Constitutional Law, Religion

Looking For a Few Good Sheep

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

The U.S. Army is using the mandatory Soldier Fitness Tracker to measure the “spiritual” fitness of soldiers as part of the $125 million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program. Soldiers are required to answer if they pray, if they attend religious services, and if they find comfort in religious beliefs. Non-believers are guaranteed to score poorly.

While homosexuals can serve openly since the repeal of DADT, atheists are spiritually unfit.

For those that don’t measure up, there is a “recommendation” for remedial spirituality training.

Here are the pertinent questions:

The Army enlisted “Psychology of Religion” expert Dr. Kenneth Pargament of Bowling Green State University along with Army Chaplains to develop the spiritual portion of the test. Pargament’s area of research involves drawing on religious beliefs and practices to understand and deal with the stresses of life.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) have sent cease and desist letters to Secretary of the Army, John McHugh and General Casey, the Army’s chief of staff.

If the Army is truly interest in the psychological well being of the troops, how about teaching them reasoning and critical thinking skills? Those skills will help them recognize nonsense.

H/T: Rock Beyond Belief, truthout, FFRF, MRFF.

106 thoughts on “Looking For a Few Good Sheep”

  2. He was? And Bush has stacked the system as well..limited press and radio and was Rather fired because of controversial news about Bush…oh oh …damage done…. junkies like a setting sun….oh oh damage done….

  3. I’m just catching up on the story. I spent most of the day yesterday in the ER with my mother.

  4. Some people didn’t believe that Castro was a communist until they found out that he was a communist.

  5. Bdaman: My point is that there is speculation about the shooters’ motives. I use the word shooters because they are now looking for a white man between 40 and 50. Didn’t you read that the shooter liked to read “mein kampf”?

  6. First of all, most of the attention has been given to Gifford but his intended target COULD have been the judge. She, Gifford MIGHT have been bonus points and nothing to do with the analogy. Kinda like all the blame that he, Loughner was a Tea Partier.

  7. Nal,

    Well done! I was working on this story too. Here’s a video of a Countdown segment with Keith Olbermann interviewing Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, about the Soldier Fitness Tracker and Global Assessment Tool:

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lcwX6jTjgc&fs=1&hl=en_US]

  8. Some people don’t believe that Stalin used the wealth and influence of the Jewish people during the small revolution that occurred in the early part of the 20th century…then summarily had these same folks executed and took their money for the good of the country….the same premise that Hitler and his propaganda machine used some 20 years later to make a rationale for the extermination of the Jews….so if history repeats itself the Jews are mostly blamed for the ills of society…so read up and maybe you will understand the point….but then again…some people never understand what they don’t understand…

  10. The harassment of Jews at the military academies, this joke of a questionnaire; but the there is a lot more going on that we don’t see and it should scare the hell out of decent Christians as much as the rest of America.

    Like the newly enacted it’s ok if your a Muslim in the military to have a beard but if your Jewish in the military it’s not.

  11. And your point Swathmore Mom

    Frank I surmise by your comment that you don’t trust the media.

  12. My son joined the Army back in the late 90s & said Sunday services were ‘required’ in basic and AIT. He also noted that one of the major themes being preached every week was that Bill and Hillary were the devil incarnate and leading America to Godlessness. Naive waif that he was he thought such crap would not be allowed in the Army no matter who was the President.

    There is are christianist extremists in positions of power inside our military today and you see small glimpses from time to time. The harassment of Jews at the military academies, this joke of a questionnaire; but the there is a lot more going on that we don’t see and it should scare the hell out of decent Christians as much as the rest of America.

  13. From what I understand about the (9) year old young lady she had just been elected to her student council and a neighbor took her to the event to expand her civics knowledge.

    So sad,I have daughters and I don’t know how I would have survived that phone call.

  14. Gabrielle Gifford and her aide Gabe Zimmerman are both Jewish. Zimmerman is dead.

  15. she was born on 9/11/01 if the news reports are to be believed. And she wanted to get involved in politics to make the world a better place. I’m not sure we are capable of being a better place so maybe she is lucky for having to put in all that effort and watch us get worse.

  17. I saw that MS. Elaine, how bout did you see the birthdate of the 9 year old that was killed.

  19. I would trust a devout atheist before a self proclaimed christian any day of the week….as I have more faith in the formers word than the later….so who would I want guarding by back?

  20. Every United States military recruit at MEPS is receiving one mini Bible before the test.

    Jared Loughner is a military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix.

    Therefore, Jared Loughner is receiving one mini Bible before the test.

    I didn’t write a belief on my Army application and the recruiter wrote on my application,none.

    Jared Loughner mass murderer Jan 8 2011

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