By OPHELIA BENSON - BUTTERFLIES AND WHEELS
Added: Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:20:05 UTC

I already typed this into YouTube’s description, so forgive the 3rd person narrative.

The Chaplain respectfully leaves off “so help me god” for the deployed atheist soldier’s re-enlistment ceremony.

Chaplain (Colonel) Strohm is overseeing Sergeant Justin Griffith’s re-enlistment ceremony. The Chaplain is a devout Christian with decades of active-duty service.

Sergeant Griffith is the Military Director for American Atheists, and is also spear-heading the groundbreaking atheist-themed festival ‘Rock Beyond Belief’ featuring Richard Dawkins at Fort Bragg, NC in 2012. He even coined the phrase “There are no chaplains in foxholes.”

Despite all of this, these two are staunch allies – friends, even – and serve proudly as such.

This is an unheard of situation for many reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that a chaplain of such high rank is enthusiastically building this bridge. There are only a few chaplains with higher rank in the entire military.

This moment is potentially historic.
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TAGGED: ATHEISM, ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE, SECULARISM