{"id":43005,"date":"2018-03-22T00:30:39","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T03:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=43005"},"modified":"2018-03-22T01:32:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T04:32:52","slug":"us-navy-again-rejects-humanist-chaplain-jason-heap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/22\/us-navy-again-rejects-humanist-chaplain-jason-heap\/","title":{"rendered":"US Navy Again Rejects Humanist Chaplain Jason Heap"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the second time<\/a>, the US Navy has denied the application of Dr. Jason Heap to become a “humanist chaplain” in the sea service. A Navy board had supported<\/a> his appointment; when word of that decision leaked, members of both the House and Senate wrote the Navy<\/a> in protest. Those congressmen have now revealed<\/a> that the Navy has rejected<\/a> Heap’s application, again.<\/p>\n

Heap’s application as been widely opposed by religious liberty groups<\/a>, largely because humanism isn’t a religion — and the chaplaincy is religious.<\/p>\n

On that point, Hemant Mehta, the poorly named “Friendly Atheist”, has officially arrived, being quoted in Todd Starnes’ FoxNews column<\/a>. Mehta said<\/a> [formatting original]:<\/p>\n

[Wicker]\u00a0refers to Heap as an \u201catheist\u201d applying for a \u201creligious position.\u201d Heap is a Humanist,<\/em> and that\u2019s an important distinction, because last year, the Department of Defense added Humanism to its list of \u201cFaith and Belief\u201d groups<\/strong>, making the case for Heap\u2019s inclusion in the chaplaincy even stronger.<\/p>\n

As far as the military is concerned, Humanism is<\/em> a religion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As previously noted, Mehta doesn’t appear to be fully on board with Heap’s application to begin with — and his apathy appears to be affecting his argument. Here, Mehta makes a fundamental error, because while the Navy did<\/em> add Humanism to its list of belief groups<\/a>, as noted then, that list has nothing to do with the chaplaincy.\u00a0 Even better, though, the DoD list Mehta cites\u00a0also includes “atheist”<\/strong> and “agnostic.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, by Mehta’s logic, “as far as the military is concerned, atheism is a religion<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Checkmate, Hemant.<\/p>\n

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