Air Force Airman Wants Freedom from Religion
21 May 2012
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, AK
Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley spoke with Airmen today at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, AK. During the question and answer period, an Airman asked a question to the Secretary regarding rights for Airmen who are atheist, agnostic, humanist, or freethinking.
Here is the question that was asked:
I support & follow ALL Air Force regulations protecting an Airman’s religious freedom. However, I believe our Air Force does an inadequate job of protecting Airmen who are NOT religious.
For example, Airmen are routinely required to attend various military functions where public non-sectarian prayer is part of the program.
What will you do to ensure our Air Force respects Airmen like me who are atheist, agnostic, humanist, or freethinkers and don’t want to hear, or participate in public prayer? Current rules seem to imply, if I don’t like it, then don’t listen, and I find that offensive.
The Secretary provided his response and instead of pledging support for atheist, agnostic, humanist, and freethinking Airmen, he referenced the U.S. Constitution and freedom of religion; then proceeded to pledge his support of chaplains and their role in supporting Airmen of faith.
In his response, he did not acknowledge the rights of atheist, agnostic, humanist, or freethinkers to not have religion forced upon them at official Air Force functions. In fact, he never uttered the words atheist, agnostic, humanist, or freethinking.
The long standing problem has been, as outlined in the Airman’s question, that Airmen are often required to attend various military functions and prayer is often a part of the event. For example, change of command, award and graduation ceremonies are often mandatory attendance for Airmen. At these events, there is often a non-sectarian public prayer, which ignores the beliefs of the atheist, agnostic, humanist, and freethinkers in the audience. It is not uncommon; especially at a change of command ceremony, to have Airmen standing at attention or parade rest as a chaplain asks the audience, “Let us pray” and proceeds to speak, assumingly, for all those in the audience who ARE religious. Can you imagine having to listen to this when it goes against the very core of your personal beliefs? This is exactly the point this Airman was making.
Why are our U.S. Airmen being forced to attend mandatory Air Force functions where public prayer is a part of the event? Airmen are not required to attend church. So why are Airmen required to attend military functions where they are forced to listen to public prayer? To please the Airmen who believe in gods while disregarding those Airmen who don’t? Apparently that is exactly the current policy in the U.S. Air Force. At least that is the only conclusion one can make based on no regulations specifically protecting the atheist, agnostic, humanist, freethinker Airmen minority. Is there respect for Airmen who are not religious? That’s for you to decide. If you want to make the Air Force a more friendly and respectful place for America’s atheist, agnostic, humanist, and freethinking Airmen. See below for ways to help.
So, you may be asking yourself, why did this Airman bother to ask such a question. I asked it because I believe in my Air Force and all that it stands for. Secretary Donley is in a position to speak for all Airmen. I wanted to know what his (and the Air Force) position was on protecting atheist, agnostic, humanist, or freethinking Airmen. I believe in freedom of religion and all the Air Force regulations that support those who choose to believe in gods. I also support and defend the U.S. Constitution, which allows me to choose to believe or not believe in just about anything I want. When people, governments, or corporations respect the beliefs of some, but not all, something must be done to change that. The apparent Air Force indifference and disrespect for Airmen who are not religious, and full support for those who are, makes me wonder what “I will never leave an Airman behind” really means.
What can you do to support civil rights and the separation of church and state for America’s atheist, agnostic, humanist, and freethinking Airmen? Here is a list of some, but certainly not all, of the organizations that can help.
Join and support Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers
http://www.militaryatheists.org
Join and support Military Religious Freedom Foundation
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org
Join and support Freedom from Religion Foundation
http://www.ffrf.org
Join and support American Atheists
http://www.atheists.org
Join and support Americans United for Separation of Church and State
http://www.au.org
Get involved with your local atheist, agnostic, humanist, or freethinking group.
Respectfully contact:
Michael B. Donley
Secretary of the Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670
Leon E. Panetta
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Disclaimer: This article in no way represents the official position of the U.S. Air Force or the Department of Defense.
Let’s see how much coverage Haiti gets now
The next 24 hours will bring:
Breaking news announcements every 3 minutes on the 24-hour news networks with the fancy music and flashy graphics. OK people, time to move all your attention and resources away from Haiti, the next stop on our 2010 tour of sensational disaster news is… we’re headed to the South American paradise of Chile. The next 10,000 hours of CNN & MSNBC coverage (Not Fox News, they’re still bashing the left after the worthless “Health Care Summit”) will be non stop coverage of suffering and heartbreak experienced by the Chilean people.
George Clooney has just announced another celebrity 3-hour telethon scheduled for Friday to raise more for needy aid organizations who can’t manage to provide a tent or bottled water to victims 14 days after a disaster, even though they just raised 40 million dollars.
Oh, and we need the U.S. to immediately offer to help, even though we are gazillion dollars in debt, are fighting multiple wars, have a stretched military, corrupt politicians, and can’t provide health care to our own people without causing a person to declare bankruptcy.
