Chaplains Want to Bar Atheist/Humanist Chaplains

I should be used to Christian arrogance by now, but every now and then another insensitive, arrogant Christian breaks through my indifference and makes me mad. This time it's Father Jonathan Morris, an Army Chaplain who appeared on Fox News to ridicule the idea of Humanists and Atheists serving as chaplains in the military.

"What is a 'chaplaincy' in the first place, where does it even come from? The word, it comes from the Latin word which means a sanctuary or place of worship. And atheist ... (pauses) ... place of worship? Or a military chaplain, someone who is advising someone in their spirituality? ... [If an atheist] is being paid as a chaplain, then our country is saying, 'We are not willing to stand up for what we believe to be a very good thing for our soldiers, and that is the development of spirituality.' ... It's degrading the military chaplaincy saying 'You know, it doesn't matter whether you believe or not believe'..."

On the face of it, an atheist chaplain does seem a bit odd. But the truth is

AMA Tells the Government Off about Gays

Today's headline, "AMA: Government Policies Hazardous to Gay Health," illustrates perfectly the difference between religion and science. Religion is harming and killing people with its two-thousand-year-old morality leftover from tribes that were wandering around in the Middle Eastern deserts, whereas science is trying to prevent deaths and make people happier and healthier.

The American Medical Association, the nation's largest group of doctors, adopted a resolution at their bi-annual meeting in Houston yesterday, which states unambiguously that the government's policies are harmful to gays.

First, the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy means that gays can't talk about medical issues with their doctor, because doctors are required to report a gay man to superior officers. That's bad for the patient, and violates a doctor's duty to keep patients' medical information private. And second, bans on same-sex marriage leads to health-care disparities. Gay couples become second-class citizens when it comes to their health.

It's hypocritical when conservative and evangelical religious people claim to "hate the sin, but love the sinner," yet their actual politics harms and kills people. Those who deny equal rights to same-sex couples are showing their true colors: they are bigoted and hateful, plain and simple. Anyone who would deny health care to another human, regardless of that person's sexual orientation (or sex, or religion, or color, or ...), is not a moral person.

Science, by contrast, has proved again and again its inherent morality. (And I include progressive religious people when I say "science.") Down through the ages, virtually every advance in the human condition has been through the hard work of scientists, not popes, priests, rabbis, or clerics. At just about every turn, scientists have met resistance, and even persecution, at the hands of the conservative religious zealots. In spite of this, scientists have pushed forward. They learned about human anatomy, discovered that microbes are responsible for disease, discovered evolution and how it is the foundation of our immune systems, invented thousands of drugs, and helped guide politicians to set sensible health policies.

The AMA's resolution is a breath of fresh air in the national debate about gay rights, and is yet another step forward by science, pushing back the dark immorality of the religious right.

Atheists? Not in OUR Army!

The United States Army accepted Blacks, Jews, Muslims, women, and even gays, but apparently being an Atheist isn't allowed. Army Spc. Jeremy Hall's unblemished service record, his two tours of duty in Iraq, and his unquestioned patriotism meant nothing. So severe was the discrimination and harassment against Hall, who became an Atheist while serving in Iraq, that the Army had to assign a full-time bodyguard to protect Hall from his fellow soldiers!

The Intolerance Meme is one of the tricks that religion evolved to further its goals. (What's a meme?) The concept, which arose a few hundred years after Moses, and justified in great detail in Deuteronomy, says that not only is your religion right, but that all other religions are wrong, and furthermore, that because they violate God's commandments, you can persecute, torture or even kill those who don't share your particular brand of religion. (See, for example, Deuteronomy 7)

It would be nice to think that Hall's experience is the exception, that most of the US Army's soldiers who believe in Jehovah/Yahweh/Allah/God have a more modern, tolerant attitude toward their fellow humans. Especially when that fellow soldier has proved his patriotism and courage by deed, not just by talk. But sadly, such is not the case. The Intolerance Meme is still alive and well, and is still an integral part of Christianity in America and our military. The persecution against Hall was so severe and pervasive that the Army had to send him home for his own protection. Instead of fighting in Iraq, he had to serve out his tour of duty in Kansas.

These intolerant soldiers should should be forced, each and every one, to read the words of the main author of the United States Constitution:

I never told my religion nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert nor wished to change another's creed. I have judged of others' religion by their lives, for it is from our lives and not from our words that our religion must be read. By the same test must the world judge me.
– Thomas Jefferson