I further submit--especially since 'Islamophobics' are considered extremists--that a good many Atheists must be extremists as well. There are countless Atheists (just look at this site alone) who are adamantly Christianophobic and/or Islamophobic and/or Jewophobic.
So, be honest. This thread was nothing more than a vehicle to use your fundamentalism to promote your message of hate.
No message of hate here. Though I understand how someone with your mindset would automatically jump to that conclusion. Sort of like the thief who always assumes everyone is trying to break into his house.
All I did was make a logical deduction. If anyone on that list is an "extremist," including Islamophobics... then Atheists--such as yourself--would obviously be defined as extremists as well. You're clearly just as phobic about Christians as anyone is about Muslims. In addition, according to the presentation, an "extremist" is defined as someone whose beliefs are beyond "ordinary." Again, Atheists like yourself must therefore also be defined as "extremist" because your beliefs are in the vast minority, i.e. less than ordinary.
But that was merely a sidebar. The point of the post--and the article--was that our US Military is in fact doing away with religious symbols and beginning to consider religious people as fanatical or "extremist." I was dismayed and somewhat shocked at what the article had to say. And though the detractors posted their opposing opinions, the fact is--according to World Magazine--that religious symbols are in fact being removed sight. Chaplains can still wear crosses on their collars, but they fear even then it's just a matter of time before that right is taken away.
Here is another supporting article that cites opinions from several prominent, high-ranking officers in the military, and they corroborate my allegations.
Holding the line
Military | Chaplains are pursuing their mission in a military suddenly hostile to Christianity and ready to suppress religious freedom
GREENVILLE, S.C.—This year: An Idaho Air Force base removes a painting called “Blessed Are the Peacemakers” because it references a Bible verse. The Air Force yanks off You-Tube a video tribute to first sergeants because its statement, “God created a first sergeant,” is “highly suggestive of the Book of Genesis in the Bible and has Christian overtones.”
Also this year: An Army Reserve training brief on hate groups declares that evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics are extremists as dangerous as al-Qaeda. A commander tells a chaplain to “stay in your lane” when he offers spiritual advice about the military’s exploding sexual assault problem.
Last year: A superior tells an Air Force major to remove from his desk the Bible he had kept there for 23 years. An Army lieutenant colonel instructs his subordinates to recognize the “religious right in America” as a domestic hate group like the KKK and Neo-Nazis. An Army master sergeant with 25 years of service faces punishment for serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at his promotion party.
Two years ago: Christian prayers banned at veteran funeral services in Houston’s National Cemetery. Bibles temporarily banned at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
A Christian cross banned from a military chapel in Afghanistan [well whataya know, there
is corroboration for my claim]. A chaplain called into his supervisor’s office and chewed out for closing a prayer with the words “In Jesus’ name.”
Coincidence that all these incidents occurred recently? About 80 military chaplains who gathered in South Carolina for a three-day conference last month didn’t think so. George Washington established the military chaplaincy, but Doug Lee, a retired Army chaplain who achieved the rank of brigadier general, told attendees, “You are in the military in a new era.”
The marginalization of Christianity in a military becoming more and more hostile to religion has left the chaplains feeling muzzled—and they now face same-sex couples coming to them for marriage counseling. The chaplains still get to wear crosses on their collars, so they worry even more about those Christians in regular uniforms losing the First Amendment freedom of religious expression that they volunteered to defend.
“We are at war,” said Chaplain Thomas MacGregor, a U.S. Army colonel. In June 2009, MacGregor bucked the trend by invoking Jesus’ name and proclaiming His resurrection during a prayer at the official Normandy ceremony honoring the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Several chaplains turned down the assignment, MacGregor said: “Be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove … that is the rule of the thumb I give to my junior chaplains.”
This May, frustrated with the weight of evidence, Coast Guard Rear Admiral William Lee broke rank, throwing out his prepared text at Washington’s National Day of Prayer event (see video below).
“They expect us to check our religion in at the door—don’t bring that here,” Lee said. “Leaders like myself are feeling the constraints of rules and regulations and guidance issued by lawyers that put us in a tighter and tighter box regarding our constitutional right to express our religious faith."
read full article
