The New York Times has an interesting article titled “Atheists Seek Chaplain Role in the Military.”

Strange as it sounds, groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large — and largely underground — population of nonbelievers in the military.

The ironic part is atheists have previously implied Chaplains’ “secular” roles are better filled by people such as psychologists and behavioral health experts — leaving Chaplains to purely “religious” endeavors.

The atheists apparently want an advocate for their organized beliefs, which just sounds strange to say.  But Jason Torpy of the MAAF says exactly that: 

“Humanism fills the same role for atheists that Christianity does for Christians and Judaism does for Jews,” Mr. Torpy said in an interview. “It answers questions of ultimate concern; it directs our values.”

He seems to be saying that atheists are of the humanist religion.  Torpy’s statement is somewhat misleading, because being an atheist does not make one a humanist, per se.

The article digresses into other topics, including some inaccurate statements about “Rock the Fort” and “Rock Beyond Belief:”

The base command, at the urging of its chaplains, provided some money and manpower for [Rock the Fort] as well as a choice location on the post’s parade grounds.

While the author states this as fact, rather than a quotation, “the base command” does not have blanket authority to spend Chapel Tithes and Offering Funds, which funded RtF (a point which the article claims “Col Sicinski [says]…” rather than stating as fact).

The article also inaccurately claims Col Stephen Sicinski opposes the “Rock Beyond Belief” re-scheduled date in “the fall,” when in fact he has supported it — to the extent organizers choose to follow the same rules as everyone else.

The Buddhist Military Sangha notes the error in the NYT article saying there is only one Buddhist Chaplain; they claim 3.