Could Be A Good Thing

Seems that West Point Cadet Blake Page has resigned from the Academy and has offered a blistering critique of the military's heavy investment in proselytizing Christian evangelical religious belief.

Interesting.

Though the United States is ostensibly a secular nation with no national religion or religious test to hold office -- or to be in the military -- the fact is that some 80%-90% of Americans profess religious faith of some sort and the evangelical sects (which long ago all but took over the military) have been in the vanguard of a religious "revival" among the high ranking military officers who set the tone for religious practice and belief among the troops. If someone actually looked into this phenomenon more deeply than I can, they would probably see fairly quickly that the religious belief within the military (as it is among the government functionaries in general) is not quite standard evangelical Christianity. It has its own peculiar nature, and if it hasn't already done so, it could well turn into a separate sect of its own, serving only those who are initiates into its mysteries. Not unlike the legendary Opus Dei among Catholics...

Blake Page, former West Point Cadet, is apparently out to expose the whole rotten edifice of military/religious indoctrination, and boldly claims that most of the hierarchy at West Point is in violation of their oath of office and is therefore engaged in criminal conduct.

Well. Isn't that special?

Criminals. Violations of the Oath.

Indeed.

Americans by and large are unaware of just how separate the military and the government it ostensibly serves are from the People. Since the end of the draft in the 1970's, the military has separated itself more and more from the People. The government has taken a somewhat different route, but it has arrived are pretty much the same destination, barricading itself behind protective security walls, traps and personnel to ensure that the People are kept at bay. This withdrawal and separation in some respects enables the government and the military to adopt a kind of "sacred" mantle which in turn enables the injection of a quasi-religion into these ostensibly secular realms.

I've long been leery of the nearly overwhelming worship of the military in this country, as if it were itself a sacred institution. It's nothing of the kind. And then we have the notion of the near-sacred persons of our high government officials, from the President on down. It's off-putting on the one hand, but it's also completely inappropriate for a society of citizens as opposed to subjects. Yet Americans are becoming subjects -- and participatory citizenship is made more and more difficult if not altogether impossible for many millions.

It's not going to be easy to reverse any of this, particularly in light of the national religious fervor that bids fair to overwhelm common sense.

But it's a start...