Religious discrimination in the military

The growing population of evangelical Christians in the military has led to increased religious intolerance on military bases across the world. These evangelical Christians promote the idea that the U.S. military is a Christian military and that the men and women in the armed forces have the dual purpose of defending America’s interests and promoting Christianity. These fundamentalists make life difficult for religious minorities in the military, specifically jewish and atheist service members.  In addition, the growth in the fundamentalist military population has led to the growth in the number of chaplains who proselytize or infuse religious values into secular military activities. 

The story of Jeremy Hall demonstrates what happens when the military allows chaplains and officers to create a coercive religious climate for non-Evangelical service members.

Specialist Jeremy Hall decided to be open and honest about his lack of religious faith, challenging the old adage that there are no atheists in foxholes.  It turned out to be a move that jeopardized his deployment, his military career, and even his personal safety.

Pressure came both from peers and from officers.  When Jeremy decided not to pray at Thanksgiving dinner, he was singled out and told that he couldn’t sit with the others.  A superior officer later told him that, in order to be a good leader, he would have to put his personal convictions aside and pray anyway.  Jeremy refused to do so, and did not receive a promotion.  The situation got worse when Jeremy’s meeting of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers was crashed by Major Welborn, who chastised him and threatened disciplinary action – simply because Jeremy was an atheist.

Jeremy began receiving death threats.  On leave in Qatar, he was chased by a group of soldiers who called him religious slurs and threatened to beat him up.  Fearing for Jeremy’s safety, the US Army assigned him a full-time bodyguard, and later transferred him out of the Middle East onto a military base in Kansas.  Jeremy filed a lawsuit claiming that the coercive religious climate in the military was an unconstitutional violation of his religious freedom.  After three and a half years in the Army, he decided not to re-enlist.  Despite the desire to serve, he felt unable to do so as an open atheist.

• Despite comprising almost 20% of military personnel, atheists serving in the military have been denied promotions, harassed, ostracized, and physically threatened by chaplains, officers, and peers for their nonreligious beliefs.
• Federal law requires everyone who enlists or re-enlists in the Armed Forces of the United States to take the enlistment oath.  In this oath, military personnel pledge “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The Constitution states that religion cannot be used as a qualification for public service and that our government can neither advance nor inhibit religion.
• Despite this oath to the Constitution, assignments and promotions based on religious membership rather than merit have occurred, as have endorsements of religion. In addition, there have been numerous reports that military leaders have worked in conjunction with the military chaplaincy in coercing soldiers to attend religious services, and encouraging them to abide by religious laws or proselytize to their fellow soldiers.
• The intolerant religious climate of the military has led men and women in the armed forces to abandon promising careers in the military.

Proselytizing by chaplains is a discriminatory, unconstitutional endorsement of religion that results in the religious harassment of our military personnel. Limits on proselytizing by military chaplains were clearly spelled out by a federal appeals court over twenty years ago. "The primary function of the military chaplain is to engage in activities designed to meet the religious needs of a pluralistic military community," the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in 1985, in Katcoff v Marsh. Army chaplains were hired to serve military personnel "who wish to use them," the Court observed; they are not authorized "to proselytize soldiers or their families."

Our military includes both religious and nonreligious men and women, endowed with the rights enjoyed by all Americans to worship or not worship as they choose. They volunteer to serve our nation, not to enter Bible study, much less to have their beliefs challenged or denigrated by government chaplains. Chaplains who do not put the free exercise rights of military personnel above their own desire to proselytize should not be endorsed by the Armed Forces Chaplains Board. Clerics who believe that their faith requires them to proselytize are free to do so outside of a military chaplaincy.

For more detail, see our position paper.