As the Pentagon doesn’t
hostpromote services for the holidays of other religions to the same extent as they do for evangelical Protestantism, this is a clear violation of the separation of church and state.Edit: Highlighted corrections to the above statement in italics.
This is false.
The Pentagon hosts a Ramadan dinner (at the end of the holiday, to celebrate the conclusion of the fasting ritual).
The Pentagon has hosted Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremonies. (I’m not sure if they still do.)
The issue here isn’t the sponsoring of a religious activity. The function of the military is to send soldiers to their deaths. Those soldiers who need spiritual support should absolutely have access to it.
The issue is that the president and the defense secretary have incorporated evangelical Christianity into their cronyism. Religion is being used as a litmus test for loyalty.
Signed,
A pragmatic (ex-militant) atheist
Made corrections to my comment. Importantly, Pentagon leadership should not be any more involved in the organization and celebration of any religious event more than another.
…anymore? When my mother worked there (admittedly, decades ago), the catholic chaplain conducted mass every Friday morning. (Very quickly. “GodblessAmenGetbacktowork.”) They also had other religion’s services. Nothing mandatory.
And us Atheists who point out that all the various Gods are fucking fanfic have to shut up and take it
I mean, take what?
That the exclusive nature of any base doing anything religious is smaller this time than it normally is?
Like, I’m a vet, I’m an atheist…
I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.
If it was slightly more inclusive it wouldn’t be news and no one would care about every still excluded.
Which just means more people realize how fucked any religious association is, and that modern chaplains should be replaced with trained social workers.
Overall Kegsworth overstepping early works like a vaccine
Bro…
If you think he’s bad, do you have any idea what the Air Force has been like for decades?
Here’s an article from 20+ years ago illustrating it’s a known problem we just won’t fix:
Professor KRISTEN LESLIE (Yale Divinity School): And she was scared and was not able to move, and so the other cadets in a way to cheer her on were trying to support her but yelling very evangelical, `Jesus will be with you. Jesus will save you,’ and that struck us as odd as a way to motivate someone in an environment that is not intended to be a religious environment.
BRADY: During a Protestant church service, Leslie says chaplains urged cadets to proselytize their bunk mates and warned that if they didn’t turn their lives over to Jesus…
Prof. LESLIE: …they would burn in the fires of hell.
https://www.npr.org/2005/06/02/4676698/air-force-academy-embroiled-in-religious-controversy
You know who runs the Air Force Academy board now?
Erika fucking Kirk.
They religious far right have been grooming incoming officers for decades and now they’re 20-30 year high ranking officers.
…
And you’re mad that the annual Christian celebration just now cut off Catholics?
All this does is make that demo realize they’re on our side whether they like us or not
Edit to add:
Like, this the “second wave KKK” type shit that’s been around a century already, but these movements always get less inclusive:
The Ku Klux Klan that surfaced in the 1920s formed the second wave of Klan activity in the United States. Unlike the first emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, formed in the South in 1868 and mainly concerned with keeping black people from exercising their new freedoms, the second wave of the Ku Klux Klan focused their efforts on a wider range of issues. This new wave portrayed themselves as a race-protecting group that “espoused a virulent form of racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-immigrant sentiment.”1 Secondly, they saw themselves as “moral, law-abiding citizens dedicated to political and civil reform, civic improvement, and the defense of traditional American values.”
https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/kkk_i49.htm
They’ve been focusing on all the military academies for generations now. They prosetlyze like crazy even tho it’s against regs, and prey on people during training when they’re most suceptible.
And just a week ago Kegsworth forbid Chaplins from displaying rank, and intead show an icon of their faith. While at the same time shrinking the number of options from 200 to 31…
I’m not saying don’t be pissed, I’m saying be pissed at the shit that matters, not the shit that gains us reluctant allies
Literally hundreds of Gods. Atheists just believe in one less God than they do.
Oh I’m gonna loooove asking my MAGA Catholics about this!
Are there any? Pope has made it clear maga is not aligned with Catholic Church
The vice president?
Really?
I honestly didn’t know that cause I thought the circle was all “Evangelical” or at least posing as that.
Vance is supposedly Catholic. He’s also been called out by two popes for how bad of a Catholic he is. I wouldn’t doubt that he’s converted and no longer functionally Catholic, if he ever rreally was one.
