{"id":25093,"date":"2013-08-29T00:28:43","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T03:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=25093"},"modified":"2016-11-26T00:58:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T03:58:26","slug":"atheist-army-officer-wants-recruits-to-avoid-liberty-u","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/29\/atheist-army-officer-wants-recruits-to-avoid-liberty-u\/","title":{"rendered":"Atheist Army Officer Wants Recruits to Avoid Liberty U"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Army Capt Sara Sharick publicly identifies<\/a> as an Army officer and recruiter — and she’s an atheist. When a potential Army recruit walked into her office one day, she was “disappointed” to learn<\/a> he wanted to attend Liberty University.<\/p>\n

So my Center Commander asks him where he plans on going to college. I’m thinking K State or KU, some place local. He says “Liberty University.” I just about choked…I pull out my phone and look up if Liberty even has an ROTC program. Sure as [redacted], both Army and Air Force. So disappointed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why is she\u00a0“disappointed?”\u00a0 She says Liberty University is home to “the crazies,” apparently referring to Christians, given that Liberty is a mainstream Christian university.\u00a0 (Sharick joins Michael Weinstein’s loathing for the school, when he called it “horrifying” that Liberty would teach<\/a> the same material other<\/em> universities do.)<\/p>\n

At first, Sharick seemed willing to grit her teeth and help the kid out:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Not that it makes a whole lot of difference, if he wants to go in the Army, we’ll put him in. It’s just so disappointing to see kids go off to [redacted] colleges where they probably won’t learn what the real world looks like (and won’t learn any real biology on top of it).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later, though, she starts wondering if she can steer the kid ‘straight:’<\/p>\n

The kid wants reserves so many we can convince him to go to K State or something instead…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Think about that for a second.\u00a0 A US Army recruiter is talking about convincing a future Soldier to attend a different college because she takes issue with the religious beliefs<\/em> of the school he’s currently interested in.<\/p>\n

What\u00a0if she’d realized\u00a0the kid probably held\u00a0beliefs\u00a0consistent with\u00a0Liberty’s, and that’s<\/em> why he wanted to go there?\u00a0 Would she have treated him as one of the “crazies?”<\/p>\n

Apparently, she’d be “disappointed.”<\/p>\n

Now, consider what would happen if a Christian<\/em> Army recruiter publicly talked about steering kids toward<\/em> Liberty, or away from some ‘non-christian’ school which they were “so disappointed” to see kids interested in.\u00a0 Think someone would complain?<\/p>\n

In short, it is not a recruiter’s job to participate in such persuasion.\u00a0 If the kid asks about good schools for certain career fields, advise away.\u00a0 If the school he suggests has issues incompatible with his recruitment — like it doesn’t have an ROTC program — then explain that to him.\u00a0 But to convince him to attend another school because of personal<\/em> issues with that school’s religious faith<\/em>?\u00a0 That’s out of bounds for a military officer.<\/p>\n

Had she been a Christian, people would have told Sharick that if she couldn’t faithfully perform her duties apart from her religious beliefs, she should find another line of work.<\/p>\n

To recap:<\/p>\n