldn't have been any problems with giving atheists permission to meet in the first place; once permission was given, there shouldn't have been any reason for anyone to complain — much less make such juvenile threats. What sort of totalitarian, authoritarian, and anti-American mindset is required for a military officer to imagine that he has both the authority and the right to threaten atheist subordinates for daring to try to enjoy the same rights, privileges, and freedom as Christians?

Hall's experience is being treated as a symptom of how America's military is being subverted by conservative evangelicals who are using it for their own religious purposes rather than for the intended purpose of defending the nation. There is good reason for that conclusion because this wasn't the first time that Jeremy Hall suffered discrimination because of not being a Christian:

The complaint, filed in US District Court in Kansas City, by the nonprofit Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), on behalf of Jeremy Hall, an Army specialist currently on active duty in Speicher, Iraq, alleges that Hall's First Amendment rights were violated beginning last Thanksgiving when, because of his atheist beliefs, he declined to participate in a Christian prayer ceremony commemorating the holiday.

"Immediately after plaintiff made it known he would decline to join hands and pray, he was confronted, in the presence of other military personnel, by the senior ranking ... staff sergeant who asked plaintiff why he did not want to pray, whereupon plaintiff explained because he is an atheist," says the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to Truthout. "The staff sergeant asked plaintiff what an atheist is and plaintiff responded it meant that he (plaintiff) did not believe in God. This response caused the staff sergeant to tell plaintiff that he would have to sit elsewhere for the Thanksgiving dinner. Nonetheless, plaintiff sat at the table in silence and finished his meal."

Source: Scoop

Note that this earlier incident did not involve the same major; instead, Hall was berated by an entirely different person. You don't find atheists in the military yelling at and threatening Christians for presuming to pray in public, but Christians feel comfortable with yelling at and threatening atheists for not praying. What's wrong with this picture? Why do some conservative, evangelical Christians want to treat the American military as if it were an armed wing of their own church?

According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation press release about the lawsuit:

When Hall attempted to convene the meeting it was disrupted by Major Paul Welborne who threatened to initiate an action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice against Hall. In the lawsuit, Hall and MRFF claim that Welborne's conduct is part of a larger pattern of DoD intolerance for religious diversity.

...Army Major Paul Welborne disrupted the meeting and threatened to retaliate against Hall by charging him with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice and vowed to block Hall's reenlistment in the Army because of Hall’s role in organizing the meeting, a violation of Hall's First Amendment rights under the Constitution.

The complaint charges that Hall, who is based at Ft. Riley, Kansas, has been forced to "submit to a religious test as a qualification to his post as a soldier in the United States Army," a violation of Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution.

Weinstein's foundation has received thousands of calls from people in the military who are worried about the rise of militant religion around them. Most are actually Christians, not atheists or adherents of other religions, which should help reinforce two things: it's not just non-Christians who suffer when this happens and people like the major and the staff sergeant in the incidents above are not really acting on behalf of all Christians generally — which is to say that even if they are successful in their efforts, they won't be benefiting Christians generally.

These incidents are like so many others where evangelical Christians act like they don't have to abide by the same standards of decency, civil conduct, and even morality as everyone else. Why? Apparently their conviction of the truth of their religion gives them license to do whatever is necessary to keep telling everyone how right they are — and how much others will suffer if they don't acknowledge this. If their god can send people to suffer in hell for all eternity for nothing more than not believing, why should they not be rude and suppress others in order to prevent people from not believing?