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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/army-faces-questions-over_n_805524.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/mandatory-us-army-survey-_b_801597.html
This is absolutely ridiculous, why would this even matter? I mean the whole argument is that spiritual people are less likely to commit suicide, but going "You're not fit to serve unless you believe" is completely ridiculous, and might drive unbalanced people towards suicide rather than away from it. If they're that concerned with the mental well-being of our troops (which I think they should be, absolutely) they should offer actual psych exams periodically. Not this farce of a thinly veiled attempt at getting people to convert, and that goes for any religion, though christianity seems to be the one being pushed.
The Army is facing questions over a "spiritual fitness" portion of a mandatory questionnaire, with some atheists calling it "invidious and not inclusive" of soldiers who are nonbelievers.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation learned in December that soldiers were being asked to respond to statements such as "I am a spiritual person" and "I believe there is a purpose for my life."
If soldiers received a low score on their spiritual fitness questions, they received an assessment that said "Spiritual fitness is an area of possible difficulty for you. ... Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/mandatory-us-army-survey-_b_801597.html
Last week, a number of religious freedom activists, bloggers and organizations were alerted by Sgt. Justin Griffith, a soldier at Fort Bragg, N.C., to a mandatory U.S. Army survey called the "Soldier Fitness Tracker." One of the areas included in this survey, which measures a soldier's fitness in a number of areas, is "spiritual" fitness. According to his survey results, Sgt. Griffith is unfit to serve.
This is absolutely ridiculous, why would this even matter? I mean the whole argument is that spiritual people are less likely to commit suicide, but going "You're not fit to serve unless you believe" is completely ridiculous, and might drive unbalanced people towards suicide rather than away from it. If they're that concerned with the mental well-being of our troops (which I think they should be, absolutely) they should offer actual psych exams periodically. Not this farce of a thinly veiled attempt at getting people to convert, and that goes for any religion, though christianity seems to be the one being pushed.