Tag Archives: foxhole

City Creates Public Forum after Atheist Complaint over Memorial

The town of Belle Plaine, Minnesota, opted to create a “limited public forum” after the Freedom From Religion Foundation threatened to sue them into financial ruin.

Because of a veterans’ memorial.

A display in a cemetery in Belle Plaine, Minnesota, honoring veterans consists of a soldier kneeling in prayer before a cross next to a grave. But a local citizen complained to the atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation. Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Doug Wardlow tells OneNewsNow the city council received a threatening letter from FFRF, contending the Constitution was being violated.

The town council initially voted to cut the cross off the memorial — which Read more

Book Review: Memoirs from Babylon

Chaplain Jeff Bryan
Ingram 2011

Memoirs from Babylon, A Combat Chaplain’s life in Iraq’s Triangle of Death, is the story of Chaplain (Capt) Jeff Bryan’s deployment to Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division from 2006 to 2007.

The book stands as one of the better examples of the “day to day” operations of a chaplain deployed to a US military war zone, both for his perspective on the combat itself but also for the duties to which he tended. He tells repeated stories of counseling soldiers who learn of family deaths back home, scrounging a Catholic chaplain to Read more

Military Atheists Offended by “God Bless America”

Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers has complained over a poster in the halls of a Simi Valley government building.

The poster features a God Bless America / God Bless You prayer sandwich as well as a reference to Psalms 33 indicating Christian requirements for such a blessing.  This display is primarily religious in nature, co-opting patriotism to promote their personal Christian beliefs.  This is disrespectful to nontheistic military personnel…

Interesting, isn’t it, that atheists are so intent on framing an issue as “Christian” they continue to assign ‘exclusive Christian’ intent to things like passages from the Hebrew Bible — which is, of course, Jewish.

It’s also fascinating that Torpy is so hypersensitive Read more

Astronaut: There Are No Atheists in Rockets, and Prayer in Space

Putting a new twist on an old cliché, NASA astronaut Michael Good (Col, USAF, Ret) recently spoke on the awe-inspiring experience of space flight:

“They say there’s no atheists in foxholes, but there’s probably no atheists in rockets,” said Catholic astronaut Col. Mike Good, who believes his faith in God was solidified by the awe-inspiring views he saw from space.

The article notes the infusion of faith in the local community and NASA:

NASA employees fill pews in churches surrounding Johnson Space Center, including Webster Presbyterian Church, called the “church of the astronauts” when John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, Jerry Carr, Charlie Bassett and Roger Chaffee were active members of the congregation. Later this month, the church will honor the anniversary of Aldrin’s Holy Communion on the moon, the first meal ever eaten on its surface.

Nearby, the Catholic Church St. Paul the Apostle in Nassau Bay depicts Hubble images in its stained glass windows, a design collaboration with space-loving parishioners.

Two years ago Col Good hoped to bring “glory to the Lord of all creation” on a mission to work on the Hubble.

Some atheists apparently took umbrage at Good’s use Read more

Is “There Are No Atheists in Foxholes” Offensive?

A seemingly benign local article highlighted the roles of various National Guardsmen in their units and communities.  Speaking of Chaplain (Maj) Steven Veinotte, it said

Major Steven Veinotte of Campton has seen the truth of that old adage that there are no atheists in foxholes.

“I think that’s natural,” he said. “It’s part of human nature, when the pressure gets ratcheted up, you tend to ask God for more things.”

However, Jason Torpy’s Military Association of Atheists Read more

There are No Atheists in Foxholes

The phrase “there are no atheists in foxholes” is not without controversy.  (In fact, one Soldier even went so far as to file an official complaint because an officer used the “discriminatory” phrase.)  The old saying, whose origin is unknown, isn’t meant as a moral conclusion or a statement of fitness.  It simply characterizes the belief that in extreme situations and faced with mortal danger, many people are open to the concept of some form of higher power.

There are certainly examples of the opposite truth.  A New Hampshire publication Read more