Posted by Hemant Mehta in Jeremy Hall and Mikey Weinstein have been getting incredible press coverage lately regarding their story of Evangelical Christian military proselytization and the harassment Jeremy faced as a result of being an atheist. Ever since The New York Times wrote about him, it’s been non-stop.
You can catch the videos of their recent appearances on the Military Religious Freedom Foundation website.
(via NoGodBlog)
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
When I was in the USMC from 1994 to 2000, I faced pressure to be a part of the christian church, so I am not surprised that these individuals have had to deal with similar circumstances.
When I was in Army basic training (1985) I said I was Catholic even though I was an Atheist. The reason is that religious people got to go to church on Sunday mornings, and right afterwards they had about an hour to chat, relax and shoot the breeze. Those who didn’t go to church had to stay in the barracks cleaning up the place.
I was willing to put up with the sermon in order to get 60 minutes of relative freedom afterwards, but shouldn’t have to.
Everyone should read Mr. Weinstein’s book, With God on Our Side.
Mikey and one of his sons are showcased in the new documentary, Constantine’s Sword, based on the book by James Carrol, about the history of Christian antisemitism. The film goes beyond that, and deals with, among other topics, the infiltration of the military by right-wing evangelicals.
Highly recommended.
Did anyone watch the video with the lady from Fox News? Ugh. She asked Hall about five times if he was an atheist, why he was an atheist, and did something happen to turn him away from God? After he said, I just don’t believe, she still kept asking. How would she feel if someone kept interrogating her why she was a Christian?
“Why are you a Christian? Don’t you think the bible has contradictions and is unsupported by any historical evidence? How come you hate Buddha, did something happen to you to make you stop believing in Buddha? How can you not believe in Vishnu?” etc, etc…
There are some excellent videos on that site, MRFF. I got to say though that I was only hasselled once or twice by a Mormon instructor and fellow Mormon student in one of my electronic classes. When I blew the instructor off to meet at the church he did get irritated and I got my first and only failing grade on an exam so to say their is no repercussions would be false.
I went to Air Force Basic Training in 1981. On Sunday’s you could go to church or you could clean the barracks. Of course, I went to church. Anything to get out of cleaning. Wasn’t fair then, isn’t fair now. And Mickey W. is my hero. I just LOVE him!
Tracy,
Out of curiosity – what about Jewish cadets? Were they given the same choice on Saturday – go to services or clean the barracks? What happened to them on Sundays? Did some go to church to avoid having to clean? If they didn’t, were they they forced to clean? In other words, was there a double standard?