Religion and the Military

I have been following the story of Army Specialist Jeremy Hall and his beef with the Army regarding his Atheist beliefs.

I can understand his dilemma, however, I also completely understand how the military views this situation.

For one, the military is not an individualistic entity but rather focuses on group identity...when someone strays from that "group" it can generate larger issues down the road.

When a person is molded into this ideology (which seems to contradict America's individualistic identity) it takes a breaking down of the psyche.

In basic training we are taught not to be individual but to think of the "greater good" of one's unit, the mission and ultimately our country.

So when someone like Specialist Halls goes outside of this "norm" I feel the first response from individuals who are trained to think polar opposite of what we are trained to do....is to shun. (Harsh yeah....but from my years in service I never saw too many people stray from this train of thought.)

Now, I see this man's quandary, however the greater good of the service needs to be taken into consideration.

Trust me, I didn't always like to pause in prayer when we went on convoys or even to get ready for a huge field exercise, but I paused like everyone else.

Brainwashed?

No?

But common sense tells me that if you try to break from that military mold I feel down the road somewhere you are going to create problems.

I am all for freedom of religion....we have many people serving in the Armed Forces who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist...you name it.

I think that if we start to make exceptions and have men like Hall break free from what we tend to view as military tradition it will create a crack in the mold...thus creating dissent (though the way some soldiers shunned him or threatened his life is completely wrong...I feel it does a disservice to the uniform and doesn't represent what I know as honor in the military code)....sure I could be wrong but if anyone has served any length of time in the US Armed Forces they would understand where I am coming from:

Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God.
He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural.

Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist.
His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety.

I will be following this story with avid interest.

Website:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/08/atheist.soldier/index.html