27 January 2011

Managing "spiritually unfit soldiers"

A series of articles at a website called "Rock Beyond Belief" addresses the U.S. military's approach to the "spiritual health" of its soldiers.  The first article says that the armed forces claim to make a distinction between "spirituality" and "religion," (the former being a belief in a higher power such as a god or spirit), and they justify the need for spirituality as a defense against committing suicide. The second article ' "Yahweh or the Highway" indicates that spiritual fitness is considered mandatory, and that rituals such as folding the U.S. flag have a symbolic significance regarding God.  The third article indicates that soldiers who fail a "spiritual fitness test" are required to seek counseling from chaplains:
...this chaplain told me that I failed the SFT because it was “Jesus’ way of personally knocking on my door as an invitation for me to come to Him as a born again ‘REAL’ Christian” so that I  could be saved and not burn forever in Hell for rejecting him...
The website clearly has an agenda of its own.  I don't have any independent sources to confirm or modify the conclusions they offer.

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