First, read this Associated Press (AP) article, here on Newsvine. Now, my thoughts...
Many Americans -- especially if they're current or former military, or have a family member who is -- have trouble seeing what is the problem. As Michael Weinstein, of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has been saying for many years, there is "a small subset of evangelical Christianity that's called premilliennial, dispensational, reconstructionist, dominionist, fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity or just Dominionist Christianity" that has -- especially since 9/11 and the increase is anti-Muslim sentiment in both the military and America, itself -- executed something of a coup in the US military.
Those of either no religion -- or, worse, what the twisted minds of such "Christians" consider the "wrong" religion -- routinely find themselves the targets of discrimination, ridicule, harrassment and even abuse...
...all under the blind eye of officers and those even higher who allow it... even encourage it.
Read the Wikipedia articles about Weinstein and MRFF...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikey_Weinstein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Religious_Freedom_Foundation
...and then spend some quality time poking around the MRFF website...
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org
...to get a clearer picture. Be sure to also spend some time on MRFF's Youtube channel...
http://www.youtube.com/user/mikeymrff
...where I believe there are clips from the original documentary about Weinstein and MRFF that I saw in a downtown San Francisco arthouse theater some years ago which really opened my eyes to just how bad it had gotten. There's also tons of other good video stuff there that can help one to better understand the situation.
See, also, the CNN interview with both the cadet, and Weinstein...
...to hear, straight from the horses' mouths, about this particular situation.
Personally, I support the kid, 100%. As a chaplain (though never a military one) I know, better than many, the attitudes of most military chaplains from my association with them in groups where chaplains of all types meet to discuss things, attend seminars, etc. Not all military chaplains are part of Weinstein's coup, of course; but many, many, many are. For those, like me, for whom the notion of church/state separation has real meanting, it's sobering, indeed.
I do, though, wish the kid had finished West Point, though. The phrase "West Point graduate" will look better on his activist resume in life; and he will, I think, get less respect -- and may well be called a "wash out" and all manner of other things -- because he chose to do it this way. That said, Weinstein and several members of his family went ahead and graduated from impressive military academe and have had trouble getting the kind of attention for their cause and activism as this young cadet is now so easily getting... so, who knows which way is best. This kid's Worholian 15 minutes of fame will quickly fade, though; and we'll see, after that, how he and his message are received over time. I hope he's heard, but I fear it will all soon become part of America's collective infamously-short memory.
Something, in any case, needs to change; and maybe this incident will at least get more people thinking about it. Sadly, in the long-run, that's probably the best for which those, like me, who'd like to see a stop to what's going on in the military regarding religion, can hope.
One piece of good news: Page won't have to reimburse the military, and will be honorably discharged. There had been some concern about that, as this Daily Kos article explains.
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
