Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Bigotry and Military Chaplaincy
[link] Col. Pat Hash, chief chaplain for the 18th Airborne Corps and a former Special Operations chaplain in Iraq and Afghanistan, said military chaplains are different from those in civilian churches because they are with soldiers "out on the ranges and jumping out of airplanes."
A former infantry officer who went to a Southern Baptist seminary, Hash said there is no conflict between ministry and combat. Soldiers have a job to do and "we're there to walk alongside those soldiers as they face some of the challenges and turmoil of life," he said.
Chaplains don't seek converts but they rarely see a committed atheist during combat, Hash said.
"It's interesting how people, even though they say they're atheists, are drawn to some type of faith when they have to face stressful and difficult situations like war will bring," he said.
And so the bigotry and stereotyping continues. Let's re-write that a bit, shall we?
Chaplains don't seek converts but they rarely see a committed Jew during combat, Hash said.
"It's interesting how people, even though they say they're Jews, are drawn to some type of Christian faith when they have to face stressful and difficult situations like war will bring," he said.
Religious bigotry is going to torpedo this country unless we get a handle on it.
The military chaplaincy corps is a travesty and a clear blow to our most deeply-held American values as defined in the Bill of Rights, specifically the First Amendment.
The sooner they go the better off we'll be as a country.
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You people are idiots...
for calling this man a bigot. I know him personnaly and I can guarantee he is not. This is just a distortion of a good mans words so somebody with the intellect of a pea could act like he knows what he is talking about. Beyond that this man has given his whole life to the Army, not for himself but for the lost 18, 19, 20 year olds away from mom and dad for the first time getting shot at and watching their friends die. He does not try to convert them, he tries to given them something to believe in, something to hold on to for dear life when your squad mates are lying in pieces around you, He tries to give them something to believe in and hope for in places that have no hope. I personally dont know if there is an afterlife or a god for that matter but when I see adults bloodied and scared and holding the body of there dead child I have trouble sleeping, he doesn't he has faith in something neither I nor the so called atheist can explain, and because we cant explain it we attack the men who could. Thats what really wrong with religion today, not the religious people but the non-religious.
A wise man once said "Humans have an internal need to believe in something so if we can't agree to believe the same then just believe in somethig".
"You people"
"You people," huh? I suppose we should just sit down and shut up and get to the back of the bus where we won't bother all you upstanding decent people by having the unmitigated gall to stand up and demand that our civil rights quit being violated.
I called him a bigot because he is a bigot, notwithstanding your personal relationship with him. I'm sure that he's a very nice man, but his words are unambiguous. He is paid by my tax dollars to tell me that I'm a second class citizen because I don't believe in his magic man in the sky. He clearly considers atheists to be liars, and his argument is a variation on the hoary old piece-of-crap argument that claims that atheists "don't really exist".
I do see that he pities us poor, deluded second-class citizens, at the same time that he preaches his bigotry as a representative of my government.
We don't need his pious pity, and I fucking refuse to keep quiet about having to pay for the privilege of being discriminated against.
And yet another incredibly irrational comment. How about this:
So, according to your logic, it's not the actual adherents to a particular philosophy or position that are to blame for how fucked-up it is, but the people who don't adhere to it.
You're brilliant.
"Us people"
Well, see, Brent, if we'd all just join in their little Big Magic Juju Man cult, then there wouldn't be a problem. So, clearly, it is all our fault. I mean, c'mon, you want to be part of the Borg, right?
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
Oh Please
That's a clear distortion of the chaplain's comment. He was making a distinction between theistic belief and those without. The man's certainly entitled to his personal opinion, and is arguably well-qualified to make such a claim. If you'd like to refute him, you should spend less time calling him a bigot and more time pointing to surveys of religious beliefs in the military that support your position. Hell, even a link to http://www.atheistfoxholes.org/ would have been more convincing.
I'd say when it counts there are very FEW Theists!!
I constructed this in response to a General saying the ever popular “there are no atheist in foxholes” BS. And since I posted it to an archive and I think it is apropos here, I’m reposting here. If I am breaking a rule by reposting please forgive me (I need to rant):
_____________________________________
"Believers" if your God is so important, so powerful, so merciful, if you believe in his love and care and protection so much, why not rip off your armor, throw down your arms, stop all offensive, defensive, and evasive moves, lift up your hands to heaven and ask god, who promised NEVER to forsake you as a believer, to deliver you and your buddies from evil and harm? Why not?
Hey at home, why not refuse medical care for your beloved child and put your precious child’s fate in the hands of god who firmly PROMISED to heal all sickness if you believe? Why not?
Let me tell you why! You (assuming you are sane and knowledgeable) do NOT simply rely on god in critical situations BECAUSE YOU ARE AN ATHEIST! Plain and simple; a spade being called a spade!
Yup -- for every bloody excuse you give like "god doesn’t work that way" etc., etc., I say that you are just running from your ATHEISM!!! Oh deny it if you have to; call me silly, foolish, the devil, or whatever. BUT actions speak louder than words and FACE IT “BELIEVERS”: when the chips are down you believe in the power of god about as much as I (an HONEST atheist) do!!!! Because you know deep down that for all your prayers and worship and affirmations of faith, I (an honest ATHEIST) get the same bloody odds and results you do for any given action in a particular situation!! True believers go figure how that can be and what it means --- an atheist vs. believer – sameo-sameo – know you hate FACTS but it’s a fact!
Again, I’m honest, “Believers” you just think you are honest!
Get HONEST!!! Admit that you are god invoking god praising ATHEISTS at the core!!!
Maybe the reason Mil. Chaplains don't meet any athiests...
...Is because most athiests I know (myself included) can stand hypocrites even less than we can stand representatives of organized religion.
If I was an athiest in a combat role, the last person I'd want to talk to would be a theist crazy enough to think his loving god had called him to help his countrymen understand that it was ok to go out every day and kill people.
After a day of people trying to kill me, I just wouldn't have the energy to deal with an idiot like that.
Excellent point
That's an excellent point Crosius. I saw a military chaplain twice in my 6 years in the Corps. 1 was at the end of bootcamp and he informed me that my grandfather had died and the other was when I had to fix the chaplains laptop.
Neither meeting was a result of my choosing to go see them.