Ronald Reagan, World War II Military Chaplain
C-SPAN recently published footage of Ronald Reagan acting in World War II military training films.
In this US military video aptly entitled For God and Country, Reagan plays a Chaplain. Reagan comforts and prays with the men on Christmas, and ultimately dies trying to save one. From the end of the film:
A Soldier: unarmed, yet not unarmed. For what better weapons may a soldier carry with him into battle than those of courage, of unswerving devotion to his faith and to his fellow man?
Interestingly enough, it appears there were no atheists in his foxhole…
The original CSPAN video can be seen here.
Via the Army Chaplaincy blog.
Hmmm… no atheists in a film from the 1940s! Gosh, that completely backs up the claim that there are no atheists in foxholes. Even today, atheists are badly represented in mainstream films ( http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodAtheist ) and for the Government to have presented an atheist in a positive light in the 1940s would have been nigh on unthinkable. However, even in World War II, there were atheists who served in the militaries of many countries. But, like so many fans of Reagan, it seems you struggle to tell the difference between fiction and reality.
Funny, didn’t see anything above saying Reagan was a real Chaplain, or that the clip was anything but a training film. Nor is there a claim there or anywhere else on this site that “there are no atheists in foxholes.”
Can you imagine a “For God and Country” training film being made today, particularly when all the Soldiers “want in” on the Chaplain’s prayer?
I wouldn’t want to see a film like that today.