The Deadly Mix of Religion and Militarism

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, for secular humanists, are: Religion, Politics, Militarism, and Marketing. All represent the triumph of Unreason. All require unquestioning groupthink. All compete for our souls. Today's rant is concerned only with the first three, which have the power to destroy us.

An article in the Chicago Tribune of May 25, 2009 reports on the use of Biblical verses as prefaces to the government's 2003 intelligence reports, as approved by Rumsfeld: "the hawkish use of Scripture at the nation's highest levels has prompted many faithful to ask whether Americans lost their lives in Iraq defending democracy or fighting a religious crusade."

Of course, moderate Jews and Christian deplore such use of Scripture. They speak of peace and tolerance. That's the problem with holy books. They can mean whatever you want them to. The violent fanatics think their interpretation of the sacred texts is just as valid.

All of this comes soon after a very disturbing article in a recent issue of Harper's Magazine, describing the increasing religiosity, particularly the Christianizing, of America's military, most especially the Air Force. Cadets have been harassed and beaten for being atheists. I cannot think of a more obscenely un-American act.



Religion and Militarism have much in common: hierarchies, costumes, rituals, obedience, tradition, violence, groupthink, and more obedience. There are heroes, Saints and figures of worship. Above all, there is obedience. It is the obedience that creates the wars, crusades, jihads, Inquisitions and Holocausts.

I recently saw another Holocaust movie and was appalled and sickened by the level of obedience -- on both sides. That's what it takes to create a war or an Inquisition or a Holocaust: mountains of obedience. Passive Jews, passive Germans.

It's especially important, on this Memorial Day, to remember that America is not a Christian nation. Let it be said again and again. Many of the Founders were agnostics or outright atheists. Roger Williams and William Penn fled the budding theocracy in New England and sought the liberty that America is all about. Repeat: America is not a Christian nation. To make political decisions based on anything other than the Constitution is tantamount to treason.

I hereby deplore -- and urge all secular humanists to publicly deplore, in any way possible -- the Christianizing of America's military. Talk to your friends, your Congresspeople, anyone you can influence. Pass this post on to someone else.

The reason is simple: it's dangerous enough to have so much violence in the hands of the military chain of command, with its total obedience. When that power is governed not by fact, reason, or the Constitution, but by a religious mentality grounded in fantasies and competing deities (in the Harper's article, an American general boasted, to an African warlord, that "My God is bigger than your God."), you have, as with the mass psychosis of the totalitarian mentality, the total obedience necessary to cause horrible suffering FOR IMAGINARY REASONS -- OR FOR NO REASON AT ALL (most recent example: Bush's belief that God told him to invade Iraq and all the suffering that ensued).

I know, it's hard to think both ways: the enemy consists of religious fanatics, but we must treat them as a military enemy, not as a religious opponent.

In fact, I suggest that instead of waterboarding, simply make the detainees watch the Koran being desecrated -- say, used as toilet paper. That would cause them considerable psychological distress, wouldn't you think? But no, religion is always off-limits -- even the enemy's religion, which can be used against him.

To the main point: it is not enough to have secular humanist groups, gatherings, conventions, publications, and meet-ups. There must be an aggressive stand against religious superstition and a considerable decrease in the respect which society accords it.

It may be too late. Entirely too many American officers appear on Christian broadcasts in uniform. Entirely too many military people think their power is to be used in some sort of fulfillment of a divine mission.

It's something the Founders could barely have foreseen. And it is very bad for America. Speak out. Please. Speak out.