Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Americans United has sent a letter to the Pentagon demanding an investigation into what looks like a textbook case of the military pushing recruits into becoming Christian. Their press release on the matter notes:
Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri offers "Free Day Away" as one of only two opportunities for soldiers to leave the base during eight weeks of vigorous Army training. (The other day is the day before graduation, which can be spent with parents and guests.) During "Free Day Away," trainees are picked up by a bus sent from the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Lebanon, Mo., to participate in a day full of recreational activities, followed by dinner and a required church service.Trainees are given the impression that the event is sponsored by the Army and that they must attend. If they do not attend, they have to remain on the base and continue with training, while those who attend the event have a break for the day.
More details:
During the church service, soldiers are told that they are all sinners who must repent and that they "must be saved now or go to hell." Soldiers willing to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior are instructed to step into the aisles of the church and enroll in a six-lesson correspondence course that will lead to their "personal salvation."In a 2003 article in the Global Baptist Times, the pastor of Tabernacle Church reported that 270,000 soldiers had participated in the "Free Day Away" ministry since its inception in 1971 and that 47,000 had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. The Tabernacle Church also asks the soldiers to provide their home addresses so members of their families can also be "saved."
Fort Leonard Wood has promoted this program for the past 36 years and the program is endorsed by the base commander, Americans United learned during its investigation.
This seems quite obvious to me. The government cannot reward those who go to religious exercises over those who don't and that is exactly what is going on here. Getting a day off during boot camp is an enormous privilege, but if the only way to get that day off is to take part in Christian religious exercises and get preached at while those who choose not to attend must forestall the day off, the government is clearly pushing soldiers into taking part in a religious event.
If they gave everyone the day off and some chose to go to a religious event while others went and did whatever they wanted, that would be a different matter. As things stand, however, this is de facto coercion and a clear violation of the first amendment.
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For 37 years various base commanders have allowed this sort of coercion? This is a shocking story given the frequency base command is transferred from one officer to the next.
Posted by: Michael Heath | July 25, 2008 9:22 AM
Nothing new here.
Navy boot camp, 1962, attend Sunday services or keep working. Most of us attended and got an hour or so of much needed sleep.
Posted by: Jim Spencer | July 25, 2008 9:39 AM
I went to middle/high school in Utah, and a very similar sort of thing was on display daily. "Release Time" was offered by the school, one period per day. However, the only activity for which a release could be obtained (so far as I was aware, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong) was for "seminary" education at the adjacent LDS education facility*.
I've always wondered how this worked under church/state separation.
*Also notable, the LDS buildings were always on parcels of land immediately adjacent to the school, and were similar to the school buildings in both design and materials. It's almost as if the state engineered every new school effort to "accidentally" buy more land and building material than they needed, then selling them back to the church.
Posted by: BG | July 25, 2008 9:42 AM
I have a promotional video for "Free Day Away" that violates all the same regulations that the Pentagon Inspector General found had been violated by the officers who appeared in the Campus Crusade for Christ Christian Embassy video. It's actually a video of the promotional video being shown at another church. MRFF's lawsuit plaintiff Jeremy Hall did his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, so he was subjected to this program -- a program that is so bad that MRFF has received over 300 individual complaints about it since 2005, and is, of course, including it in the lawsuit.
There's a link to the video at the end of this piece I wrote about it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/who-will-guard-the-guards_b_114638.html
Posted by: Chris Rodda | July 25, 2008 9:45 AM
Here in Tennessee, some enthusiastic Baptist preacher came up with the idea of a three-day school-release "Crusade for Christ". Participating children are bused from the school to the church, where they see proselytizing weightlifters and hear dynamic Jesus-intoxicated speakers. They even get a t-shirt or two(It's funny to see all the little pregnant girls and teenage parents wearing the pro-abstinence t-shirts with no apparent sense of irony). For days I overhear comments in the hall like "Sermons are real funny when you're high" and "Mitzi gave Ralph a BJ on the bus on the way to the crusade".
Some teachers give the non-participating students a free day. I teach as usual and give the participants a packet with make-up work. They rarely complete it.
Posted by: Robski | July 25, 2008 9:53 AM
"a six-lesson correspondence course that will lead to their "personal salvation."
I wasn't aware that Christian salvation involved a correspondence course... Are there tests, with eternal damnation being the price of failure? (And does God grade on the curve???)
Robski, of course the kiddies won't complete the make-up work, they are issued a 'get-out-of-education-free' pass as long as they are engaged in 'spiritual' studies.
