What a lovely concept. A religion based on no religion. I adopted and adapted as I went through different cultures during my vacation in sunny Southeast Asia.  I was  particularly enamoured of the Buddhist faith when I was there and openly practiced it in the remote locations where I was stranded. There were no chaplains where we were. Hell, to be perfectly frank, there wasn’t much in the way of any organized religious programs for us at all with the exception of informal nightly worship services. In remote/isolated assignments like Project 404   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_404   the patron Saint was St. John the Walker hands down. Regardless of his religious attire from day to day (Red or Black), the only other serious contender was Brother Tanqueray  of the Order of the Juniper Berry and occasionally St. Chivas. Absent meaningful and reliable  refrigeration, beer wasn’t even in the running.

Buddhism is an interesting concept that is predicated heavily on reincarnation. This helps to control social mores by employing the “What goes around, comes around.” theory. Nobody wants to come back as a snake or a dog due to a poor personnel performance report from Buddha.

With the sudden ascendancy  of the new world order, the Muslim faith is now recognized and tolerated. How soldiers in the Army can pop out and do 5 prayer sessions a day hasn’t been explained to me. For instance, do they get to forego packing an entrenching tool around and substitute a prayer rug? All these questions as Roseanna Rosanadanna used to say.

Which leads us to this Baltimore headline I saw yesterday:

“Capt.  Ryan Jean wanted to perform well on the Army’s Psychological evaluation for soldiers. But he also wanted to answer the questions honestly. So when he was asked whether he believed his life had a lasting purpose, Jean, an atheist, saw no choice but to say no.”

Due to this, he was asked to report for remedial save your soul training with the chaplain. Apparently the Army considers itself (according to the chaplain) as an adjunct of the Army of God. Anyone who isn’t a committed Christian is quite obviously on the wrong side of the fence. He was admonished to fix this. The “fix”, in Capt. Jean’s estimation, would be to seek a religious position as a “priest”, albeit a secular one, that marches to the beat of no God we recognize or can ascertain as one. How enlightening. I assure you this is not rank humor. This is right in the paper authored by one Matthew Hay Brown of the Baltimore Sun.

In light of everything I have seen about social and sexual mores recently in the military, this seems to comport perfectly with all the other claptrap. If troops are allowed to have any gender designation they wish imprinted on their dogtags, why not “Atheist” as their default religion if they so choose? And, with that in mind, who will lead these souls to everlasting humaness but their own cadre of Priests. This doesn’t need a lot of thought to process it.

I leave you with the last, well-written paragraph of the article. If this doesn’t summarize that we have reached “emptiness” nothing does:

” Nonetheless, the drive for lay leaders reflects the growing level of coordination among atheists in uniform and their increasing willingness to speak out in a military that has labored in recent years to develop a more inclusive environment for its diverse membership.”

When I was in the service, we were entitled to believe in one thing only-the prevailing opinion of 6 Actual. Anything else was heresy. Slats commanded and I obeyed.  Seasons change and so the military. Marching to the beat of a different drummer can be so enervating.  We’ve come a long way, baby.