Monday, September 8, 2014

Atheists cannot enlist in the military.

Apparently being an atheist is worse than being gay, in the eyes of the Christianists in Congress.  At least gays get to serve in the military.

Or is that the Christianists in the Air Force.  The Wall STreet journal:
An atheist airman stationed at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada was denied reenlistment for refusing to sign an oath with the words “so help me God,” provoking protest from a legal advocacy group that represents atheists in religious freedom cases..... 
“The government cannot compel a nonbeliever to take an oath that affirms the existence of a supreme being,” Ms. Miller told the Air Force Times. “Numerous cases affirm that atheists have the right to omit theistic language from enlistment or reenlistment contracts.”..... 
An Air Force spokeswoman [said]  that it cannot make “so help me God” optional without congressional authorization. “Reciting ‘So help me God’ in the reenlistment and commissioning oaths is a statutory requirement under Title 10 USC 502,” Air Force spokeswoman Rose Richeson said.
Eugene Volokh disagrees.
10 U.S.C. § 502 expressly says that each person may swear or affirm. Likewise, 1 U.S.C. § 1 expressly says that an oath includes an affirmation. And an affirmation means precisely a pledge without reference to a supreme being. Given this context, it seems to me quite clear that “So help me God” in the statute should be read as an optional component, to be used for the great bulk of people who swear, but should be omitted for those who exercise their expressly statutorily provided option to affirm — because that’s what affirming means (omitting reference to a supreme being).

Even looking at the statute standing alone, then, the Air Force thus has no business denying people the ability to affirm, which is to say to omit “so help me God.” 
I am SO TIRED of the constant intrusion of certain people's religion into our public life.  THis is the kind of thing that makes even a good-tempered atheist start to rave about the flying spaghetti monster and invisible pink unicorns.

4 comments:

Brother David said...

I don’t believe in invisible pink unicorns, but you need to leave the FSM out of this! :D

dr.primrose said...

I note that the U.S. Constitution sets out verbatim the oath or affirmation that the president must take before assuming office:

"Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:

"'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.'" (Art. 2, Sec. 1)

Presidents usually add, "So help me God." But that's not part of the official text. If the President isn't required to affirm God's protection, I can't imagine an airman is required to do so so.

JCF said...

Methinks if he were a member of some kind of Christian sect that refused to "take the LORD's Name in vain" w/ a "so help me", the USAF would find a way around it...

Erp said...

The better known Christian sects that refuse an oath are pacifist so are unlikely to be in a volunteer army in the first place (in a draft they are likely to be in prison or alternative service as COs before even getting to the oath). However the US Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test (and a very common religious test of the time was an oath with specific wording) for just these sorts of situations.