Command endorsement of religion is common throughout the military. Unit logos are printed on Bibles, Bibles are placed in government hotels as a matter of policy, unit mottos commonly have religious themes, and prayer is said at most official command [...]
Chaplains currently have training about the diversity of belief systems they will encounter in the military as well as their requirement to serve the wide diversity, from Wiccan to Muslim to Christian Science to Sikh. Chaplains have no such training [...]
While our military is making substantial progress integrating gay, lesbian and female Americans into its ranks, it continues to discriminate against nontheists. The chaplaincy has never had any formal training in non-theistic beliefs and practices. They are thus unqualified to [...]
One of the very first in-processing activities for all military personnel is to receive their ID tags. Young troops are asked, ÔÇ£What is your religious preference?ÔÇØ There are over 100 different specific, general, and administrative answers to that question, and [...]
Several key international agreements approved by the United Nations (UN) enshrine freedom of religion, belief, and expression as basic international human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, states: Everyone has [...]
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has been providing alcohol recovery services for eighty-plus years and has long been the recommended solution for individuals with an alcohol-dependency problem. AA originally sprang from a Christian religious movement called ÔÇ£The Oxford Group,ÔÇØ and AA (and [...]
Religiously Based Child Abuse and Neglect The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that the right to practice oneÔÇÖs faith does not extend to the point where childrenÔÇÖs health and safety are jeopardized. The Court ruled in Prince v. [...]
The use of stem cell and fetal tissue for contemporary medical research is a complicated moral issue. The decision as to whether or not to allocate federal funds to stem cell research should not be dictated by religious beliefs. Human [...]
Introduction There are complicated moral and ethical questions involved in womenÔÇÖs health issues and access to health care for theists and nontheists alike. However, the particular influence of sectarian religious belief on government policy regarding women suggests a government endorsement [...]
The Right to Die movement, launched in 1976, has its foundation in two court decisions. In re Quinlan, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously to appoint Karen Ann QuinlanÔÇÖs father her legal guardian with the authority to make medical [...]