He’s a cultish cuntish Catholic like Thiel. In fact he probably converted to demonstrate his servility to Thiel.
And Vance made the rookie mistake of lecturing the Pope on some of his cultish bullshit. For a person devoid or charisma or original ideas, he really is an arrogant shit.
Yes, there are absolutely Catholics to the left of the pope, less than under Francis but still.
The whole “trad-cath” movement is essentially a rejection of Vatican II reforms. Hell, Nick Fuentes is Catholic
you mean to the right of the pope no? unless you mean the one who liked the high price shoes.
All the conservative members of the Supreme Court are RC.
The drunk bastard is turning the Pentagon into a church and the US military will become the Christian version of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Fucking Dominionists. Harder to get rid of than cockroaches.
I’m Episcopalian. One of my mentors was a wonderful old bishop who once noted that Christianity goes through a sort of 500-year cycle where we see segments of the church get real wealthy and in bed with political power, followed by a group that seeks reforms, who then themselves become the “in-group.” The Protestant Reformation happened about 500 years ago, protesting the wealth and political hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church…
Watching the Western world the past several decades has convinced me that we’re witnessing Protestantism’s “high medieval era” moment. I wonder what the new reformation will look like? It’ll probably all happen a lot quicker than the Protestant Reformation’s process did.
I kinda hope the new one will be an actual, ACTUAL “love thy neighbor” Christianity.
Yeah I like the Satanists too
Love thy neighbour and fuck his wife?
That’s what it’s all about, just like they did in old Muenster 😉
If it ends up being the Mormons I swear to god…
Favoring one religion over another is a clear violation of the First Amendment.
If only we had a “liberal media”, they would be quite busy asking more questions about the Seven Mountain Mandate and scum of the Earth like Drinky Pete.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate
Not one of these assholes believes in the Constitution nor what America is supposed to stand for. And no, this place was not founded as Jesusland.
Was there not an entire deal during the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings where the GOP was up in arms about the left being ‘anti-Catholic’ for questioning her beliefs about abortion and about queer rights? And now they’re doing this?
I’m not surprised by the hypocrisy, I just feel like it merits pointing out.
What about Satanists?
Pentagon says “no”.
What about Sataists who reject the Cult of the NVMe?
May their budget be adequate in these trying times.
Burn those assholes 👍
pentagons are the worstagons
Where are your MAGA friends now, Opus Dei?
Sounds like the Pope’s getting fed up with those reactionary shitheads too.
Nazis
Fuck Heslgsetu with a hot poker and all, but this is not as bad as it sounds.
It’s just saying there’s only 1 Christian service for Good Friday, and it’s Protestant. The reason for that is probably because Catholic Mass is less inclusive than Protestant. For instance: you have to been through Catholic Confirmation to take part in Communion in a Catholic Mass, whereas Protestant churches typically have open communion allowing anyone - including Catholics - to take part.
This just flat out isn’t true. I’ve not been through confirmation and I’ve been to Catholic masses. When it’s time to receive eucharist you just join the line, but cross your arms over your chest. The priest gives you a blessing instead. That’s the only difference if you’re not confirmed.
Maybe some Catholic churches operate the way you say, but it’s absolutely not required. How would people even go through the process of joining the church if they have to go through confirmation just to show up?
You just specifically described how they aren’t allowed to take part in the Eucharist. Most Protestant services have an open table, where anybody can take part in the sacrament.
Yes, but the eucharist is a tiny part of a service, and you still participate, you just get a blessing instead. Suggesting that somehow counts as excluding people would be stretching the word to breaking point.
If you’re setting up a joint service for the holiday, which do you pick? The one that has restrictions limiting the participation of most people, or the one that allows anyone to participate fully?
They need to randomly breathalyzer him. If he’s found to have any alcohol in his system, it a felony. The second in command of our military services is a raging alcoholic. I live with one a couple years ago. You can not trust them with you Pets let alone Military lives. If you have family or friends in the military I would tell them to demand Sneaky Pete isn’t blacked out drank when sending troops and Iranians to their deaths. Freaking crazy. Drug Test Pete! He’s obviously drunk every time on TV but no one is calling it out.
I hope that everyone refuses to serve in Hegseth’s Army. He wouldn’t put his life on the line for the troops, even if they happened to be Protestant.
And probably not even the less-bad kind of Protestants. More like the pro-slavery drive-through-church snake-juggling glossolalists.
