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 Blake Page says West Point discriminates against nonreligious cadets.
December 6th, 2012
03:36 PM ET
West Point cadet quits over religionBy Moni Basu, CNN (CNN) – Military development. Academics. Athletics. Three pillars of Army values that cadets at America's most prestigious military academy live by. But West Point cadet Blake Page says there is one other unspoken pillar at the United States Military Academy: religion. That's why, with just five months left before graduation, Page quit. And he did it in a most public fashion – in a fiery blog post. "The tipping point of my decision to resign was the realization that countless officers here and throughout the military are guilty of blatantly violating the oaths they swore to defend the Constitution," wrote Page, 24, in The Huffington Post. "These men and women are criminals, complicit in light of day defiance of the Uniform Code of Military Justice through unconstitutional proselytism, discrimination against the non-religious and establishing formal policies to reward, encourage and even at times require sectarian religious participation. These transgressions are nearly always committed in the name of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity." FULL STORY
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Lets make special allowances for qu eers. Qu eers the people who gave the world AIDS.
They can't keep us from our Lord though. If they, oh darn moms calling I have to take the trash out. Ill be right back.
still dreaming about doing the lewingsky thing on jeebus, perv?
just think of the joy when the savior sprays all over your face
Religion is a ludicrously-easily debunked, medaeval,, anti-science, unAmerican fraud. That our military still clings to it reveals fear and brainwashing that should disqualify one from service, rather than be required for promotion.
The unbelieving world insists upon the acceptance, endorsement, and support of the expansion of sin, of which they have accomplished much of sins expansion, and still are not satisfied, but are ever wanting more sin, even as a disease spreads.
oh yeah our military is horribly christian, and becoming more so since 9 11, that's why i can thoroughly say that we are in a crusade against Islam... again
Christians have to put up with atheistic public school teaching. Sad article by CNN, nothing to see here....
Really, you can name even one public school that teaches that there is no god? That recites poems or songs about the non-existence of god? I didn't think so.
Yeah, that's actually offensive. Religion of any form needs to stay out of our schools. There would be too many religions to try and incorporate into school lessons...because they would have to be diverse and that's the problem.
If you feel the need to have your kids brainwashed, then send them to Sunday school.
If you want YOUR kids to be indoctrinated, send them to a private school. Public schools have a lot more than just Christian kids in them, and for you to MAKE them learn YOUR Christian ways is a violation of the rights of those children.
come on, patton.....name one public school that teaches that there is no god. just one, punk. if you can't, perhaps it is time to go home and get your shinebox
My child has been subjected to Joel Osteen at school, to make a "point" about religious freedom – yet no other religions were covered at all.
I agree with you in one respect: teachers should NOT share their beliefs at a public school. Yet my children are told to say "under God' when they do not believe in one, and told to sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in public school. The reason we were told is that if they did not sing Christmas songs, it would let other children down.
The public school system continually lets down atheist schoolchildren, and supports Christianity. You have absolutely no idea how difficult it is to raise a good, moral, honest, honorable child, when he or she is surrounded by brainwashed people who think that the only good in this world is waiting for what happens after death.
This boy probably couldn't handle the pressures of military life. So he decided to make a name for himself by questioning conduct and ceremony that will remain in the military long after this child retires from flower arranging...
My GAYDAR just went through the roof. Just saying. And my GAYDAR is usually flawless.
Not only flawless, but tastefully dressed, I'm sure.
I approve of this message.
Being gay is much better than being a fvcktard christian sheep moron. Evangelicals actually fvck more dudes than gays.
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True. In basic training, you can either go to church for a couple hours on Sunday or stay back at your dorm cleaning bathrooms while training instructors scream in your ear.
I was agnostic and even I chose church.
Why not just go to church and zone out like half the other people there?
