Marine Court-Martialled for Bible Verse

[The Barbarian]

Musty writes:

I said mind your biz.

This is an internet forum. Once you post, it's everybody's business. Get a thicker skin.

 

[Jonahdog]

Musty writes:


This is an internet forum. Once you post, it's everybody's business. Get a thicker skin.

All I did was make a rational suggestion. guess I am not surprised at the response.

 

[musterion]

Hush, zippy.

 

[Jonahdog]

Hush, zippy.

Were my posts too close to the truth? Did you ever read the decision or just the right wing nut job article?

 

[shagster01]

Were my posts too close to the truth? Did you ever read the decision or just the right wing nut job article?

Pretty soon he'll call you a pothead and disappear. That's his retreat tactic.

 

[Jose Fly]

This is nothing more and nothing less than the march of society towards trying to get rid of anything that reminds them of God.

Promise? :chuckle:

 

[Jose Fly]

Meh....more fundamentalist Christian wailing and gnashing teeth as their power and influence over our society continues to wane.

And their reactions to decisions like this are a good indication of why this decline is a good thing for greater society.

 

[musterion]

And their reactions to decisions like this are a good indication of why this decline is a good thing for greater society.

Without people like us in the past, we would all be far worse off now, if any of us were here at all. You could show at least a little acknowledgement of that fact, because I know gratitude is too much to ask.

 

[Jose Fly]

Without people like us in the past, we would all be far worse off now, if any of us were here at all. You could show at least a little acknowledgement of that fact, because I know gratitude is too much to ask.

As long as you stay in the past, sure...no problem. But it's time for humanity to move on past religion as a means of knowing anything.

 

[The Barbarian]

Meh....more fundamentalist Christian wailing and gnashing teeth as their power and influence over our society continues to wane.

The problem is that it's not just the fundamentalists. Too many people think that fundamentalists are the norm for Christianity. And so Christian faith in general suffers.

And that's a problem. Many of the founders weren't Christian, but they thought that faith was essential to a civilized society.

And it well may be so. Evidence so far suggests that they were right.

 

[Jose Fly]

The problem is that it's not just the fundamentalists. Too many people think that fundamentalists are the norm for Christianity. And so Christian faith in general suffers.

The trends in the data (that have been posted here several times) shows that while non-fundamentalist Christianity is in steep decline in the US, evangelical Christianity is holding steady at ~25%, which constitutes a plurality of US Christians.

So there's good, and growing, reasons to associate US Christianity with fundamentalism.

And that's a problem. Many of the founders weren't Christian, but they thought that faith was essential to a civilized society.

And it well may be so. Evidence so far suggests that they were right.

How so? I tend to see things like declining crime rates and less public tolerance for bigotry as good things.

 

[PureX]

The trends in the data (that have been posted here several times) shows that while non-fundamentalist Christianity is in steep decline in the US, evangelical Christianity is holding steady at ~25%, which constitutes a plurality of US Christians.

So there's good, and growing, reasons to associate US Christianity with fundamentalism.

As corporations, politicians and the media are all acting together to further divide the U.S. citizenry against each other, I think what you're seeing in those numbers is the effect of that division among Christians. As liberal Christians are becoming more liberal, they are leaving their traditional (and more conservative) religious institutions, while conservative Christians are becoming more conservative, and are leaving their traditional churches for more zealous and extreme religious groups. Thus the more conservative and extreme factions of religious Christianity are gaining as many people as they are losing, while the more liberal factions of religious Christianity are losing people both to more conservative churches, and to secular spirituality.

 

[kmoney]

That's not all the way true though. She posted them at a shared work station. It wasn't HER desk. It was a desk used by many people.

Would you be ok with a muslim posting Koran verses at a work station you had to use at work?

From the original article:

Attorney Berry points out that other Marines were allowed to decorate their desks. However, the lower courts refused to allow that evidence to be admitted. And at the time of the incident – Sterling was not sharing a desk.

When sharing a desk, I can understand, but if she wasn't sharing the desk at the time of the incident then I don't see why it should have been a problem.

 

[kmoney]

And the objection to the content seems to have been that it could be read as a threat, not that it was from the Bible.

A threat? Maybe to the enemies of the US military. Internally? Not really. :idunno:

 

[Jonahdog]

From the original article:

Attorney Berry points out that other Marines were allowed to decorate their desks. However, the lower courts refused to allow that evidence to be admitted. And at the time of the incident – Sterling was not sharing a desk.

When sharing a desk, I can understand, but if she wasn't sharing the desk at the time of the incident then I don't see why it should have been a problem.

But did you bother to read the decision?

 

[Jonahdog]

Without people like us in the past, we would all be far worse off now, if any of us were here at all. You could show at least a little acknowledgement of that fact, because I know gratitude is too much to ask.

What is "people like us"? Christians?

 

[kmoney]

But did you bother to read the decision?

I assume you mean for the reasons behind the court martial? I didn't read the decision but I understand it says that the court martial went beyond just posting the verse. My comment wasn't about the court martial though, it was about her being told to take the verse down.

 

[rexlunae]

A threat? Maybe to the enemies of the US military. Internally? Not really. :idunno:

Well, she allegedly posted it because she spends her days dealing with marines whose CAC cards aren't working. So, yeah, it was seen as being against her fellow marines, whether that was her intent or not. She was ordered to take it down, and she didn't, and then she put it back when her CO took it down.

 

[Mocking You]

If other people had to use it, she was out of line. If not, then I don't see a problem. Using government equipment to promote one's religious ideas is unacceptable, but if others weren't required to be exposed to it, then it should be legal.

My sentiments as well. If it's not (exclusively) her work station, so she has no business personalizing it after being ordered not to.

 

[genuineoriginal]

And posting Bible quotes in one's work space isn't exercising one's religion, as religious customs and practices don't require that Bible verses be posted in adherents' work spaces.

It is religious discrimination to claim that the only permitted way to exercise your religious beliefs is limited so you are only allowed to perform the customs and practices mandated by your religion and not allowed any freedom of speech or other public expression of your religion.