Stationed in Iraq last year, Specialist Jeremy Hall put out the word that he was having a meeting of fellow atheists. Several soldiers joined him and to their surprise even an officer attended. It turned out that it was no ordinary officer but Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, a crusader for Jesus in this war between the two big religions Of The Book.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has taken up Hall’s case in federal court with a suit that contends his First Amendment rights have been violated.
“People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!”
Maj. Freddy J. Welborn who went on to threaten Hall and his group with baring their reenlistment and military charges against them. Specialist Hall was sent home early from Iraq because of threats from his fellow troops.
There are many such incidents over the past several years concerning officers proselytizing evangelical Christianity to soldiers who have no choice but to listen. The military believes that a belief in God makes better killers. And who can argue with that? Soldier Sues Army, Saying His Atheism Led to Threats
This story takes me back…
In the sixites on my first day in the Army I filled out the "dog tags" form and passed it through a little window in the room. You get two dog tags which you wear around your neck on a chain at all times. One is for the medical corps to put in their dead-bag and the other to place in your mouth and then give you a smart kick in the chin to embed it into your skull for the corpse corps to later retrieve.
The last line of the form is imprinted with your religion. I put in "N/A". A few minutes later a personable old sergeant sat down on the bench next to me handing me back my form. He asked what religion my parents were? I replied Catholic. He said, "Write Roman Catholic on this form here son."
I argued the point but he was having none of it and leaned into my face to strongly spell it out for me. He told me in training and stateside duty I would be harassed by the NCO’s and the Officers and constantly have the crap beat out of me by enlisted men. That if I were to end up in Vietnam, which was very likely, I would be shot by some good old Southern boy within a month. It was the first time I had heard the word "frag". It was a pretty compelling argument for a newbie, so I gave in and wrote "Roman Catholic" on the form. And being no dummy, if anyone wants to know my religion today, it is still Roman Catholic…
Previous article
Atheist SPC Jeremy Hall Denied Re-enlistment by Missing Major Paul Welborne