The evangelizing of the military that I discussed in my previous article has not come without a backlash. The controversies at the Air Force Academy were enough to galvanize one man to begin the long fight to roll back Christian Dominionism. Mikey Weinstein, whose son, a cadet, was slurred and harassed as a “dirty Jew” who “killed Jesus,” founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) in 2005. Weinstein, a registered Republican and former lawyer in the Reagan White House, has made it his goal to assist members of the military who are targeted, excluded, or harassed for their beliefs or lack thereof. (He’s also living proof that the separation of church and state is something that all of us — not just those on the left — can support.)

The watchdog MRFF, whose explicit mission is the defense of each soldier’s control over his or her faith, has found itself involved in several controversies since its inception. Its 2007 report on government involvement with parachurch organizations revealed the paid missionaries noted above. But the group is far from the only one pointing out the evangelizing of our military, specifically at the Air Force Academy. The Yale Divinity School’s 2004 report to Chaplain Colonel Michael Whittington detailed systematic proselytizing toward non-evangelical soldiers.

The evangelized military is, as you might imagine, horribly oppressive to those who don’t drink the same flavor-aid. The effects of exclusion and discrimination don’t need to be repeated here. Thus it is easy to imagine how damaging such exclusion would be to the military, which prides itself on the cohesion of its units. Put quite simply, as social cohesion decreases, so does the efficacy of the whole group. There is a clear psychological basis for the negative effects of rejection, which supports the idea that it is simply a terrible idea to discriminate against members of an incredibly important team.

Attempts to protect soldiers from proselytizing and other harassment have met with little success. Attempts to make the military more inclusive for nonbelievers has met with even less success. Congress recently reaffirmed its opinion that nonbelievers deserve none of the resources of the chaplaincy. In voting against allowing secular chaplains in our armed forces, the House sent a clear message to atheists, humanists, and other nonbelievers that they do not deserve access to chaplains who share their philosophy.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/62145/how-atheists-are-fighting-back-against-military-discrimination