Soldier Allegedly Murdered For Being An Atheist

O.K. folks, we now have "Christians" abusing and murdering ATHEISTS. So very "christian" of them -- don't you think? Please follow link to original at "Addicting Info".
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Soldier Allegedly Murdered For Being An Atheist

The remains of US Army Specialist Jose Ramirez, missing since 2007, were found early last month near Petrolia, TX. Authorities believe he was killed shortly after he went missing. From the Associated Press:

According to a criminal complaint, authorities found bullet holes in a bedroom wall and blood stains in a hallway. A day later, they searched the area around the home and found a human skull with bullet marks as well as a pair of shorts with the word “Army,” the complaint said.

Authorities charged 30-year-old Justin Green with first-degree murder in February. Green, who once lived in the home where the bullet holes were found, remains in jail on $1 million bond and will appear in court Monday. His attorney did not return a phone message.

Brittany Green (the defendant’s sister) allegedly told authorities that her brother said he had shot Ramirez twice because he “did not believe in God and alleged that Ramirez reached for a gun,” the complaint said. Terri Green helped her son move Ramirez’s body from the home’s garage to the shallow grave, the complaint said.

In a somewhat related story, atheists in the military have organized a concert called, “Rock Beyond Belief,” on March 31st at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The event, according to organizers, “will highlight ”free thought” — atheism, humanism and skepticism — on a U.S. military base and will lead to broader recognition and support of non believers in the armed forces, where they say they receive little support and often discrimination from an overly Christianized military.”


Only about 1% of military personnel claim to be atheist, but 23% claim no religious affiliation. Christians, on the other hand, make up about 68%, leaving just 8% to be Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism or any other religion.

Is discrimination toward atheists a trend in the military? The non-religious think so. From USA Today:

Many military nontheists report being the unwelcome targets of proselytism, sometimes by superiors, and complain of compulsory religious prayers and practices at official events. One area of growing concern is the mandatory assessment of soldiers’ “spiritual fitness,” which they say is both unconstitutional and an attempt to proselytize.

“If you are a nonreligious soldier, you are a third-class citizen in the U.S. military,” said Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a military watchdog group, who will attend the event in Fayetteville, N.C.

“You are basically told that you lack intellectual integrity, courage, character and honorability . … Rock Beyond Belief is an attempt to stick a fist up in the sky and say, ‘We have our rights.’”

There is an expression, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” and it seems that the military, or at least many in the military, prefer that soldiers enter the foxholes as believers.
A year ago, NPR reported that soldiers were required to take a “spiritual fitness” test, arguing that religious people are more resilient.

“Researchers have found that spiritual people have decreased odds of attempting suicide, and that spiritual fitness has a positive impact on quality of life, on coping and on mental health,” says Cornum, who is director of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.

Justin Griffith, a sergeant at Ft. Bragg, is one of the 1% of the military, a self-described atheist. He told NPR that he grew angry at the survey, which asked him to rank himself on questions such as, ”I am a spiritual person. I believe that in some way my life is closely connected to all of humanity. I often find comfort in my religion and spiritual beliefs,” or, “In difficult times, I pray or meditate.”
After answering that he believed none of those things, he received a response that said, ”Spiritual fitness may be an area of difficulty.”

It continued: “You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and to others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your beliefs, principles and values.”

It concluded: “Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal.”

What Griffith took away from the survey was that the Army was calling him unfit to serve.

For years now, the military has had a large evangelical bent. Specialist Jeremy Hall, who was serving in Iraq complained that a Major, Freddy J. Welborn, berated troops about atheism, saying, “People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!” Welborn also reportedly threatened them with refusal to reenlist them and even with bringing charges against them.

Hall sued the military, saying, “They don’t trust you because they think you are unreliable and might break, since you don’t have God to rely on,” Specialist Hall said of those who proselytize in the military. “The message is, ‘It’s a Christian nation, and you need to recognize that.’ ”

He even complained of death threats. He also said he was denied a promotion. He has since dropped his lawsuit, but only because he left the military.

Two years ago, it was reported that rifle sites were being manufactured with New Testament inscriptions. A giant cross was posted at a pagan site of worship at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. Harper’s Magazine did an expose on the view that our soldiers are Christian soldiers, fighting Islam.

Efforts to teach diversity in the military have shown little success. Some simply lie to fit in. A retired Army Staff Sergeant I spoke to wishes to remain anonymous to this day.

“I spent 20 years in the military and overall, I have few complaints, but that’s only because I realized early on that there were certain aspects of my life that had to be secret.”

The retired Staff Sergeant is a Wiccan. “These days,” he said, “I’d much rather come out as gay than tell them who I really am.”

When asked if he thought he’d get death threats, his answer was simply, “oh, yeah.”

Bigotry toward atheists isn’t limited to the military. In Louisiana, a high school student had the gall to object to the graduation prayer. From the Daily Kos:

On the eve of his graduation, the atheist student contacted the school superintendent to let him know that he opposed the inclusion of a prayer at the graduation ceremony. He pointed out that government-sponsored prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional and legally forbidden – and that he would be contacting the ACLU if it went ahead. The school agreed to substitute it with a moment of silent reflection, which was subsequently scuppered by a Christian student.

Then Fowler’s name, and his role in this incident, was leaked. As a direct result:

1) Fowler has been hounded, pilloried, and ostracized by his community.

2) One of Fowler’s teachers has publicly demeaned him.

3) Fowler has been physically threatened. Students have threatened to “jump him” at graduation practice, and he has received multiple threats of bodily harm, and even death threats.

4) Fowler’s parents cut off his financial support, kicked him out of the house, and threw his belongings onto the front porch.

Atheists, despite what many Christians believe, don’t hate God or even Christianity. They simply don’t believe. It’s impossible, they say, to hate something that doesn’t exist. The US Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state, yet it would be next to impossible for a non-Christian to be elected to the Presidency. There are 27 atheists in Congress, but they feel that they have to keep their non-belief secret to stay in office.

I wish I could feel that the tragic death of Jose Ramirez was an isolated case, but I fear that we’ll be seeing more and more cases of violence against atheists. For some, it seems, even violence and murder are lesser sins than the simple sin of not believing.