Religion should absolutely be kept out of our military as it should be kept out of our government. Our founding fathers were very close in time to the terrible religious wars in England and Europe, and knew well the dangers. Especially when dealing with a potentially hostile religion, it is even more important to appear neutral. As to the observation that this former SEAL was part of a freedom from religion group reminds me once again of the tragic Tillman killing. It has been rumored that he was “fragged” because he was an Atheist. If religion in the military were not being an issue, his religious beliefs might not even have been known much less been the possible cause of his death. We must all remember our Constitutional right to “freedom of religion” also includes the option for “freedom from religion” which recent polls indicate is the option of 10% to 20% of Americans.
O Lordy, Tillman was not fragged for being an atheist, if he was one. Silliest thing I have ever heard here.
Now the Taliban may have killed him for religious reasons but not American soldiers.
Your posts continue to degenerate, and your silly but hateful claim about Tillman being murdered by religious American soldiers takes the cake.
It is obvious that you know NOTHING of American history. It is also obvious that you belong over at DU, not here at Free Republic.
There is absolutely zero evidence (to my knowledge) that Ranger Tillman was murdered by his fellow soldiers, as opposed to having been killed by accidental ‘friendly fire’. That is a far out wacky allegation which as far as I know has no basis whatsoever in reality. If you have some real evidence of that, as opposed to the repeating of looney speculation, you should publish your source and also report it to Army CID or Inspector General or the FBI. Short of that, I think the speculation is disrespectful.
Your contend that freedom of religion = freedom from religion and imply that the Founding Fathers supported this. I disagree. Several if not most of the original states had ‘official’ religions at the time of their adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The freedom that was intended was freedom of government imposition of a particular denomination. [And just as an aside, for most of our nation’s history this was not understood as a limitation on state governments (”Congress shall make no law...”).] There was never understood, at least widely, to be any absolute freedom from religion in general, or even from Christianity in general. This is reflected in the fact that the Almighty, albeit in generic terms, has been invoked from the Declaration of Independence to the “In God We Trust” motto on our money to chaplains in our military from the Continental Army to present. So I think you are really overstating things.
Wrong. Neutrality is NOT the answer when dealing with a hostile religion. Strength and courage are the answer.
“Religion should absolutely be kept out of our military as it should be kept out of our government.”
You are a moron and I doubt very much your claim that you have lost a son in Afg. Personally, as a Veteran that saw many a friend get sent to combat, I KNOW that religion was and is a very important element in the lives of our military men and women.
Go back to the DUmp. We don’t need your anti-American rhetoric here.