Stars & Stripes letter: Stop assault on non-Christians

[lebkuchen]

Stop assault on non-Christians
I have grown tired of fundamentalist Christians who assume that theirs is the only religion in the United States. I’ve heard more and more complaints from them recently, between the confusing U.S. Supreme Court decision on the “Ten Commandments in court” issue and the Air Force Academy religion scandal. It seems like the evangelicals consider it freedom of religion to tell you that your religion, being different from theirs, is wrong, but it’s oppressive and an attack on them when you try to tell them to please go away.

Non-Christians get Christianity thrown in their faces enough in this country as it is. Christians don’t realize what it’s like, but it’s annoying when seemingly every event is opened by a leader of a faith you aren’t part of offering a prayer to a God you don’t believe in. I have to tolerate mandatory formations being opened with an invocation by the chaplain. I don’t have any say in whether I have to be there for it; I have to stand around in formation while the Christians have their heads bowed. We get daily Christian devotional e-mails from my chaplain sent basewide, but you’ll never see a basewide e-mail present devotionals or uplifting thoughts from other religions.

With the Air Force Academy scandal, Republican members of Congress seem to be complaining plaintively that academy students are being oppressed because they can’t tell Jews that Jews will burn in hell. This, they claim, is a sign of intolerance toward Christianity. What? No, it’s the other way around: Students and chaplains telling non-Christians they’ll burn is religious intolerance from Christians, not toward them.

The evangelical Christians and their recent gains in the field of political power really scare me. It scares me that recent events have shown that there are religious fanatics in the academy, because those are my future lieutenants and captains. I fear for my own religious freedom when I hear about what happened at the academy, because that’s the future leadership of our military. Will I have some supervisor down the road looking at me mistrustfully because I have “Pagan” on my dog tags, and treat me differently because of it? Will he be backed up by his boss, and his boss’ boss, all the way up the chain of command to the president and members of Congress?

People say it won’t ever happen because of the Constitution, but as anyone familiar with the Uniform Code of Military Justice can tell you, when you enter the military you have a different set of rights then a civilian.

Senior Airman John Nixdorf
Baghdad International Airport

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=30289

[CrispyQ]

1. A person's religion is placed on their dog tags?

A great letter with many valid points.

[hootinholler]

8. Yes.

It's so the chaplain corps and the recovery corps can treat your remains in accordance with your religion.

Mine said presby, but I wish I'd had the presence of mind to put pagan, but I was young and that was long ago.

-Hoot

[Walt Starr]

9. When I was in Pagan got you

No Pref

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Mine said Buddhist.

[malmapus]

26. I had No Rel Pref too

Went in right after I became a dis illusioned Southern Baptist. But then I "found" religion again..combat convert you could say.


But yeah I remember in Baisc training (was in while Desert Shield / Storm was happening). Our Drill lined us up and started pulling out dog tags. If a dog tag said No Rel Pref, yeah we got shouted down, "WHO YOU GONNA BE PRAYING TO WHEN THE BULLETS START TO FLY!!!??"

[FreedomAngel82]

16. Why should that matter?

I don't understand. When you're in the military you're there to defend the Constiution/Bill of Rights. Not your religion. So why do they do that? My grandfather and my uncle are Christians and they were in the navy. When they joined they joined to defend our country. OUR country. Not just the Christians. But everybody. This makes no sense at all!

[MountainLaurel]

18. So they know how to bury you

And which service to conduct.

[Miss Chybil]

10. Yep. You can even put "No Preference." But, I can't remember if you

can put "None." I'd be afraid to have "Pagan" on my dog tags. The letter writer is a brave man. Kudos to him and kudos to the Stars and Stripes for printing it.

[Bouncy Ball]

11. Yes.

As a joke, my husband requested they put "Druid" on his and they did. They still state that his religion is Druid.

:rofl:

[john doe jersey]

14. To answer your question: Yes

I believe this is there in case of death, they know what type of burial rites to administer. On AF dog tags you have the option of having "no religious preference" or "christian non secular" or something similar.

I work as a civilian for a state-side air force communications squadron. I have never once had anyone ask me my religious preference or evangelized to me. We have never had an invocation at our mandatory formations (either under my former commander, who was christian, or my current commander, who is not). Chapel news is included in the base wide emails, but it is not given special preference over retirement notices or the commissary schedule.

