Office of Spiritual Fitness

In what could be a chapter from The Handmaid's Tale, the U.S. military gave a consulting firm $3,500,000 to provide "spiritual fitness" services and required soldiers to attend evangelical Christian concerts at a cost of $30,000 - $100,000 per concert.

Another problem with these concerts, besides the issues like soldiers being punished for choosing not to attend them, is that they are run by the commanders, and not the chaplains' offices. It is absolutely permissible for a chaplain's office to put on a Christian concert. It is not permissible for the command to put on a Christian concert, or any other religious event. Having a religious concert series that is actually called and promoted as a Commanding General's Concert Series is completely over the top.

And then there's the cost. These concerts aren't just small events with local Christian bands. We're talking about the top, nationally known, award-winning Christian artists, with headline acts costing anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000, and even many of the opening acts being in the $10,000 range.

The cost of these concerts led MRFF's research department to start looking at some of the DoD contracts for other "spiritual fitness" events and programs, and what we found was astounding. One contract, for example, awarded to an outside consulting firm to provide "spiritual fitness" services, was for $3.5 million.

Unfuckingbelievable. I don't have anything clever to say about this. Millions of dollars of tax money spent on proselytizing to our troops, those same troops receiving inadequate care for their trauma and injury, those same troops protected by separation of church and state- you know, the Constitution they're supposed to be defending? Yeah, that.

Does It Really Represent Them?

aclu, war, memorial, vietnam, christian, atheism, atheist, jesus, cross, soldiers, honor, memorial

The ACLU is the ultimate boogeyman for conservatives of all stripes, but no one hates the ACLU more than fundys. The ACLU is, to them, the army of darkness attempting to stamp Christianity out entirely, through the clever removal of religious displays on public property. (You just can't believe unless everyone else does, too, apparently.)

Normally I ignore this whingeing from the fundys, because it's asinine, but this case pissed me off.

You see, there is a large war memorial out in the Mojave Desert. I have no problem with war memorials or honoring the sacrifices of soldiers, but that's not what this is about. The war memorial is a giant cross. That's it. A really big, white cross on a hill.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for TMLC, said, “Through our brief and the compelling stories of the war heroes we represent, we want the court to feel the devastating impact removing crosses will have on those who have sacrificed so much for this country.”
“Since the beginning of America,” Mr. Thompson continued, “crosses have been used to memorialize our fallen war veterans and to give solace to their families and comrades.

Ironically, the Ninth Circuit used the very constitution these veterans defended with their lives to order the destruction of the memory of their heroic sacrifices. Sadly, the cross in the Mojave Desert is currently covered from view until the appeal is resolved.”

Who does a cross honor? It's not soldiers. A cross honors Jesus. One might make the argument that a cross honors Christian soldiers, but I'm not sure I accept that. Even assuming a giant cross honors Christian soldiers, are all US soldiers- and surely you agree that all US soldiers deserve honoring- Christian? No. So, what about those other soldiers? Why should we exclude them from war memorials? Why shouldn't they be honored?

The reason this pisses me off is the picture above. That woman is hugging the grave of her son, a US soldier who died in combat. He was a US soldier, and a Muslim. She's hugging the grave because that's all she has left of her son. Is her son's sacrifice less because he wasn't Christian? Is her suffering less because her dead son wasn't Christian? Should we honor her dead son's- and all the other nonchristians- sacrifice less because he wasn't Christian?

No. We should honor all the soldiers, and all their families. We should not exclude the atheists and the Mulisms and the Jews and all the rest. Their sacrifice means as much as anyone else's. We don't need to praise Jesus to remember our falllen soldiers. The Vietnam War Memorial is a beautiful, secular tribute to those who died in the Vietnam War. It acknowledges everyone equally, and excludes no one. That's what we should be supporting for our fallen soldiers. Jesus has plenty of tributes already, he doesn't need another at the expense of soldiers who sacrificed their lives for us.

Random Notes

war, iraq, afghanistan, soldiers, ptsd, brain, injuries, torquemada, gay, marriage, tradition, traditional, homosexual, homophobia, dalai lama
When I was very little, and my older sister was ignoring me (which she frequently was), I would play this game where I would poke her, gently, until she exploded. (You know how kids are.)

I mention this because if you do anything to someone often enough, poke them, call them names, lie about them, push to legislate them into permanent second class citizens, they will eventually explode. Everyone on earth will explode in this situation, no matter how calm and good natured they are. I imagine, if you did it long enough, you could poke the Dalai Lama* into exploding. (At least a month of poking 24 hours a day. That man is calm. And happy. I like the Dalai Lama.)

Angie seems not to have figured this out yet. Perhaps she is calmer than the Dalai Lama, which I doubt, or perhaps she judges the gay community just a touch more harshly than herself. You decide.

It can be daunting and intimidating to face such a virulent, violent rage that is at the core of the homosexual movement.

You know what, Angie? I'll be happy to explain this to you. Come over here where I can poke you.

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I truly hate the use of violent words and metaphors to describe what are, or should be, nonviolent events.

Volly brought up an excellent example of this in a comment:

Back in my Christian days, I took a course at church called "Becoming a Contagious Christian." The companion book had the same title. At least twice in the book and during the lectures, the author and the class leader used the expression "Hold their feet to the fire." I didn't finish the course because of that. All I could think of was Torquemada. He was pretty "contagious" too, from what I've heard.

How couldn't you think of Torquemada when hearing that? I also hate references to "war", "battle" and "revolution" that have been flying about the interwebz lately. The US is currently involved in two real life wars (or conflicts, or whatever we're calling them these days): Afghanistan and Iraq. Real life soldiers, brave men and women all, are dying. Real people are coming home without arms or legs, coming home with brain injuries and PTSD. Real people are suffering horribly, and that's not to mention the Afghanis and Iraqis that are suffering horribly.

To compare your attempts to deny same sex marriage, or your unhappiness that the GOP is no longer in charge, with what is going on in Afghanistan and Iraq right now is comtemptable. You're not in a war. You're at no risk of dying or losing a leg or not being able to write your name. Give it up.

*The Dalai Lama has his own website! Squeeee!!

There Are Atheists in Foxholes!

The most ridiculous of attempts to debunk the existence of atheism is the statement, "there are no atheists in foxholes."

Well, there are! They have their own organization, Atheists in Foxholes.

If you would like to send a card to an atheist in a foxhole, please do:

Operation Foxhole Atheists
PO BOX 41
Ryland, AL 35767-2000