So much for your integrity...
sam thing in job corp turns out the only five people that stayed behind were Pagans (they hate us when we go their, they never stop trying to "save" us. frankly its harassment; so we chose to bleed on or knees, better then church), even atheist chose the church
That's definitely harassment, and it takes someone to make this kind of thing public. It’s like the kids in public school whose parents are told they can go to the nativity play with all their friends or stay alone studying in the classroom looking like a loser outcast.
What I see is a person UNPREPARED for what he THOUGHT he was getting into. Did he do any research about the academy BEFORE going? Was religion and religious events kept secret prior to his entering West Point? Was there any hazing going on? Probably so, but with limits! There IS a history in the Army about west point grads. They tend to take care, make exceptions for fellow grads.. How many of us that served have heard the term "ring knockers"? In my 23yrs. in the army I have met and known many west point grads., and like anything else in this world, some are good and some are just stupid! This young man has failed himself and used religion as an excuse!
One whouldn't have to research whether religion is pushed in a particular government insti'tution. We should be able to start from the premise that it is not; if we find to the contrary, that is a proplem with that insti'tution. It's like telling a woman she was wrong to complain because she found se'xual harrassment in her local town hall when some research would have shown that went on and she should never have applied. No, the harassment shouldn't be taking place and anyone whould be able to apply, regardless of se'x or religion.
Too many factors in play here. I can see why he would blame it on the religious environment there, but there were other things that happened to him that probably pushed him over the edge.
What I wonder is why people are criticiaing him for quitting, when it was already decided he wouldn't have a military career. What did they want him to do...such up another semester of tax payer dollars to NOT serve as an officer?
From the ti.tle, "That's why, with just five months left before graduation, Page quit."
"In the story, That's why, with just five months left before graduation, Page quit."
Page is an epitome of how DUMB atheists are.
From the ti.tle, *"West Point cadet quits over religion."
"In the story, That's why, with just five months left before graduation, Page quit."
Page is an epitome of how DUMB atheists are.
Probably not Battlefield Tactics 301.
Some dumb asses can't even quote a title on the first try.
Mickey Weinstein (see the full story) takes 50% of the donations to his "non-profit" as his salary. If he was really concerned about the situation, he would simply donate his time and effort to the cause at no cost but paying himself a quarter of a million dollars every year for writing a few op-ed pieces has the stench and ooze of a money-grab.
Note: the taxpayers also paid for his schooling at the Air Force Academy and later for his law degree.
I donate the following prayer at no cost to my former military units:
The Apostles' Creed 2012: (updated by yours truly and based on the studies of historians and theologians of the past 200 years)
Should I believe in a god whose existence cannot be proven
and said god if he/she/it exists resides in an unproven,
human-created, spirit state of bliss called heaven??
I believe there was a 1st century CE, Jewish, simple,
preacher-man who was conceived by a Jewish carpenter
named Joseph living in Nazareth and born of a young Jewish
girl named Mary. (Some say he was a mamzer.)
Jesus was summarily crucified for being a temple rabble-rouser by
the Roman troops in Jerusalem serving under Pontius Pilate,
He was buried in an unmarked grave and still lies
a-mouldering in the ground somewhere outside of
Jerusalem.
Said Jesus' story was embellished and "mythicized" by
many semi-fiction writers. A descent into Hell, a bodily resurrection
and ascension stories were promulgated to compete with the
Caesar myths. Said stories were so popular that they
grew into a religion known today as Catholicism/Christianity
and featuring dark-age, daily wine to blood and bread to body rituals
called the eucharistic sacrifice of the non-atoning Jesus.
Amen
(references used are available upon request)
I keep wondering if and when elements of the military working with Tea Party extremists will attempt a coup. There are definitely people in this country nutty enough to do it.
Look up the Christian dominionists
Yep, they are out there all right. The rational thinkers must stay vigilant.
It is definately comming.
What the fundies want, is something that cannot be gotten thru the ballot box.
They want a xtain version of Saudi Arabia here in the US.
Where we have a xtian nation, where you are compelled to believe in their version of the fairy tale, are forced to go to church at least once a week, where there is no Supreme Court and only a "council of elders" who make laws based on the babble, where the lilly white fundies make all the rules and are in power without question.
