The Center for Inquiry Office of Public Policy, headed by Michael De Dora and Ed Beck, has issued a new report called For God and Country: Religious Fundamentalism in the U.S. Military. The report is written by James Parco, a retired Lt. Colonel in the Air Force, who worked for the National Security Council under President Clinton.

In this position paper, James Parco provides compelling evidence there has been a disturbing expansion and entrenchment of Christian fundamentalism in the U.S. military, a cultural force which remains at times both tacitly and overtly endorsed by senior military leaders. Parco supports his claim by presenting a number of case studies demonstrating a clear pattern of unconstitutional religiously sectarian behavior. He then analyzes the merits of the competing philosophical perspectives on the proper role of religious expression by men and women in uniform. Parco concludes the report with recommendations that those in power should implement immediately in order to fully protect the U.S. military’s necessarily secular foundation and the religious freedom of all who volunteer to serve.

This report fits well with the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which has worked for years to expose the abuses that go on within the military, driven by those who think their job is to turn soldiers into Christians.