Atheist Soldier Says His Constitutional Rights Were Violated
Jeremy Hall is an atheist. He is also known as Specialist Hall in the U.S. Army. He says that these two parts of his life are incompatible and that he has even been threatened by fellow soldiers because of his religious preference. In November, he was sent home early from Iraq due to the threats.
Last July, Specialist Hall decided to hold a meeting at Camp Speicher in Iraq for atheists and freethinkers. Major Freddy J. Welborn attended Specialist Hall's meeting and after listening to him talk for a few minutes, Specialist Hall claims that Major Welborn interrupted and told Specialist Hall and another soldier that the founding fathers of the U.S. were Christians and that by being atheists they were not upholding the U.S. Constitution and disgracing the men and women who died for the Constitution. The soldiers also claim that Major Welborn told them that he would consider bringing charges against them and barring them from re-enlistment in the Army.
The New York Times reports that Specialist Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, have filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Kansas as a result of Major Welborn's actions and threats that Specialist Hall allegedly received from other soldiers. The lawsuit alleges that Specialist Hall's First Amendment right to be free from state endorsement of religion had been violated and that he had faced retaliation for his views.
The U.S. Armed Forces have guidelines that require all soldiers to respect the rights of others to have their own religious beliefs. Those guidelines include the rights of atheists, who have no beliefs.
Despite these guidelines, Specialist Hall and other critics of military policy say that the U.S. Armed Forces lean heavily towards evangelical Christianity. Specialist Hall says that he is faced with discrimination in the U.S. Army because he is an atheist and that soldiers are encouraged to recognize that the United States is a Christian nation.
Timothy Feary, the other soldier who attended the atheist and freethinker meeting in Iraq, says that Specialist Hall is telling the truth about the incident and the statements that he says Major Welborn made at the meeting. Major Welborn says that Feary and Specialist Hall are not telling the truth about what happened at the meeting, and he would welcome the opportunity to tell his side of the story. However, because of Specialist Hall's pending lawsuit, he has declined to make any public comments about the case.
Specialist Hall entered the U.S. Army as a Christian, but in 2005, after being deployed to Iraq, declared that he had become an atheist. He says that the incident with Major Welborn was not the first time that members of the U.S. Army had discriminated against him because he is an atheist. In 2006 when he refused to pray at a Thanksgiving meal with other soldiers and told a sergeant that he did not believe in God, he claims that he was asked to leave the dinner table.
Specialist Hall did not file a complaint with the Army's Equal Opportunity Office after the alleged incident with Major Welborn. He says that he did not go that route because he does not trust his superior officers. Instead, he contacted the leaders of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers who connected him with a civil rights lawyer.
Specialist Hall is with a different unit now at Fort Riley, but says that the incident still affects his life.He has a no-contact order against a sergeant who he says threatened to punch him in the face. He claims that another sergeant told him that he was not entitled to religious freedom because he was an atheist and had no religion.
Usually civilian courts decline to take on military cases, and Specialist Hall and his lawyer are still waiting to hear from the Justice Department about the lawsuit.