Check it out!

Rachel Medley’s soundbites were triumphant and prescient – despite some setbacks RBB faced at getting the Golden Knights to agree to jump. I’m comfortable with my own comments, as well. I’ve been the victim of unethical editing before, and I’m glad to say this is not one of those times.

My favorite part of the report comes from Richard Dawkins’ speech.

Indeed. To all of the people who thought our festival was offensive, please redirect your anger to the people who are inviting us to put these things on. Familiarize yourself with limited public forum, and realize just how deep the problem really is.

Atheist chaplains? Maybe, but so what.

To be honest, I’m a bit sad to see that so much focus went over to the “atheist chaplains” issue. I think there should be at most one atheist chaplain. All we really need is access to the chapels and other chaplaincy resources, like the Wiccans enjoy (despite there being ZERO Wiccan Chaplains.)

This can be accomplished by the extant lay leader program. I was the first to attempt this, but I was shot down in a very ugly manner. I described it in great detail at the end of this post – in the section called ‘This is what discrimination looks like’. There are others now trying, but few of us in the movement remain optimistic for this approach. The chaplaincy appears to have lawyered up and it’s probably time we follow suit. Pursuing a formal full-on atheist chaplain seems to be asking for another year or two of failures and set backs – at best.

The issues that Jason Torpy raised are important. We’re on the same page, so I’m not trivializing the issue. It’s just that it served as a distraction to coverage of the real world change that happened that day. I’m probably just too close to this thing. I just wish it emphasized the ban on atheist groups – and the event’s status as a breakthrough we can rally around and point to as a tangible victory. The first big victory for the New Foxhole Atheists, perhaps?

How to support the troops without really trying

Please do also check out the actual Religion and Ethics website and leave them some comments. If the media thinks the public cares about an issue, they’ll cover it more. And vice versa. It’s bad here in the military, but it’s getting better. Coverage like this makes it possible.