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | July 25, 2008 10:04 AM
I attended Ft. Leonard Wood basic training in the summer of 2003. We had a free away day exactly as described. I as a non-Christian, and one of my platoon mates who was Jewish sat in the back of the church, but we were NOT allowed to leave.
Our group was also asked to donate money to fund the program.
Very interesting article.
Posted by: rebelleink | July 25, 2008 10:08 AM
Onward Christian soldiers.
Posted by: Shawn Wilkinson | July 25, 2008 10:42 AM
BG:
Fellow Utahn here. I was asking the same questions you were when I arrived here 8 years ago. I have been assured that non-LDS students get an hour of release or elective and that LDS students aren't getting a "free" hour. Either way, it is strange to see the little seminary buildings right next to each school with kids going back and forth between the school and the seminary. Given the amount of church activities the LDS have scheduled throughout the week, it does seem almost overkill to have an hour devoted to seminary during school hours.
Posted by: mark boggs | July 25, 2008 10:55 AM
BG,
You are wrong. Release time was for any third party instruction. I know Catholics had a program in my high school. Can't speak to other churches. I read the statute back then and if a secular group had wanted to set up a program they could have under the guidelines. And they were always VERY careful to buy their own land and materials. There was no entanglement there at all or selling back.
Say what you might about the Mormons, and trust me some family gatherings get very awkward because I do, but they are very well aware of these issues and are very careful to avoid them.
Posted by: sng | July 25, 2008 11:46 AM
Posted by: llewelly | July 25, 2008 1:18 PM
sng:
you said,
"Say what you might about the Mormons, and trust me some family gatherings get very awkward because I do, but they are very well aware of these issues and are very careful to avoid them."
If you're saying this strictly in relation to the seminary issue, maybe. However, in most other facets of life here, such as whether certain forms of legislation are appropriate, it isn't a legislative legal team that does the vetting, but the folks located in the Church Office Building up in SLC. Take a look at the liquor laws we have. The church signs off before they go to vote.
Posted by: mark boogs | July 25, 2008 1:29 PM
Sadly, this is almost exactly what I encountered during the summer of 1989 at Ft.Jackson as a young soldier. They strip away your freedom and stress you out, so any chance to getaway from it all it HIGHLY desired. In my case, then only way to do this was to go to church for 2 hours on Sunday. Those of us who chose not to go to church had to clean the barracks during that time. It didn't take long before it was just me and a couple guys scrubbing the latrines Sunday morning.
The other occasion was a half-day pass to an off post "retreat," something similar to what's listed here I think. This one was only open to folks who weren't on the Drill Sergeant shitlist by Week 6 and sounded innocent enough as "a BBQ a period of relaxation and renewal." Of course my BS flag was raised when a local pastor gave the presentation.
Lame.
Posted by: Brando | July 25, 2008 1:55 PM
It's more than that. Basic training is deliberately designed to break you down and put you into an extremely vulnerable and suggestible mental state. They then use that vulnerability to build loyalty, unit cohesion, and a willingness to kill. Slipping religious indoctrination in there is as easy and effective as it is unethical.
It's similar in a lot of ways to the techniques used by various cults, like Scientology.
Posted by: Abby Normal | July 25, 2008 2:59 PM
Ed:
I asked my friend (Mike, the one you met while here in Texas) and he said that he never heard of it during his basic training at Fort Lost-in-the-Woods, Misery. He did say that he participated in church services on Sundays (even though he is pagan) because it meant less work cleaning if he went.
Posted by: Donna | July 25, 2008 3:45 PM
While I was at Ft. Jackson,('78) there was no religious affiliated "free day", though this may have had more to do with our being ensconced in the old and dilapidated WW2 barracks (Sand Hill)and a tough as nails Senior Drill. As long as you kept your nose clean, you got the off-base pass. Very few people attended church rather than clean the barracks floors, and no DI gave anybody a hard time on Sunday.
Abby Normal is right about the Scientology-type techniques. Approximately 5 weeks into boot camp, one of the Drill Instructors would call you into his office, and ask you to sign a letter stating that you were basically a fuck up who couldn't march properly, and that you were acknowledging that you would be sent to retraining brigade immediately. Of course, it was merely to see if you would sign such a preposterous thing, knowing it was all false. Oh man, those Sergeants must have got a real kick out of the looks of shock on those, like me, who prided themselves on their marching abilities. I shoulda kicked his ass. I'd probably be getting out of prison about now.
