MRFF In Box
MRFF's Inbox

January 9, 2009

Dear Mikey and (MRFF)

First, I want to thank you for your courage in standing up to this unfortunate phenomenon which I fear is going to only get uglier. You are so right; it is a bloodsport that is almost impossible and extremely difficult for us, soldiers and the like, who are being marginalized to stand up to successfully because of our power limits and the lack of interest on the part of our establishment to stand up for their own soldiers. We desperately need people like you, Mikey, and an organization like MRFF on the outside who have the courage to give us a voice and hope because otherwise our voices are completely silenced. I am a US Army Reserve [rank withheld] who attended Christian seminary back in [year withheld] in the hopes that I would become an Army Chaplain. I have completed my Masters of Theological Studies from a Christian (Methodist) seminary and have decided NOT to become an army chaplain based on several terrible and revealing experiences I have witnessed and also been a part of. These experiences I had told me in no uncertain terms what the dominant message of the Army Chaplaincy Corps is (though not all participate in it this way, but many do or do nothing to stop it). The message by the Army Chaplaincy is one of INTOLERANCE and EXCLUSIVITY. There is a clear message of disdain and even hatred towards those who do not believe, or are unsure, or are non Christian. This is extremely dangerous I fear because the message being embedded in the Army's organizational culture is that a “real” warrior is a strong practicing Christian of fundamentalist influences. The second message of EXCLUSIVITY which the Army Chaplaincy Corps emits regards those who adhere to a specific perspective of the Christian religion as being a part of the “in group” and everyone else, non fundamentalist Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, Unitarians, Atheists, Agnostics, NeoPagans are in the “out group”. Sadly, it is really much more than this; they are even demonized and this denigration has material consequences in their lives and Army careers.

I want to share with you one very unforgettable and painful experience I had. It was when I was at the Fort (military installation name withheld) mobilization site enroute to an overseas deployment. All of us had to visit different stations (e.g finance, medical, ESGR, legal) to get all our paperwork in order for deployment. The chaplain’s station was absolutely mandatory and there was only one chaplain. I asked the Army cadre leader if I could bypass this station because it did not feel right to be forced to go to see a religious leader in an organization that supposedly adhered to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I thought the station would have been made voluntary but it was not. It was totally mandatory and I had NO choice but to go. I had glimpsed the table of the chaplain and my reason for not wanting to go to him was because I could see, right off the bat, by what he had on his table, that he was NOT a tolerant man. He only had Christian paraphernalia—nothing specific for Jews, Muslims, or for nonbelievers at a minimum. It was only the clear Army message of “Jesus saves.

I sat down before him and introduced myself, specifically mentioning I had been to Christian seminary as well. He asked the status of my faith to which I responded that I no longer self identify as "Christian" per se, but I am still a believer of a Divinity and that I am in a more meaningful place for me. He responded “It sounds like your faith is weak and shaky. Here take this it will help you.” I said: “No it is fine, I have all the spiritual supports I need with me already, but I appreciate the gesture”. He pushed further, I said no again, but, unrelentingly, he pushed yet again. Finally, he said frustratingly, “There are only two things you need to go to war. Your weapon and your bible. This one (he points to the bible) is the stronger weapon”. I was utterly speechless. I left angry, demeaned and marginalized. I will never forget how that Army chaplain made me feel.

Later, I asked two of my other battle buddies what happed to them at that same chaplain's station in the overseas deployment processing line. One lower enlisted soldier shared that he was atheistic and that the chaplain had actually taken some Christian paraphernalia and physically forced it into his uniform pocket and his bag which he had with him. Another soldier, who happened to be Jewish, shared with me that when he told the chaplain he was Jewish, the chaplain directly responded, “Well, that’s unfortunate”.
I decided to make an effort to reach out amongst these and other soldiers who had a bad experience with this chaplain and said I was thinking about filing a formal Army complaint. All of them responded by telling me that they just did not feel comfortable participating in the complaint as witnesses and, instead, were just going to pretend like it did not happen. They did not feel comfortable going against an officer and a chaplain; it was not like going against a soldier whose rank was the same or close, and who was not supposed to be the “speaker” of God. Because of my formal Christian seminary training and rank as an Army officer, I had no problem going forward and was resolute about initiating a complaint. I went to the Army cadre first sergeant to inform him about the problem. However, he was reluctant to do anything because he said “Well, ma’am, I don’t know if I am comfortable bringing this up the military chain of command because that chaplain is supposed to be the representative of God. I was raised Roman Catholic you know”. I told him that God was certainly in him as much as in this chaplain and that even chaplains are humans who can make mistakes just like us. He then became convinced and asked me to write a sworn statement. He also shared with me that this chaplain was nothing compared to the last one they had where a whole stack of complaints had been raised against him.

Roughly 6 months later, when I returned to that very same Army mobilization site, absolutely nothing at ALL had changed. The chaplain station was STILL mandatory and it was STILL this same chaplain. My sworn statement was obviously disregared and overlooked and probably so were others which had been written after me. I knew without a doubt that if Fort (military installation name withheld) was a place where I would have been stationed longer than a few weeks, there would have been some form of retaliation committed against me, since it was now crystal clear that the Army chaplaincy had free reign without higher command accountability in defiance of the U.S. Constitution! It most assuredly would have been ME who was demonized, and NOT that horrible Chaplain. MIkey, why and how does this happen? Is it because the Army leadership will not challenge the supposedly “Godfilled” chaplains? Is it that the Army leadership is scared? Indifferent? Or, instead, are they completely colluding with this Christian Jihad campaign of intolerance and exclusivity?

Mikey and MRFF, please do NOT stop fighting this unbelievable fundamentalist Christian supremacy in the United States Army. Please do NOT stop standing up for those of us soldiers who cannot do it for ourselves.

Thank you,
[name withheld]
[rank withheld], United States Army Reserve

 


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