They’re already approving Wicca, Paganism, Santeria and Satanism and have chaplains for those. To quote our next president “What difference does it make?”
In the article, the man says he struggled between the words “atheist” and “humanist”. What he reveals is that his version of humanism is atheistic. That seems honest enough to me.
In short, he is affirming what the supreme court ruled years ago, and that is that atheism is a religion. All this guy is doing is struggling over the name for his denomination. In short, this has a positive side to it...official recognition that both humanism and atheism are religions.
Now, so far as the Army recognizing this and putting it in their book. Their book has every brand of religion imaginable to include Rostafarian. Why don’t we have any Rostafarian chaplains? First, they don’t have a big enough presence in the population even to warrant a chaplain. Second, they haven’t organized to request consideration.
Should a humanist be a chaplain?
In my view they don’t offer anything. A chaplain is approved by his “denomination” primarily to represent them in the military with their own members who are also in the military. That supposed 3.6% number of “humanists” based on some survey is sneaky because it’s not really measuring those who belong to a denomination...or even some assembly of humanists.
They don’t offer anything, first, because they don’t have a group to which they can provide services. They don’t even have “humanist traditions/services/customs” that are common to the “denomination of humanists”. Nor do they have training institutions at which their “leaders” receive their denominational training at the master degree level.
So, they have no training to teach that which they don’t have in common and which they don’t practice.
Finally, a chaplain is also supposed to be available in general support to provide support for those not of his denomination.
Imagine them coming on a dying soldier on a battlefield. Their response: “Sorry, buddy, but you are checking out and there is no hope for afterwards.”
A supreme court verdict referred to humanism as a religion,
and now the (US Government’s) army officially recognizes it as a religion.
Can we now sue to get humanism removed from schools as it is a state sponsored religion?
(and see tagline)