Atheists in the Military Seek Obama’s Blessing

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As Barack Obama prepares to take office, all sorts of advocacy groups are angling for his attention. And atheists, too, are seeking his blessing. This week the Secular Coalition for America, a national lobbying group for “atheists, humanists and freethinkers,” released its wish list. The group is not looking for Obama to remove “In God We Trust” from US currency. It has a more a modest agenda: countering what it claims is discrimination against atheists and non-Christians in the military.

The group is requesting that Obama appoint leaders who are committed to a secular military and that he issue a directive to the military that explicitly prohibits proselytization, prayers at mandatory events, and official statements endorsing a particular faith. The proposal also advocates creating a “commission for religious accommodation” within the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s office.

According to the group, major news outlets have reported at least twenty incidents in which military personnel have been coercively proselytized in the past five years. In 2005, Air Force Academy alumnus Mikey Weinstein filed a lawsuit (ultimately unsuccessful) against the Colorado Springs Air Force Academy, alleging that non-Christians at the Academy faced discrimination from evangelical Christians. That same year, The New York Times quoted the Air Force Chief of Chaplains, Cecil Richardson, as saying chaplains “reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched.” Recently General David Petraeus endorsed the book Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel, which is not officially affiliated with the US military.

Surveys show that 21 percent of military personnel identify as atheists or as having “no religion.” But when it comes to persuading Obama to take these protect-the-secularists steps, there’s no telling if these atheists have a prayer.

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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