Lastly, and most importantly, redirect your thoughts and prayers from Haiti to the Chilean people. Even though thoughts and prayers clearly did not prevent this disaster, or in any way warn the people it was coming, they are much needed now. And we need multiple theist organizations to send bibles, lots and lots of bibles, not food, water, or building materials. Just please hold off on the do-gooders who want to bring a better life to the Chilean children by taking them away from their parents, and bringing them to the good ole U.S.A.
All that and more, on the WXYZ news at 10.
Dear God, where were you when we needed you most?
This story John Travolta Flies Rations, Scientology Ministers Into Haiti, got me thinking.
Do these religious groups care about helping the people of Haiti or “saving” the people of Haiti? It’s one thing to donate food and $$, it’s another to try and convert them when you get there. Where were these religious groups BEFORE the earthquake struck? Most were not there, why, because they didn’t care. Since most all of the religious groups who are helping now, were doing absolutely nothing to help the people of Haiti BEFORE the earthquake struck, I can’t help but believe their true purpose now is to spread the word of their religion.
Travolta’s cult of Scientology is not the only one doing it, but for example, is there really a need to send “Scientology Ministers” to Haiti now? Food, clothing, shelter, and infrastructure repair are what’s needed, not religion. Why is religion not needed? When the people of Haiti needed a God the most, about 30 seconds before the earth shook, no God was there to prevent this disaster. However, now the religious groups are saying, God is here to help. Really? Even though he/she didn’t help me then, if I pray according to your religion now, I will helped. Reminds me of the phrase “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” Or as George Bush would say “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” Unfortunately for the Haitians, there’s a lot of foolery going around.
This post was not meant to offend you, or anyone else, you can believe whatever you want and are entitled to your opinion. It’s just things like this make religion seem foolish to me. We pray now in the hope our prayer will be answered, even though, it clearly didn’t prevent the disaster in the first place. Yes, I know, it’s called faith. I think a better word for it is credulity.
Americans just don’t care…about each other
If you come upon a a driver who has been injured in a car accident, most people would stop and help. Whereas if you have a fellow American citizen without health care who is dying because they can’t afford health care or were denied coverage, most people do nothing. Why is that?
What happened to our United States that we don’t provide a basic human right for each other, such as affordable health care for our citizens? England, France, and Canada do, why don’t we? Are you not willing to collectively pay a little more in taxes so all of us are covered? We all pay a little in taxes so we all have clean drinkable water from our faucet. We all pay a little in taxes so we have paved roads, police/fire service, and a sewage system. But when it comes to health care, which everyone needs sometime in their life, we do nothing. That is why Americans just don’t care…about each other.
Greedy, profit driven companies and corrupt politicians have ruined this country. Complacent citizens have contributed to the problem.
Senator Mitch McConnell, where were you in 2003?
Today Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was blabbing on about how bad the health care bill was and how nobody wants health care reform. Specifically he said
“The notion that we would even consider spending trillions of dollars we don’t have in a way that a majority of Americans don’t even want, is proof that this health care bill is completely and totally out of touch with the American people.”
Source NPR News (All Things Considered) 11/30/09: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120963372
What came to mind when I heard that was:
- A majority of Americans DO want health care reform, look at all the polls (with the exception of anything coming from Fox News).
- Where was Senator McConnell in 2003 when the White House and Congress spent trillions of dollars we didn’t have to start an unnecessary war with Iraq?
- Where was Senator McConnell in 2003 when the White House started a war with Iraq even though a majority of Americans (and a majority of people around the world) didn’t even want it?
- Where was Senator McConnell in 2003 when the Iraq war started and the White House and Congress was completely and totally out of touch with the American people?
Bayer One A Day men’s multivitamin threatened with lawsuit over misleading health claims
If you are a man over 50, you’ve likely seen ads for Bayer One A Day men’s multivitamins that claimed the mineral selenium helps reduce risk of prostate cancer or otherwise promotes “prostate health.”
There’s a big problem however: It’s not true.
In fact, for most men, taking too much selenium may actually promote more aggressive forms of prostate cancer. And, previous studies warned against supplementing with selenium since men taking selenium developed more cases of diabetes than men in control groups who did not.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has threatened Bayer with a lawsuit over those claims, and just last month, we asked the Food and Drug Administration to seize existing stockpiles of One A Day Men’s Health Formula and One A Day Men’s 50+ Advantage.
As CSPI senior nutritionist David Schardt said at the time, “Bayer is exploiting men’s fear of prostate cancer just to sell more pills.” And, a group of some of the most prominent prostate cancer researchers in the country wrote that “Bayer Healthcare is doing a disservice to men by misleading them about a protective role for selenium in prostate cancer.”
If you purchased either of these One A Day Men’s Multis on the belief the product would help reduce your risk of prostate cancer or promote better prostate health, we would like to hear from you. Please email us at cwalsh@cspinet.org so we can learn about your experience with One A Day men’s multis. Together, we may be able to help other men from being ripped off by Bayer’s misleading and illegal claims.
Sincerely,
Steve Gardner
Director of Litigation
Center for Science in the Public Interest