Emily
MikeIt’s hard to believe that the U.S. Army has something known as the “Spiritual Fitness Test.” According to an NPR report, Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, director of something called “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness,” supposedly found data that “spiritual fitness has a positive impact on quality of life, on coping and on mental health.” Since that “finding,” the army has had a required survey for soldiers to assess their “spiritual fitness.” One question in the survey asks a soldier to rank herself or himself on the statement: I am a spiritual person. I believe that in some way my life is closely connected to all of humanity. I often find comfort in my religion and spiritual beliefs.” Another asks to rank herself or himself on “In difficult times, I pray or meditate.”
Obviously, atheists and other non-religious soldiers will get ”low” marks on the test. In fact, most atheists might be expected to get 100% of the questions “wrong.” A “low” mark on the test results in an assessment that:
Spiritual fitness may be an area of difficulty… You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and to others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your beliefs, principles and values…Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal.
This is so wrong-headed that it’s beyond belief. Cornum defends the “test” as “merely a helpful resource for soldiers,” saying that: “There’s no pass-fail, nothing happens. No one sees it but the guy who takes it.” Another spokesman for the Army, Lt. Col. David Patterson, insists that the military respects the various beliefs of soldiers: “Although spiritual fitness is offered to all soldiers, it is not meant by any means to influence, dissuade nor entice soldiers to believe in a deity, endorse religion, or in any way state that a soldier is unfit to serve if they lack spiritual fitness.”
Yeah, right. Giving that kind of spin is nonsensical. How can anyone possibly believe it? “If an official survey tells you you’re deficient in some area, the implication is that you need to improve. Otherwise, why would the Army even ask?” Moreover, Cornum’s supposed “finding” of data that “spiritual fitness has a positive impact on quality of life, on coping and on mental health”–and the implication that a soldier without “spiritual fitness” is harming those areas–is just plain wrong. I can find just as many studies that find that being an atheist has absolutely no negative impact on one’s quality of life, coping, and mental health. Cornum’s “findings” go back to the completely unfounded, self-serving religious canard that a person’s value system has to be based on the religion and whatever “Bible” that religion uses. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as the many “new atheism” books in the past 5-10 years make absolutely clear.
I do agree that “coping” and “mental health” are areas for which the Army should try to help soldiers. But coming at those areas from “spiritual fitness’ is not the way to do it. In fact, in the same way that the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule can accurately be said to have harmed the “coping” and “mental health” of gay and lesbian soldiers, it is easy to see how things like the “spiritual fitness test” can harm atheist and non-religious soldiers. What the Army needs to be doing is to make sure it is not condoning discrimination toward those soldiers and not finding new ways to extend the discrimination by things like the “spiritual fitness test.”
Thankfully, people in the Army are fighting back. There is an organization called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation that represents non-religious soldiers. Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force lawyer who founded the group, says that the group has 220 soldiers ready to sue next week if the survey doesn’t drop the questions.
Filed under: GLBT, Law, Religion, Uncategorized, Workplace Tagged: | Army, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Rhonda Cornum, Spiritual Fitness Test
