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RE: USMA "highly encouraged" Religion
"Sir, New Cadet Vea is an atheist - where does he go?"
I don't know what to tell you. I guess watching the South Park episodes on the future without religions would help a little :)
RE: USMA "highly encouraged" Religion
So the real question is - who's the weaker person? Me for putting on a fake mask to simplify the ripple effect? Or them for "needing" me not to be an atheist to avoid having to deal with it?
I believe the military understands at some level that, in the absence of faith, your personal ethics, morals, and integrity are called into question by all of us who do have faith.
Believers are told by Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that unbelievers do not accept the things of God, for they believe them to be foolish.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
Indeed, Psalm 1:1 specifically admonishes believers not to accept counsel from unbelievers:
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
Psalm 5:9 shows believers that wise counsel cannot come from unbelievers:
There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue.
Believers are simply not supposed to be partnered with unbelievers. This does not preclude casual or occasional working relationships, but certainly we are not to be partnered. I, for example, could never call an unbeliever 'brother' as I would a believer; nor could I call one a true friend, merely an acquaintance. In truth, I have many acquaintances, but few true friends. 2 Corinthians 6:14 shows us that we are not partner with unbelievers.
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
Yet while we are not to partner with unbelievers, we should never ever put them aside, for all we do is to be done in Love. 1 Corinthians 13 shows us this.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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USMA "highly encouraged" Religion
From the CNN article regarding SPC Hall's attorney: "Weinstein previously sued the Air Force for acts he said illegally imposed Christianity on its students at the academy. A federal judge threw out that lawsuit in 2006."
I can say that I experienced something akin to that at West Point's basic training. As some of you may recall, on Sundays of those summer days, we were organized on the apron whereupon the companies formed up based on faith groups. These "faith platoons" were then marched to their respective religious temples on the Academy grounds so they could worship.
What of the atheists? I still remember this one clearly. One of my squadmates "stuck out his paw" (indicating he wished to make a statement). When asked what he had to say, New Cadet X said, "Sir, New Cadet Vea is an atheist - where does he go?" I found this amusing that this kid wanted to make a thing of it - but whatever. The response, however, was sheer crap. "Unless New Cadet Vea wants to spend the next two hours scrubbing toilets, he better find some faith real quick."
Rule number one of USMA basic - don't stand out. I "coincidentally found Jesus" and went with the Catholics since I started life as one anyway. This very act (and the acceptance from those who knew I was an atheist) really solidified my distaste for organized religion. So - because I act like I believe, I'm not going to be hazed or ostracized and your religion, which should be condemning me by its dogma, is going to welcome me with open arms. That's shallow and lack of conviction on their part. And it shows me the weakness in the "leaders" that could only accept me if their church accepted me - a prime example of being unable to accept a person on merit as opposed to accepting a person based on tokens.
So the real question is - who's the weaker person? Me for putting on a fake mask to simplify the ripple effect? Or them for "needing" me not to be an atheist to avoid having to deal with it?
Either way, it was another example of how the righteous are only tolerant of things similar enough to them that toleration is just a word instead of an action.
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