That can only be attained thru a coup d'etait.
They will try, I just hope enough of the rank and file military won't go along with it.
QQ. Cry moar, quitter.
Forget about the Gelgameks?!!!
yeah, he should have stayed and dropped a big steamer on the altar - take that, gawd!
The Gelgamek v.agina is three feet wide and filled with razor sharp teeth. Do you really expect us to have s.ex with it?
"moar"? Really?
QQ and moar are memes, pretty much ensuring GodsPeople is 12.
GodsPeople.....you are a punk, your god is a punk.
Thanks for playing
"Fundamentalist evangelical Christianity"
Just thinking about that makes my brain hurt. How is it that what I see as absolutely 100% obviously ridiculous without a shadow of a doubt can be the foundation for belief for another?
How can the world be so completely illogical and blind to what is so clearly the truth?
How are we all on the same planet? How can this be?
I can only conclude that our brains are simply wired differently. It has to be biological. We are not riding the same merry-go-round.
Yup, it is a very strange development in Christianity, (as if that were not nutty enough). Not only is it ignorance of the mainstream academic positions of thinkers from the last 200 years, it's a *strange* (uniquely) American insistence on "literalism", which is oddly childish. It's more about "an'al retention" (personality disorder), ie Psychology, rather than Theology.
not always easy to break cult thinking - especially when most of the people in the society you live are part of that cult. chrstianity teaches its members to obey, never question. but look at the shifts in religious identification in this country - things are changing. the internet is killing religion. people can fact check the bible now. have hope. people are waking up.
No Bush, it is because those kinds of people who still believe in the sky fairy were brought up in homes that closed their minds at an early age.
They have lived their lives in fear, and all their friends and family believe that same thing. They just can't let go, as that means being cast out. Hard to do when you are weak inside.
Religion is the worst scurge ever visited on mankind.
It is insanity. It seems like a weird unbelievable dream.
I imagine that brains are wired quite differently and several twins studies have supported this. The first few years of development are probably also a very important time. But I'd also question myself any time something seems obvious, because almost always that's a tip off that it isn't.
Apple, you sane fvck!
What's the word?
Hey Akira, running the Daddy taxi cab service!
Ballet, soccer, football, lacrosse, or tai kwon do?
Hey TT,
Tonight is:
Marching band practice, school play rehearsal (so had to cancel voice lesson) , followed by dress rehearsal for the Christmas show.
Those days of running the kids around are largely over; it used to be soccer, dance, cheerleading, more dance, basketball, more dance, competi tion rehearsal, traveling soccer, and dance competi tions.
(I was a soccer mom AND a dance mom, lol!)
How did I freaking survive?
Yup, I hear you!
"Man without wives is like an unsharpened pencil – it has no point."
One vote for polygamy?
Are you allowed pointy things?
OWWWW! Knock it off, will ya?
CHEESE!
...or an invisible ink pen that only those with the secret-holy-spirit decoder fluid can decode...
How goes it, Cheese? Hope you are well.
With invisible ink....
Going good BurningMan! Heathen's Greatings!
*Greetings
Well, it COULD be "Greetings," but considering your name, Cheese, it could just as easily be "Gratings!"
Good One Tom!
You 'shredded' me there!
Heathen's gratings to you and Tom, Tom, as well.
Right back at ya.
BM, I will say this: I think that some people are entirely too interested in what goes on the bedrooms of consenting adults, and religions should have absolutely no say in legislation of civil rights.
I see no point in polygamy, really.
you people are unbearable...
"Unbearable"? Maybe. But compared to the rest of humanity, I doubt we're so awful.
Many names, one keyboard.
Thanks for admitting that, Sybil.
I'm Akira. Just Akira.
Many names are pointless, and foster ill feelings.
I dislike duplicity.
P.
What about Apple Bush's multiple usernames? You guys get on quite amicably.
RL:
He has admitted it; that's the difference, to me, anyway.
