Anger from Atheists to MAGA Mormons After MRFF Exposes Holy Hegseth’s Elimination of 180 Belief Systems from DOD Recognized Religions
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The military will no longer recognize Atheists, Deists, Druids, Heathens, Humanists, New Age, Pagans, Spiritualists, Wiccans, Unitarian Universalists, and scores of other minority belief systems by edict of Secretary of Holy War Hegseth.
13 years ago, MRFF fought Christian supremacist legislation introduced by Senator Mike Lee of Utah. Now that the MAGA Mormon’s own religion has been marginalized by Hegseth, he’s singing a different tune.
“I’m imploring people at the Pentagon to reconsider this—and not just reconsider it, but undo it. Secretary Hegseth—tear down that wall! This is not cool! Get rid of it, get rid of it now!” — Senator Mike Lee, MAGA Republican, Mormon
This is IGNORANT fear mongering. These people will still be able to see the chaplain and practice their faiths. It DOES NOT affect their constitutional rights. I checked and got the facts.
Old Soldier, you’d be doing a lot of people a great favor if you’d kindly share links to the information you say should dispel fears about what many see as a further radicalization of the chaplain corps. Because a LOT of people responding to this thread have stories to tell — stories based in personal experience.
In reality, having one’s religious belief omitted from the list of officially-approved beliefs does affect one’s rights in the military services. It affects whether you can meet with others who share your beliefs on base, whether you can be buried in a grave with an official military religious marker that is appropriate, and whether you can even speak about your beliefs with the same protections from your commanders that Christians and Jews are able to enjoy on base and in combat theaters.
It also affects which belief systems have chaplains representing them in the armed forces. One of the reasons the Navy approved a very well-qualified Humanist chaplain several years ago (a decision they were forced by the Vice President and many members of Congress to reverse) was that Humanism was on the officially-approved list of belief systems recognized by the Dept. of Defense. And one of the reasons Humanism, atheism, Paganism, Wicca, etc., were all removed from the list recently is that it precludes any possibility of a chaplain representing any of those beliefs from being granted a commission in the armed forces.
All of this serves to point out what was obvious to James Madison and Thomas Jefferson when they wrote the law defining our religious freedom rights in the USA: the fact that religious freedom is not possible when the government establishes or promotes religion. As the words of the first amendment make clear to anyone who bothers to read them accurately, the amendment doesn’t just prohibit the government from establishing one religion over others. It prohibits the government from establishing religion – period. It was worded that way very intentionally, because religious freedom requires nothing less.
Old soldier didn’t see anything wrong. Of course they didn’t – they are the “correct” sort of Christian so there is no issue for them.
My late husband was Asatru – seventh generation Asatru so not just a whim but family tradition. He was not allowed to practice his faith and during time when others were in church he was expected to clean the latrines.
But sure old soldier, nothing to see here.
Putz*
(* a versatile American slang term, often used as an insult to describe a foolish, clueless, or ineffectual person).
Grey One, if I may offer a gentle (as opposed to gentile) correction, “putz” is a Yiddish term that’s been adopted into American slang. Leo Rostern’s classic lexicon on Yiddish, “The Joys of Yiddish” is a wonderfully written and amazingly informative treatise on Yiddish. It’s a REALLY good read, and a fantastic addition to any collection. It was WELL WORTH the effort to track down a copy!
And, yes, Old Soldier has demonstrated that he is, indeed, a putz!
BTW, I know about Asatru: I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with a fair number of Asatru in my time. And to those who don’t know them, I’d offer this advice: DON’T call them “pagans”! Does that fit with your experience?
J.P., you’ve demonstrated time and again that when facts are on the table yours are accurate, so correct away. I live my life believing I don’t know what I don’t know.
And LOLOLOL for the gentle/gentile language joke. Made my morning.
I’ll look for Leo Rosterns book. Thanks for the recommendation. Glad to know I used the word putz correctly though.
As I understand the word pagan it’s merely an umbrella term to mean “not Christian”. I don’t keep up with all the naming conventions because just as soon as the dust has settled there is another kerfluffle and the names all get rearranged, again.
When I left the Christian church (because I can not say Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior) I dove into the pagan community and found… Well, I found everything I had hoped to escape when I left the Christian church. Purity tests! Who kissed who’s ring and that doesn’t even touch the idea that you aren’t in a recognized group that’s been around since the Golden Dawn was a glimmer in Crowley’s eyes.
I find it’s easiest to just accept folks where they stand and use the names the call themselves. And then do my best not to bring up what they call themselves with anyone moving forward as that’s just how fights start.
UGH!!! So much drama! There is a reason I’m a solitary practitioner.
Glad to see your comments. Was missing your input
The book author is Jewish American humorist Leo Rosten.
The word “pagan” usually means people who worship “false gods,” and is used primarily by Jews, Christians, and Muslims to describe followers of religions other than those 3.
As I’ve found in my reading, the word “pagan” derives from the Latin “paganus,” a word meaning (roughly) “country dweller”. My understanding is that it acquired an additional meaning: “worshiper of country gods”. It was used as a derogatory term for those who followed deities that weren’t part of the Roman pantheon.
In this sense, Christians were originally “pagans”. It would only be when Christianity became the official religion of Rome that Christianity lost the stigma of “pagan”. Of course, that gave Christians leave to call others “pagans”.
My experience with Asatru is that they typically don’t like being called “pagan”, preferring “heathen” or dwellers on the heaths. But I’m flexible. I’m willing to call people whatever they want as long as respecting them doesn’t diminish others.
Excellent graphic for this post (though I might have swapped “Secretary of Holy War” with “Secretary of War Crimes”).
Sounds like a bunch of whiney assholes.
Heheh: you’re the only one who posted insults and nothing else – so we can all see who is obviously a whiny asshole.