Posted on 04/27/2015 6:11:57 AM PDT by marshmallow
Yet Southern Baptists still provide by far the most chaplains.
Likely presidential candidate and former Southern Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee recently urged Christians to stay out of the military until after the next election, saying they are no longer welcome.
“Why would they want to be in a military that would be openly hostile and not just simply bring some scorn to their faith, but would punish them for it?” Huckabee said in a recent interview.
In recent years, enough of his fellow Southern Baptists have left active duty that atheists now outnumber the denomination among soldiers.
According the latest Department of Defense statistics on religion, there were 12,360 Southern Baptists among the US military’s 1.3 million members on active duty as of December 2014. There were also 12,764 atheists—an advantage of 404 over Southern Baptists.
By contrast, Southern Baptists outnumbered atheists by about 10,000 in 2009, with 16,975 Southern Baptists and only 6,702 atheists on active duty.
The role of faith in the military has been controversial in recent years.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Wow, when I went through Basic Training, there was one Atheist (out of 40).
Earlier this year, I was taking a ride in a taxi, and the driver was newly out of the army, and he was talking about how many atheists there are in the military now.
It’s to be expected. Military doesn’t spend much time digging foxholes these days..
Easy to be detached from a drone console in Maryland.
Wonder how many find their faith when death is imminent and they are faced with their mortality.
Yup...BTW..can you get a purple heart for carpal tunnel syndrome?
I’m surprised at how few Southern Baptists are in the military, but do people of Christian faith of one kind or another still make up the bulk of the numbers? I have to believe they do.
I seem to remember something about foxholes when the sh** is hitting the fan and death is tugging at your elbow.
I did see a story a while back about them suffering PTSD. ??
If they provide the most, does that mean that Baptists who do join are seeking chaplain positions, compared to the other Protestants and Catholics in the service? Or is chaplaincy a non-volunteer assigned position?
I wonder if this is by design, so there is a body of soldiers remaining AFTER the Rapture snatches many away?
I’m sure our government would love to design an army that would not hesitate to follow orders shooting upon fellow Americans.
Well, it will take a large number in arms to fill the valley of Armageddon with blood to the horse’s bridle.
It seems like Obama is trying to create something like a gestapo - make life uncomfortable for Christians, and welcome gays and atheists. Back away from international military action and use the military at home to crush out recalcitrant opponents of the New World Order and the gay agenda. Appoint John Chisholm as director of Homeland Operations.
A godless military isn’t a good thing, IMHO.
My observation over my military career indicates that the appellation of atheist is misapplied to many who don’t declare or follow any denomination. A declaration of a denomination has little to do with core faith or belief or on how patriotic a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine is in his daily life. During the years I lived in the barracks (early 70s), few got up and went to church on a regular basis if at all after a Saturday of entertainment. As a married officer the younger troops, especially the single ones, were about the same as when I was in their position.
1,300,000 in the military.
12,300 are Southern Baptist.
12,700 are Athiest.
What religion are the other 1,275,000?
Turkey and Iran have more than enough to do the trick. I sometimes wonder what America will look like ten minutes AFTER the Rapture, as the planes are falling out of the sky and trains are running un-directed, and cars have careened all over the roads with no driver at the wheel, and buses ... well, you get the gist.
I joined the Army as an atheist and got saved while in Honduras.
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