And he admitted it from day one.
He's at least up front about it.
Well, when I am Apple Bush I am Apple Bush. If I am Toshi, I am Toshi. Etc. I am just having some fun. My different names do not intersect. Meatwad is Meatwad. Has nothing to do with Apple Bush.
The difference to me with the name changing sh!t is that some people will use different names to attack a person, for example, and then use another name to act friendly to the same person...use one name to assert a belief and then use another to assert the oposite opinion...it's dishonest to me somehow.
I know it's the nature of the internet; I'm not naïve.
Apple being Toshi doesn't really negate Apple's core beliefs.
There are those that do otherwise.
There it is.
Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil – it has no point.
·
Ken,
The daily lives and examples set by the Body of Christ begs for the question: "God, what was your point?"
Life with god is like pretending you have an invisible pencil.
hindu Mithra ism, pagan savior ism, source of hind criminality hinduism, racism on earth.
Ken, what you mean is for for you, life without God has no meaning.
Fair enough, but don't presume to speak for people who don't feel the same way.
have to hit "reply" next time, Cheese :0)....
Odd how what "there is no other truth" types, when verbally spoken, sounds just like a congregation speaking in tongues.
Hi, Akira:
A fan of yours as well.
Isn't that odd that Christians are like that...they assume they can speak for others and know exactly what they are thinking and what another's experience is all about?
It speaks to a fear of living that requires one to maintain some kind of control by "controlling" another's life by claiming "God."
What the Christian fails to realize, in the context of their concept of "free will," that they rob the other person's free will in the process.
An odd bunch.
Ken, why would you think that? How would you know? You don't have a clue what my life or anyone else's life means to the person living it. Speak for yourself. Shut up when it comes to me and my life–you don't know sh!t from Shinola.
-Deepity-
Something that sounds profound but intellectually hollow.
Usually has the following characteristics. 1. True but trivial 2. False but logically ill informed. 3. Usually a use-mention error or (UME)
Man without wives is like an unsharpened pencil – it has no point.
there is no other truth but truth absolute, constant, proven by science, source of existence, hindu's, atheist, self centered have no clue of.
@ "there is no other truth..."
I think "man without wives" has a continuous point...having wife tends to create "ED" (despite the scriptural claim).
However, having "wives"?...hmmm...that might be a solution for the pencil, but most certainly not for the wallet
Ken Colwell
If it hasn't been sharpened yet I'm assuming that it hasn't made any mistakes worth erasing yet either, right? 🙂
Hi, BurningMan,
And I am one of yours, as well.
Re: Christians: the phrase "speak for yourself" is always the first thing I think of; it is something everyone should live by; of course, I am just as guilty at times...
And as for your post on polygamy? Well, I would have no problem with it if the wives can take as many husbands as they wished also...but somehow I don't think that would go over so well.
Maybe a mechanical pencil is the answer?
Please, you guys, stop with the pencil analogies. It's too painful to entertain.
Hi, Akira...
Thank you for your thoughts. And no, I'm not a fan of polygamy or much of fan of marriage, for that matter (a child of divorce and a divorcee myself).
But yes, it is tragic that all of the male ego induced solutions to any issue tend to be pe-nis based. If polygamy were a culturally accepted experience then I would require that women, too, have the option for as many husbands as they desire...
I wonder if a woman demanded that of Hebrew culture at some point and that is why it became a "God" sanctioned no-no...
Kenny,
Just because you are so feckless, and uninspired, don't project your depression onto others.
Did you pout for months when you heard there was nu Easter Bunny ?
Lodents, wait, what??
There's no Easter Bunny??
A sharpened pencil is unreliable. The tip breaks off and then you have an uneven edge. Better to work the lead down to a more moderate tip that you can write crisply with or use for shading.
Lodents for Lomney
Pouting is something best reserved to responses associated with Santa, as in
You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
He's making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town...
and life with god is constantly cowtowing to the vindictive little pr1ck for mercy