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.
Onward Christian Soldiers...
A veteran, crippled by excruciating pain from kidney stones and 100% disabled, goes to a VA hospital for a medication refill. The doctor refuses to write a prescription, and tells the veteran: "You're a religious Jew. Why don't you try prayer and meditation?"
I have been hospitalized three times at the Iowa City VA for symptoms of angina, and all three times, while in bed, wired to a heart monitor, I have been visited by Christian Chaplains and handed Christian tracts. Twice the Assembly of God Chaplain insisted on proselytizing me - telling me about how Jesus loves me, how Jesus is the Messiah of the Jews too. And although each time I had informed the staff both verbally and in writing that I did not want to
be visited by a Chaplain, they came anyway - carrying their message of love. Each time I objected, as vigorously as I could. But the hospital's answer to my complaint regarding these visits was that I should have objected more strenuously. What am I supposed to do, hang on to my heart monitor and jump up and down?! (Link)
Welcome to today's dominionist armed forces. With the encouragement and support of the George Bush Junior regime, an extreme fundamentalist movement has hijacked the US military from the highest levels down, and is turning it into one giant faith-based tax-supported proselytizing machine, in blatant defiance of the Constitution and everything the military stands for (not to mention the Hippocratic oath, as in the above outrageous story).
This is beyond unacceptable and despicable - it's incredibly scary. The Pentagon has become the Pentacostalgon, and the Christian Taliban and its Crusaders have control of the most lethal military force the world has ever known!
Visit the Military Religious Freedom Foundation website and consider how you can help oppose this unbelievable, appalling and unacceptable assault on our freedoms and our most important institutions.
(Cross-posted at No More Mr. Nice Guy)
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US Navy
My story is petty in comparison to this gentleman, but here it goes anyway...
This may no longer be true? I was in basic training back in 1989. During basic training in the Navy, on Sunday morning you can go to church for 4 hours or stay behind and get put to work at your barracks. Even though I was an atheist even back then, I chose to go to church because you could catch up on some sleep without a company commander messing with you.
Wasn't really much of a choice now was it?
In The Navy
I went through Navy Boot Camp in 1985, and we had the same "choice" on Sundays. You could go to a Protestant service, or a Jewish service. If you were a Mormon, they would also allow you to be bussed into town to attend a Mormon church - but there was a lot of distrust there. The one Mormon kid who requested it eventually just started going to the Protestant service with the rest of us.
If you did not go to a church on Sunday, you could expect to be ridden hard by the CCs the whole next week. Laying low is the name of the game in basic, so I went to church and slept.
One kid in our company didn't go to church the first couple of weeks and then tried to slit his wrists after he was ridden so hard for not going. I think he was probably suicidal even before the abuse heaped onto him by the CCs, but it certainly didn't help him any.
The kid did not die - he went to the hospital and then was medically discharged due to severe clinical depression.
The main result of that uplifting little fiasco was that in addition to our "choice" of church on Sunday, we now were forced to recite the Lord's Prayer every night before lights out. Everyone. Jews, Mormons, Christians, and me, the one lonely atheist (although no one knew). The "reasoning" behind it, according to the CCs, was that even though you might not be a Protestant Christian (like the three or four Jewish kids in our company), you had to recite the prayer "out of respect" for the poor, unfortunate, suicidally depressed crew mate who was in the hospital. With the unspoken but completely understood addendum - "because he didn't go to church."
Yeesh.
There's more...
...in this update from Mr. Miller at dKos. Scary stuff, indeed. But all too typical, I am sorry to say.
Good post, NMMNG!
Jim Downey
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