An article at FoxNews notes the military’s continued effort to fight the “stigma” associated with mental health issues, to encourage troops to seek help when they need it:

“Leadership is letting folks know that it is not a sign of weakness if you ask for help,” says Navy Lt. Commander Andrew Martin, the psychologist in charge of the program…

All branches of the military are working hard to remove the stigma associated with reporting psychological issues. The old way of thinking was to “suck it up” if a soldier or Marine was having problems coping. Now, the Marines are deploying psychologists to forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan so troops have a ready ear without facing the stigma of being sent back to headquarters for counseling.

The interesting thing about the military’s fight against the “stigma” is the stigma is a perception.  The military has worked so hard to remove any actual repercussions from mental health referrals that, if asked to identify a Soldier who’d actually been victimized by a stigma, it’s likely no one could actually name one.  Instead, there would be “I heard” and “somebody said” or, even more vaguely, just a personal feeling.

Interestingly, religion in the military may be suffering from the same “perception problem.”  Pull up your favorite internet search engine and try to find a recent, validated claim against the military of institutional religious discrimination.  The best example you’ll probably find is that of religious accommodation of things like Orthodox beards or Sikh turbans — which actually is religious discrimination, it’s just lawful discrimination (at least for now).

Can you actually find any factual, legitimized claim supporting the conspiracy theory that Christians are trying to take over the military?

There are plenty of accusations, as well as plenty of criticisms of religious free exercise (like Cadets for Christ at USAFA, for example), but there are few, if any, legitimate complaints.

That hasn’t stopped the accusations.  For example, a recent commenter said this:

There has been a massive effort to “Christianize” the US Armed Forces in recent years. Soldiers are coerced by officers to attend Christian religious ceremonies at “mega-churches” on base, while people who believe in science are ostracized.

Naturally, another requested evidence:

Can you provide any substantive evidence the there has been a “massive effort to Christianize the US Armed Forces in recent years?”

Respondents provided five links of accusations against the military — every one referenced Michael Weinstein, and not a single one had actually been borne out.  The links referenced accusations, not the subsequent articles noting the resolution (for example, the dismissal of the lawsuit).  Each “incident” had either been debunked or simply left as a generic, hanging-chad accusation against the military.

Just as the Army’s handling of Rock Beyond Belief is being spun to imply persecution of atheists, accusations are made loudly enough and often enough that people believe them — even if they’re not true.

The result is the perception of “religious persecution” in the military, without any basis in fact.

The US military is left to fight a perception problem, not a problem of discrimination.