One of the very first posts we ever wrote about the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer highlighted a column he wrote calling for Muslims to be banned from serving in the military. That was nearly five years ago and now Fischer is finally getting around to calling for atheists to be banned from serving in the U.S. armed forces as well.

Responding to a situation in which an airman was denied his request to re-enlist in the Air Force because he refuses to take an oath containing the phrase “so help me God,” Fischer asserts that atheists should be prohibited from serving in all braches of the military because “there is no place in the United States military for those who do not believe in the Creator who is the source of every single one of our fundamental human and civil rights”:

[O]ur military exists to uphold and defend our Constitution, and the Constitution in turn identifies the “unalienable rights” the Declaration refers to that our government is obligated to protect. These rights do not come from government, they do not come from the commander-in-chief, and they most certainly do not come from some activist judge. They come from God himself. We are not evolved, as this wannabe-enlistee believes, but we are “created,” and “endowed by (our) Creator with certain unalienable rights.” This is an absolutely foundational, non-negotiable, bed-rock American principle: there is a Creator – with a capital “C” (you could look it up) – and he and he alone is the source of the very rights the military exists to protect and defend. An individual who does not understand and believe this has no right to serve in the U.S. military. Military service should rightly be reserved for those who believe in and are willing to die for what America stands for – and what America stands for is a belief in God as the source of our rights. A man who doesn’t believe in the Creator the Founders trusted certainly can live in America without being troubled for being a fool. But he most certainly should not wear the uniform. The other branches of the military do not require the same oath – yet. But they should. Military service should be reserved for genuine Americans and genuine Americans, like the Founders, believe in God.

UPDATE: Fischer reiterated this view on his radio program today: