Originally posted at The Blacksphere
During the Second World War, the phrase “There are no atheists in foxholes” was attributed to a Catholic priest named Father William Cummings.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower adopted the phrase and used it in a 1954 speech when he said:
“I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes.”
But that was then, this is now.
Recently the saying that “There are no atheists in foxholes” was banned from the website of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in the Chaplain’s Corner after Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes (USAF) made an insensitive blunder. Reyes dared to have this opinion, and then had the gall to post a devotional article entitled “No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II.”
Right after Reyes did the unthinkable by posting his commentary, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) filed a complaint, demanding that the devotional be removed from the website immediately. The MRFF also asked that Reyes be disciplined for audaciously implying that atheists are atheists, making nonbelievers feel as though he attempted to “publicly denigrate those without religion.”
Curtsying to the activist group, the Air Force removed the article after receiving the complaint from 42 airmen-atheists who didn’t like being identified as people without faith. However, removing the essay from the website wasn’t enough for the group, who then stated that “Faith-based hate is hate all the same. Lt. Col. Reyes must be appropriately reprimanded.”
In other words, for the sin of being a Christian, Reyes deserved tar and feathers, pillory stocks, or better yet, a symbolic burning at the stake.
The MRFF maintained that Reyes “defile[d] the dignity of service members by telling them that regardless of their personally held philosophical beliefs they must have faith.”
Eventually, with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request, the censored article was returned to the Chaplin’s Corner and Reyes was exonerated for the crime of expressing his opinion and his faith.
The American military, like American culture, is becoming increasingly nonspiritual. Activists are furthering secularism and monitoring the religious behaviors of military chaplains and servicemen and women alike. Currently, Bibles are prohibited from being kept in plain sight, Jesus’ name forbidden to be uttered, and Christian military personnel barred from sharing their faith with other soldiers.
The Commander-in-Chief agrees with the persecution of Christians in the military.
The Obama administration threatened to arrest military chaplains holding services during the government shutdown, and prohibited religious greeting cards from children to be sent to soldiers during the Christmas season. The White House has done nothing to protect the First Amendment rights of soldiers being punished for refusing to support gay marriage, even though homosexuality goes against the tenets of their faith.
In a video entitled A Clear and Present Danger released by the Family Research Council, soldiers who chose to remain anonymous expressed their concerns over the treatment of people of faith within the military.
FRC President Tony Perkins said that “More and more service members are facing harassment, demotion, and formal reprimands simply for being Bible-believing Christians.”
[youtube]http://youtu.be/2-PDR9Gxvvc[/youtube]
As witnessed with the Duck Dynasty Bible-quoting dustup, one soldier on the video warns:
“American Christians have to understand that this is not going to stop with the military. It’s not going to stop there.”
The larger concern in all of this is that when God is banished from the battlefield, historically and Biblically, things don’t go well for those who stand with those who reject God. Throughout the Bible (that book the military is now censoring) when the Lord of Hosts was called upon in battle, the enemies of Israel were delivered into God’s people’s hands.
Without God, there is no deliverance on or off the battlefield.
In 1 Chronicles 5:20, the account says that the enemies of Israel were defeated by God when “the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hand; for they cried out to God in the battle, and He was entreated for them, because they trusted in Him.”
Again, in 2 Chronicles 20:15, the Lord spoke to His prophet Jahaziel and said, “Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.”
The worldwide persecution of Christians is now infiltrating the seat of defense to maintain our Constitutional rights, one of which is the “free exercise of religion.” The situation has become so twisted that those who fight to maintain that right are now unable to exercise the very thing they are fighting and dying to maintain.
If the liberal influence in the American military has its way, those in foxholes who seek to pray will now be penalized for entreating the protection of the Almighty who says that the battle is His. If discovered praying, soldiers will be punished by the very armed forces they joined in order to have the freedom to call upon the name of the Lord both in and out of battle.
Instead, Christian soldiers like Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes are being ordered to salute those who openly advance and practice homosexuality in the military and, under threat of formal discipline, must now avoid offending nonbelievers with prayer, Scripture, or an open attitude of faithful devotion to God.
Sadly this “one nation under God” continues to careen headlong into a vortex of hedonistic secularism.
And henceforth, even if an American soldier in a foxhole isn’t an atheist, he or she damn well better act like one.