This is not to say that this does not go on, but I'm inclined to believe that it is not as widespread as we are being led to believe by reports in the MSM.

[frictionlessO]

22. Nice anecdote but as someone who grew up in the AF and was

stationed all over the place I can tell you that it is dependant upon the base and its local environment as well as the commanders on base.

This is quite prevalent and it is for damn sure prevalent in the academy, furthermore it is not just in teh AF it is starting to bubble up like this in all branches and while it has been going on for a long time, since Bush got in it has gotten much worse in some military communities.

I speak from experience in many many different ways on this.

[GOPFighter]

2. A standing O for Airman Nixdorf!

I was in the Air Force. I know he will pay for this...

[lebkuchen]

4. He'd better damn well not.

There are too many who are fed up and are taking a stand. If Rummy doesn't like it, he can look at his reenlistment numbers and then take a hike.

[chalky]

3. Bravo.

And glad to hear from someone within the military.

[frictionlessO]

5. I will go to the wall for this Senior Airman!!

Whats balls to speak truth to the power of your masters like that, and sooo very very telling that S&S let another anti "establishment" letter get into print.

If anything happens to this man I will advocate for him as well as I can.

Bravo!! and so very very nom worthy!

[lebkuchen]

7. Check out the letters posted on the Denver Bronco Cheerleaders

and note the way in which the editors had attempted to divert attention away from the dead Navy SEALS, which went highly unappreciated by readers.

Stripes may be full of RW conservative types, but there is no doubt in my mind that the Stripes office in DC has a bona fide Rove ringer on board.

[FreedomAngel82]

17. I agree

I posted it around some too. It'll be interesting to see what other people say about this.

[progressoid]

6. DAMN!! Way to go Airman!!

:applause:

[Bouncy Ball]

12. As a Christian, I say BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!!!

I'm sick of all this faux-victimization bleating. Christians in America are FAR from being victims.

[FreedomAngel82]

19. I agree

It's so annoying. It's like the boy who cried wolf all the time. :eyes: I'm Christian and have never had any type of persecution. I'm very happy and comfortable with my life and have no complaints. As a Christian I believe in showing people my faith through who I am and my actions. If I want to draw people to my faith I'm not going to go around and tell someone else they're going to burn in hell. That's not my job. My job is to be a messenger and show people how Christ has changed my life. I do believe in going out and sharing the gospel and the word of God but there's a fine line you don't draw and that's inserting yourself by force in someone else's life and by ridiculing them etc and making them afraid. Christ's greatest command is "love thy neighbor" and as Howard Dean once said "we're taught to love thy neighbors and you don't get to choose your neighbor."

[OnionPatch]

13. Hurrah for John Nixdorf!!

He's my hero of the day.

[Mythsaje]

15. I've known several military pagans...

my wife was one, for a short time, long before I met her. They cashiered her not because of her paganism, but because the base commander thought role-playing games were "satanic." She was offered the chance to leave voluntarily, or...well, things would get bad.

This sort of stuff has been going on for a long time. Up until now we could trust the Supreme Court to protect religious liberties, at least. Now I'm not so sure of that anymore.

[FreedomAngel82]

20. Question from me

How could it be leaving voluntarily if something bad would have happened?

[Mythsaje]

21. It's kinda like the old

"resign or you'll be fired" thing, but I doubt it would've been that overt. Just increased tactics to make her uncomfortable...more and more unpleasant duties, etc...

One might say she left semi-voluntarily...

[NMMNG]

24. Bravo, Whoo-hoo, Yay, Boohyah!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

A most excellent account of the truth by Airman Nixdorf!

[Solly Mack]

25. Lately, on AFN, they have been hitting it hard with the Jesus Juice

Used to, if you wanted info on area churches/mosques/temples - you tuned to the info channel ...a little "note" channel of events/tours/services

Now, it's on every station between shows..."Spiritual Comfort - serving in Iraq/Afghanistan is hard - but Jesus can help get your family through this time"

"Marriages are strained by long deployments- let such and such church get you through it"

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. Wow..great letter. Well done, Airman!

[AuntiBush]

28. As a Christian Since Childhood - I'm with you, Senior Airman John Nixdorf

I'm tired of them, as well. You are not alone. No. It's got to stop. You got Bubble-Boy to thank for all of this. Madmen & mad-women need to go like now.