An organization representing atheists in the military has petitioned President-elect Barack Obama to take steps to eliminate what it calls "an overall culture of religious intolerance" in the armed forces.
The Secular Coalition for America has sent a lengthy letter to Obama’s transition team seeking relief from “coercive proselytizing" and "employment discrimination based on religion."
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said: "The usual critics of religious expression in the public square have broadened their religion-scrubbing complaints to the military, based on little more than the fact that men and women who put their lives on the line for this country are susceptible to a belief in God.
"We should encourage such devotion, not punish it."
The group also is calling for the creation of a commission on “religious accommodation” within the Defense Department.
— Stephen Adams
