These videos may just disappear soon. Grab them while they’re hot! They’re from the Army’s public facing media outreach website.

Remember, whenever lawyers and reporters are around, the term ‘spiritual fitness’ has nothing to do with religion. It’s about ‘team spirit‘ and ‘human spirit’. So it’s not illegal when mandatory…

CH (MAJ) Choi – Sunday Stryker Brigade

www.dvidshub.net/video/embed/122546

“There’s a limit to how much physical ability can sustain a soldier. There’s a limit on how mental fitness, emotional fitness can sustain them. But spirituality – or spiritual fitness – it’s in the heart of a soldier…”

Cue the choir and religious service… oh goody, the Army already did for this video. Because we soldiers all know that Spiritual Fitness = go to my bible study / religious service / prayer breakfast. Civilians may take the public affairs spokesmen at their word, as all of us roll our eyes and wonder how the reporters thought it was appropriate to even print!

…

(much more below the fold – this one is important, check it out.)

Major General Lynch at a Spiritual Fitness Luncheon – 2007

www.dvidshub.net/video/embed/28347

“…with prayer and petition – and the peace of god – which transcends all understanding. [It] will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ‘God give me that peace.’ And the he told me in Joshua 9, he said…”

(this is before Spiritual Fitness testing and training existed. This is included to show that not only is the concept completely religious – it always has been, and is basically synonymous with Christianity alone at that.)

Commander Kimberly Sawatsky Deputy Command Chaplain talks about Spiritual Fitness

www.dvidshub.net/video/embed/111084

“…Likewise, Spiritual Fitness is just as important in our lives. And that’s where we as chaplains come in. We’re there to encourage – we’re there to facilitate and lead their worship…”

Yep, the footage right there – of military members performing Christian music in a worship setting… Nothing to do with religion. Nothing at all. One positive note – it’s good to see females represented somewhere in the chaplaincy. The gender bias built into religions really takes it’s toll when added to the existing ratios in the general military population.

How coffee = proselytism (Holy Joe’s Cafe? Holy shit!)

www.dvidshub.net/video/embed/115892

HOLY SHIT! A chaplain explains exactly how the ‘innocent offer’ of free coffee let’s him drift towards proselytism. There’s a dirty little secret in the complicated ‘ecclesiastical endorsing’ system that produces sectarian chaplains. The largest of these endorsers, representing thousands of chaplains, has a specific policy that’s quite alarming. “We reserve the right to evangelize the un-Churched” (Usually coupled with some sort of dismissive pledge not to proselytize… a word they clearly don’t understand.)

From the *mandatory* Spiritual Fitness testing and training

www.youtube.com/embed/Fjuf81fdIOA?

A classic ending.

As I continue my Spiritual Fitness journey, I’ll keep bringing updates to tell the Army story.

We’ve recently seen how the military has started to embrace its large atheist community. Hopefully all of the pretense will be dropped, and we can stop spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on proselytizing. And hopefully we can drop the mandatory Spiritual Fitness testing and training. I’m relentless, but optimistic. And I think that’s the way people should be.