Posted by: trog69 | July 25, 2008 4:00 PM
Yeah, I went to church during basic (AF) for the same reason, I needed the sleep and if you didn't go you had to clean up around the barracks. Same thing happened for smoke breaks - if you went, you could go outside and bullshit, otherwise you cleaned your locker. We asked our TI about this, said we didn't smoke and he answered, "what do you want me to say, start?" and some guys did.
Posted by: Phaedrus | July 25, 2008 4:21 PM
I'm gonna retract the statement that hardly anyone went to church, as I seem to recall the barracks only about a third full on Sundays.
Old age and wishful thinking on my atheist part, perhaps?
Posted by: trog69 | July 25, 2008 4:31 PM
Like many others, I attended Sunday service in basic (Air Force) to avoid the cleaning. The first week, only me and one other airman stayed behind, both being atheists. However, our buddy was going through the baptism process through the Mormon church for his fiance who was Mormon. What he did was go and talk to two hot chicks for an hour. Just him and two hot chicks. For the next few weeks it was the three of us and two hot chicks just talking about random stuff. Totally worth it.
And as an added bonus he actually got baptized while he was there, right around Thanksgiving. The TI let him take us with him to witness, so we got off base for a few hours, then went to the Mormon pastor's house for a home cooked turkey dinner.
There are most definitely special perks for those who attend the religious ceremonies, I'm just lucky that I found the right one to attend.
Posted by: John Perkins | July 25, 2008 5:40 PM
While the Constitutional violation is certainly a primary concern here, I want to emphasize that this is a very SUBSTANTIAL violation of church/state separation, not just a technical violation. In fact, this program to send recruits in the middle of basic training to be churchified is a deliberate and appalling exploitation of highly effective mind control techniques.
One of the primary purposes of boot camp is to tear down individual identity and build group identity (hence the shaved heads and uniforms), and to put recruits into a state of permanent exhaustion that aids in inculcating the knee-jerk obedience to orders and automatic following of procedures. Promoting physical and mental exhaustion, constant repetition, and various forms of identity subversion are all mind control techniques - but they are mind control techniques being exercised on those who volunteered for them, with the benign and legitimate aim of readying them to respond appropriately and effectively to the dangers they will face in the course of their future duties.
But it is a very, very bad thing that those effective mind control techniques are being exploited to lure recruits into what is for all intents and purposes a fanatic religious cult. These young men (and women) have deliberately been made psychologically vulnerable and receptive to group identification and FOR THE LEGITIMATE PURPOSE OF MILITARY TRAINING, not for the entirely illegitimate purpose of inculcating religious doctrin - not ANY religious doctrine, and especially not the sort of extremist reactionary dogma common to Southern Baptist denominations.
It is both morally repellant and clearly unconstitutional to coerce anyone into religious indoctrination under any circumstances. But to thrust religious indoctrination on volunteer soldiers who have deliberately been rendered psychologically malleable for training purposes is an especially grotesque violation not just of our own constitution and ideals, but of any possible rationally defensible conception of legal or moral rights.
Posted by: G Felis | July 25, 2008 5:41 PM
Things in the military have gotten a lot worse in the nearly 50 years since I was in basic training. At Ft. Dix, in New Jersey, we were free to do as we wished on Sundays from the first week. We weren't required to attend any religious service, although the non-denominational on-base chapel held separate services every Sunday for Protestants and Catholics. After four weeks we were allowed weekend passes, so most of us went to stay with friends or family off base. But Easter fell near the end of my time in basic training, so on Good Friday, the cadre offered to give us the afternoon off if we wanted to attend church. Most did. But I, as an atheist, didn't want to. So when I said I didn't want to attend church, they told me I'd have to clean the latrines for the afternoon. But more importantly the cadre wanted the afternoon off and, if one trainee didn't go to church, at least one cadre would have to supervise me, and they made it very clear that wasn't going to happen. So I attended church, which proved to be quite innocuous given the times. I'm sure most post policies are much like Ft. Leonard Woods' today. I sure hope Americans United and/or the ACLU looks into this. The practice is a gross abuse of power and a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Posted by: Keanus | July 25, 2008 11:22 PM
trog '69, Sand Hill is a generic name used on several training posts. At Benning, Sand Hill is the newest and nicest barracks, but get the name of the WW2 barracks at Benning:
HARMONY CHURCH
Today I still get shivers when I picture the walking dead that drew that as their training Brigade, and their proudly cruel Drill Sergeants with ammonia nitrate poppers in their Brown Round hatbands.
