Is it possible to be an atheist and serve your country in the military? Some would say no. My guest on Nov. 12 will be Jason Torpy the President of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF), a national non-profit building community for atheists and humanists in the military. Torpy also holds seats on the board of the Secular Coalition for America, the premier lobbying organization for secular issues, and the American Humanist Association, which fosters Humanist community and ethics.
Since joining the military in 1994, Torpy has been active with the nontheist community, addressing issues of separation of church and state and equal opportunity for nontheistic service members in Army basic training, Army parachutist training, military academy programs, and in combat situations. His education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Management from West Point and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Ohio State University. After earning top graduate honors from two intelligence training programs, he was offered direct admission to the U.S. Military Academy and upon graduation was commissioned as an officer, serving for five years in Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq with the Army’s 1st Armored Division. He left the service in 2005 at the rank of Captain to pursue an MBA. Torpy currently lives in Washington, DC.
We will be discussing religion in the military and what it's like to be nontheist service member, as well as the history and the role of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.
For additional information visit the website for the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF).
You can listen live at 3 p.m. on KYRS Radio – Medical Lake/Spokane – 88.1 FM and 92.3 FM. Or, or listen online here.
If you miss the program, it will be available later on Spokane Faith & Values and on the Revolutionary Spirituality website.
Having served 10 years in the Marines, I can tell you that it never crossed my mind what religion my fellow Marines belonged to. What mattered to me is whether or not they could do their jobs when the time came. Marines run to the sound of gunfire. They don’t stop and ask what church their fellow Marines go to, or don’t go to.
I know personally members of our INFS and S3 who are and were atheists serving in the military, including some presently serving. So the very notion “can atheists serve in the military” is both empirically false and socially insulting. All Americans serving in our military should hold to the core truth of it: to protect and defend the people of the United States, and thereby help preserve our very precious secular Constitution whereby we have managed to avoid many of the bloody paths so many other peoples have marched down to their infamy. To the extent that anyone, regardless of their faith or lack of it, cannot accomplish that with a clear purpose, then that person should find another vocation.