Atheist Soldier Sues The DoD, and The Evolution of Compassion
July 8, 2008 on 8:26 am | In culture, ethics, politics | 6 CommentsThis April, The New York Times reported the case of U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Hall, a soldier who started a chapter of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers and subsequently had to be removed from Iraq due to numerous threats from his fellow soldiers. Now, I’m not exactly surprised by this. I’d expect the military to be drooling with evangelicals, of course. And I could probably cynically overlook verbal harassment of an atheist in the armed forces, just because I expect that sort of bullshit from indoctrinated meat-heads. But physical threats? That really is beyond the pale. Now, Spc. Hall is suing the Department of Defense and former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld for failing to protect his freedom from religious persecution as protected by the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution. You go boy.
Seriously, this is not the sort of reputation the military should want, given that non-religious Americans are the largest (non) religious group after Christians. They have enough trouble recruiting as it is! This is just another example, sadly, of Christians thinking the world revolves around them. It’s bad enough that brave men and women who are devoted to the service of their country were blithely thrown into harm’s way in Iraq by a callous and evangelically-motivated administration… but non-religious soldiers’ lives are threatened by their loving, Christian comrades-in-arms as well? What a disgusting blemish on our armed forces. I hope Spc. Hall wins his lawsuit and the DoD cracks down on prosyletizing by officers.
I haven’t posted anything in a while, have I? Still, life marches on. I got some paperwork done that’s been taking forever (to put it mildly). I also was inspired by the news I wrote about in my previous post, and decided to read Robert Axelrod’s The Evolution of Compassion. This book tells the story of his experiment: a computer tournament in the early 1980s that pitted programs submitted by game theorists from various academic disciplines (as well as an 11 year old computer prodigy) in the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma game (a classic thought experiment). It’s quite interesting, and you can expect me to write a more in-depth review when I’ve finished it.
P.S. – I would love to get some comments on my posts. If you’re reading this, any feedback will be appreciated. It’s hard to talk myself into posting when it feels like no one is reading! I’d really like to get this blog fired up.
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In the US Military, the rules are set up specifically to prevent displays and actions of prejudice and to uphold equality of treatment and provisions of opportunity. The officers that stated their beliefs against others did so within the military organization and thus violated those rules. Outside of work or outside the organization, people should be free to say and think whatever they want most of the time. However, this freedom of verbalizing bigoted beliefs does not apply to people enlisted in the military due again to the rules and code of honor of being a representative member and those rules are in effect 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until a person leaves service. Therefore, under military law, you cannot violate military rules even while you are off duty. The basic underlying aim of military law and code of honor is to provide equal and lawful treatment.
The president of the United States as acting Commander in Chief should not condone any act of bigotry in the military, no matter what the president’s personal beliefs. He or she should also uphold the constitution and code of ethics regarding federal employees and acceptable conduct along the same lines as stated here.
Chaplains are government employees in service of the military and fall under the same rules of the military. Although some do not, Chaplains under the law are required to treat atheists as equally as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Satanists, and so on. The military is designed for working together, cooperation between, and mutual protection of other personnel in order to operate in an efficiently cohesive and safe manner. People with strong, uncontrollable beliefs against other groups or individuals would be better off staying out of the military.
Every individual of any group or implied group of whatever belief or non-belief should feel and be equally treated and should be afforded equal opportunity while in military service — with no exceptions. Every enlisted person and commissioned officer needs to realize that military law requires the same of them regarding all other people with no exceptions.
Should the policy about beliefs be the same generally accepted policy regarding sexual orientation of “don’t ask, don’t tell” while in the military? Maybe for now as long as everyone within also does not act or divulge negative feelings toward anyone they dislike. Ideally, in the military, even if others know specific orientations of people, they are restricted from acting against or harassing those people with which they do not agree.
Non governmental organizations, which are all private organizations, are free to teach, preach, and protest any belief they want as long as they are not violating anyone else’s freedoms. Governmental agencies and laws should protect freedoms regardless, including the freedom of individuals or groups based on bigotry, but government should also prevent actions of bigotry against others. Hate groups are free to meet, to rant and to rave about their ignorance and stupidity-disease all they want, but to infringe on the rights of others should never be tolerated in a civilized society. Nor should any action be taken against hate-based groups unless they have violated law.
I agree that the definition of human equality is too subjective and open for debate, but every part of the government should treat everyone with equality — which basically means that there are to be no restrictions or harassments targeting individuals by the government as a whole or by its employees.
Comment by Maxwell Jennings — July 9, 2008 #
Oh, so I take it it wasn’t the kind of good-natured verbal harassment I see in military movies?
Comment by C — July 9, 2008 #
Hey Tim! That was a great article. I came since I’m a nonreligious sort and wanted to know what was up. Turns out I’m more impressed with your write up ability and think you could make good money this way. Hope you’re well. Don’t stop writing, you’re very good.
Comment by Krystal — July 9, 2008 #
Maxwell – hear, hear to all your comments. I think the law is pretty clear that what happened to Spc. Hall was illegal. I suspect we’ll see the court rule in his favor, which is going to be a big victory in the sense that it will raise the issue of religious discrimination against the non-religious.
C – only two things come from Texas: steers and queers. And you don’t look much like a steer to me! Now pray to jesus before I gouge out your eyeball and skullƒμ©k you!
Krystal – Aw shucks. Thanks. Glad you read it!
Comment by simian — July 9, 2008 #
After you finish that book I would suggest:
‘Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid’ by Douglas R. Hofstadter. A brilliant piece on AI; filled with word play and literary reference, not to mention more technical work than you could shake a stick at. I’ve only gotten to chapter 3,and am already at a loss on some of the “exercises” proposed by the author, although, I’m not too certain we’re actually supposed to achieve them.
heh, just noticed the author I’m talking about is quoted on the cover of the book you’re reading.
Comment by mobius — July 9, 2008 #
Mobius, lol at your after-the-fact discovery of Hofstadter’s quote. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll add that to my to-read list!
Comment by simian — July 9, 2008 #