In 2010 Jason Torpy, a former US Army Captain and current atheist, essentially lied to White House staff when he told them in an official briefing that approximately 23% of the US military was non-theistic. The briefing was one part of his crusade to justify the oxymoronic “atheist chaplain.”

The problem, as previously discussed, was that his own data didn’t support his claim — and he knew it. When presenting his data, Torpy had included as “non-theists” those who indicated “no religious preference” in their military personnel records. Of course, no one has any idea whether those who selected NRP for their records are theists or not. You would think one who represented an ideology that self-righteously proclaimed its reliance on skepticism and evidence wouldn’t rely on “myth” to promote his cause, but that’s precisely what Torpy did. He cast his net so wide, in fact, that his list of non-theists included at least one Muslim terrorist.

Torpy’s fib was outed, and the knowledge of his use of fictional data made it all the way to the halls of Congress, courtesy of US Rep John Fleming (R-La).

But that hasn’t stopped Torpy from repeating it.

Jason Torpy was quoted recently in a Stars and Stripes article about the Bladensburg Peace Cross, and he continued to display his lack of integrity [emphasis added]:

Torpy said there is an institutional Christian bias in the military…He said that in a study conducted by Torpy’s organization in 2012, 20 to 30 percent of the military was non-Christian, yet only 3 percent of the chaplains were.

Torpy’s claim that “20 to 30 percent of the military [is] non-Christian” relies upon Jason Torpy declaring all personnel who chose “no religious preference” to be “non-Christians.” Yet, any atheist with a shred of integrity would admit he has no idea whether someone who indicates NRP in their records is a Christian or not. There is no data — no evidence — to support Jason Torpy’s claim.  He’s making it up because the bigger number makes his claims sound more dramatic.

Torpy once defended this extrapolation by saying, in essence, any ‘true’ Christian would have selected some variant of ‘Christian’ for their records. It’s an interesting opinion — but an opinion nonetheless.

Though he has a few flaws, Jason Torpy has generally been a refreshing foil to the acerbic and hateful vitriol of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, despite their generally shared anti-Christian ideology.

Yet here Jason Torpy appears to have a serious — and intentional — problem with telling the truth (putting him in good company with Mikey Weinstein and Chris Rodda). Further, it seems that rather than correct his errors, he’d rather try to silence the truth.

Come on, Jason. You’re better than that.  Besides, if you have to lie to advance your cause, how good can your cause actually be?

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