Scriptorium Daily
In the late twentieth-century certain secularists had to be banned from service in the armed forces. These men and women had committed themselves to communism and their loyalty was incompatible with the oath they swore to defend the United States.
The problem with these secularists was not that they put their individual conscience above loyalty to the state. It is an American tradition to limit the amount of loyalty we owe the government. We love our nation, but not more than anything. Our pledge of allegiance was even given a disqualifier during the Cold War to make this clear. We are one nation, under God.
During the Cold War, a secularist willing to go along with the general rules of the republic was fit to serve even with views most Americans found wrong-headed. Secularism, like any sensible religious or philosophical point of view, limited their loyalty to the state to the demands of reason, but secularism was a disqualifier if the individual secularist had already decided to side with the declared enemies of the United States.
One can marvel at the boldness, though not admire the morality or wisdom, of an American who sides with the Soviet Union, but need not give that man a commission in the Armed Forces of the United States.
In the same way, Christians serve Christ before they bow the knee to Caesar. It is God and then country, but there is nothing new in that. One reason, in fact, that American Christians traditionally have favored small government is that it minimizes the chances of moral conflict.
If there was a group of Christians who hated our republic and decided to undermine the Constitution, then these Christians could not serve. They are citizens still, protected by their freedom of religion and of speech, but they should not be armed by the state. Fortunately, such people have been very rare in more than two hundred years of American history.
All religious and non-religious groups can and must be treated the same way. It would be frightening to have citizen soldiers who placed the fatherland uber alles, but we must not have soldiers who have already decided our present mission is intolerable and who have sided with our foes.
It is not, therefore, un-American or disturbing that our fellow Muslim citizens place loyalty to God before loyalty to the state. In fact, it is a very American thing to do!
The same sensible guidelines must apply, however, to Islamic soldiers as apply to secularists and Christians. The armed forces of the United States should make every effort to accommodate religious or cultural practices when they are compatible with the mission. Failure to do so denies our most basic ideals. It is why the armed forces has chaplains of all faiths and of no faith and should continue this wise practice.
We know the bad results produced by failure to accommodate difference or reacting out of fear and not reason. Sadly, during the Second World War, Americans of Japanese ancestry were treated in a shameful way. Though some were allowed to serve in the armed forces and fought bravely, citizens were also denied civil rights and sent to relocation camps. This wicked overreaction was based on fears of a tiny minority of Japanese-Americans who might have been more loyal to Japanese ideals than to America.
In our present situation it is not irrational to believe that some Muslim-Americans may be hostile to the United States, but we must not overreact. Simultaneously, we must not refuse to deal with clear and present danger out of some over-developed sensitivity. The Fort Hood traitor appears to be an example of a man allowed to serve who should have been expelled.
It is stupid to pretend that there are not millions of Islamic people, including a few in the United States, who have embraced a twisted form of Islam utterly incompatible with the values of our republic. If one believes that Islamic courts, for example, should be imposed on this nation, then his views make him unfit to serve. If he sides with our enemies, the terrorists, in the war in which we are engaged, his views make him unfit to serve.
He may remain a citizen with all the rights to freedom of speech, but it is foolish to give him training in and use of a gun. Of course, even traitors remain human beings and so they must be treated with the dignity that God has given to each man. They cannot be tortured and they must be given a fair trial.
Muslim citizens have been and are loyal members of this nation. They have served capably in the past and will do so in the future. Sadly, just as was the case with secularists during the Cold War, they will have to endure increased scrutiny since a substantial minority of their fellows has turned against American values.
This time will pass, and if the United States has dealt justly with her Islamic citizens we will be able to look back on this period with pride.
