U.S. Army Determined To Continue Discrimination Against Atheists

The Associated Press is reporting that the Justice Department filed a federal court motion this week to have a lawsuit filed by Spc. Jeremy Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation dismissed. They argued in their more than 300- page filing that the atheist soldier who claims the military violates religious freedoms should have complained through the chain of command instead of civilian courts. But the reality is that the Army´s Equal Opportunity Program is broken when it comes to protecting the rights of atheist soldiers. Discrimination is a systemic problem in the military.

Atheist soldiers are afforded equal protection under Army Regulation 600-20. There are even Army training documents like Training Support Package (TSP) 805C-AE0-1005 / Army´s Equal Opportunity (EO) Intermediate Leader Training (Level V) dated January 2006 which explains that atheist soldiers are to be protected from religious discrimination. The problem is not with how the regulations are written. The problem is that the Army doesn´t enforce them. The people they have in charge of protecting soldiers´ rights, their EO (Equal Opportunity) officers and non-commissioned officers, are instead violating soldiers´ rights.

How can I make such a claim? Because I know firsthand what happens when an atheist files a formal complaint through his or her chain of command. It gets buried, discarded or ignored. Offending parties are protected as if they are the victims. In 2006, as a First Lieutenant I filed a formal EO complaint against Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, Chief of the National Guard Bureau. Because it named a general officer it was supposed to be handled by the DAIG (Department of the Army Inspector Generals) office. But the NGB (National Guard Bureau) threw it away after they received it. I know this because when I followed up with the DAIG office seven weeks after filing, they told me they had never received it. When they contacted the NGB, they had to go back to my state where it was filed and ask for another copy. Once they received the second copy they stalled some more by claiming that the complaint was missing information and wasn´t signed, both of which were untrue. I humored them and sent a third copy via certified letter. After another six weeks of waiting I was told that the complaint was sent back to the NGB for administrative action. I asked why I had not received a written response to my formal EO complaint and they told me, despite regulations requiring it, that they were not going to provide a written response. I had to file a Freedom of Information Act request for documents pertaining to my own EO complaint. Of course the documents I received were blacked out to the extent that I couldn´t even tell who had made the decision. But the decision was to ignore the regulation and pretend that no offense occurred. Of course the promotion I had pending during this time was denied. I resigned.

The problem is that Spc. Jeremy Hall cannot resign. As an enlisted soldier he must complete his enlistment term, despite harassment and even death threats. And what good is complaining through the Army´s internal channels going to do for a junior enlisted soldier when an officer who utilizes those same channels has his complaint thrown away, delayed and ignored? Without this case in the courts he has no hope of redress. The Army is simply ignoring discrimination against atheists. Those placed in charge of preventing discrimination are instead protecting bigots from facing any consequences for their actions. Now the Justice Department has joined the Army´s efforts to ensure that there is no recourse for atheists who are discriminated against in the military.

Chaplains like to drag out the old canard that there are no atheists in foxholes. It´s not true, of course, but not for lack of trying by the United States Army.