TOMAHAWK!
Posted by: Bob Birdsong | July 27, 2008 2:58 PM
When I was a trainee at Fort Lewis in 1968 everyone with the exception of those on KP had Sunday pretty much off. There were the usual formations but no training. Back then most of us were disaffected draftees destined for Vietnam. It's possible we would have become insubordinate or even mutinous over the added insult of coercive religious indoctrination.
Posted by: sulphurdunn | July 27, 2008 5:14 PM
Like rebelleink I went through basic at Fort Leonardwood, but in my case, it was November-December 1995. The day away was pretty much exactly as described. The town we were taken to was very small, and there wasn't anything to do except sit in the church.
I won't defend the program, because it is despicable, but I will say that, at least when I went, the people running the program were quite upfront when we got there that anyone who wasn't a Christian and wasn't open to the experience could just sit in the back of the chapel and be quiet, sleeping if we could do so without snoring. Which is what I did.
Posted by: DWS | July 28, 2008 12:54 PM
1983 USMC Recruit Depot in San Diego: Sunday mornings you went to church services or had extra duties during them...
They had a Catholic Mass, a Protestant service, and some sort of provision for Jewish recruits even though it was the wrong day...
I'd usually go to the Protestant service (raised a Congregationalist but I was done with it by my early teens), but occasionally the Mass just for variety - I'm half Irish and half Italian, but it was the first time I'd ever attended a Catholic service.
That said,I remember one of my drill instructors dismissing the whole thing: "The Marine Corps is the last cult you'll ever need..."
Posted by: Patrick | July 28, 2008 1:51 PM
"If they gave everyone the day off and some chose to go to a religious event while others went and did whatever they wanted, that would be a different matter."
Typically, this is the case. Back in the day, when I was a Marine recruit, several Sundays were set aside for free time. Some recruits went to church and church-related activities. The rest, during that time, were free to write letters or generally goof off at the squad bay. Never any "extra duty" as Patrick alludes to above. Of course, I went to Parris Island, but I can't imagine that MCRD SD had a different system as everything, not just what you wear, is uniform.
Everyone understood that religious services were available and YES, that they are sponsored by or facilitated through the US government. I can't really be any other way during basic training. Hell, Gitmo terrorists aren't even denied religious accomodation and, in fact, are treated even better, with their special menu and all.
"As things stand, however, this is de facto coercion and a clear violation of the first amendment."
You can't make that leap Ed. Speaking from experience, things are pretty plainly laid out as to what choices recruits have during these down times. Patrick illuminates that fact above. Do we really think that Army recruits, INTELLIGENT ADULTS, don't realize that when they are given the choice to go to a religious event that religion will be discussed?
I am willing to bet that AU is creating smoke in the absence of fire here. So what if many recruits that CHOSE to attend these events and services become Christians? Are we to believe that these men and women have been forced to convert? Far-fetched.
Posted by: Chet Lemon | July 28, 2008 9:21 PM
Chet Lemon wrote:
It doesn't matter how plainly it's laid out, it's still unconstitutional. The government is clearly privileging religious exercises and punishing those who don't attend by making them work.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | July 28, 2008 10:16 PM
"The government is clearly privileging religious exercises and punishing those who don't attend by making them work."
Only if you assume that AU is accurately portraying the story.
I mentioned what went on when I went through Marine boot camp to demonstrate how these things usually work. Typically, if some recruits are given time off for religion-related activities, all recruits have down time. Not being a Christian at the time, I was one of the few recruits who declined to attend Sunday services and events and was never given additional duty. I was decidedly in the minority (about 3/4 of my platoon would attend when it was offered), but didn't get my skivvies in a bunch when others chose to go to service and was never confused about what the other recruits were doing and why.
Again, I don't know if I believe AU's entire account because I have "been there, done that," so I don't think it is as "clear" as you are convinced it is.
Posted by: Chet Lemon | July 30, 2008 6:19 PM
Chet Lemon wrote:
No, I don't have to assume that. I've seen the documentation on this and I know it's accurate. The AU is not the only one working on this, it's also part of the MRFF's research and I just happen to be friends with their research director so I often have access to a lot more information than most.
And so I'm supposed to ignore all of the documentation that proves this true because a commenter on my blog had a different experience at an entirely different place in a different branch of the military? Sorry, your experience does not affect the reality of what goes on in other places.
Well good for you. But since I've seen the evidence on this and you haven't, I think I'll just follow the evidence.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | July 30, 2008 6:45 PM