Military Service

[NurseNell]

I've noticed that many fundie families express being patriotic, and tend of course to be very politically conservative. Yet I've yet to see any of the adult children serving in the military. What's up with that? I come from a liberal Catholic family and only my younger sister didn't serve. Our parents both served as did my brothers and me. I think it would be great experience for these adult sons and daughters still living at home to serve their country. Or how about the Peace Corps?

Nell

[CanadianHippie]

I heard mention on this site that Fundies view the US military to be too liberal and/or serving would be supporting an ungodly government. To me it just seems like another area in which they are all talk and very little action. Like helping out the less fortunate. They are only willing to do it if it suits their version of things.

[doggie]

there are fundies in the forces and they cause their own problems. fundies are starting to remind me a bit of the Taliban. They can live and enjoy everything America provides but still hate it and want to destroy the version they don't like. they love the benefits but don't support it.

[Guest Anonymous]

They may talk the talk, but they DON'T walk the walk. Joining one of the armed services would require them, for one thing, to stop talking patriotism and put their money (and lives) where their mouths are. There's also the prospect, for a fundie boy, that either his drill sergeant or commanding officer will be: Gay/Jewish/Muslim/Black/Latino/atheist or worst of all, FEMALE! These families don't want their speshul snowflakes corrupted by the ebil Army/Navy/Maries/Airforce, because they might just come home with a few of their assumptions loosened.

[hoipolloi]

The ones we snark on -- particularly Dougie, sons & sycophants -- love to dress up in military attire or film execrably bad re-enactments of things like the Normandy Landing, but would never in a million years dream of joining up themselves.

Actually, until the rescission of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, I'm not sure that Dougie could have gotten in to the military, or stayed in it! :banana-rainbow:

[VintageJen1984]

Some brands of fundie may be pacifists. (Amish, Anabaptist, Mennonites.) I don't consider myself anything close to fundie (actually the SBC church I grew up in is looking fundier and more reformed by the day and I'm considering moving my membership to a nearby Episcopal church, though at the moment I'm keeping my options open) and I could never serve in the armed forces because I believe as a Christian I should be a pacifist. I don't know a lot of people (certainly not those in my SBC church at all) who agree.

That being said, Meredith married a guy in the military, didn't she?

[clibbyjo]

Some brands of fundie may be pacifists. (Amish, Anabaptist, Mennonites.) I don't consider myself anything close to fundie (actually the SBC church I grew up in is looking fundier and more reformed by the day and I'm considering moving my membership to a nearby Episcopal church, though at the moment I'm keeping my options open) and I could never serve in the armed forces because I believe as a Christian I should be a pacifist. I don't know a lot of people (certainly not those in my SBC church at all) who agree.

That being said, Meredith married a guy in the military, didn't she?

Yes, but Meredith's husband Steven grew up UU and is college educated, so not a typical fundie from birth.

[debrand]

All though there are a lot of conservative Christians in the military, there aren't many extreme fundies. The military has both women and men in positions of power, it would be difficult to remain fundie under those circumstances.

I did know a fundie family when we were stationed in Mississippi. I've looked for them online several times. The girls all wore dresses and the mother had nine or ten kids. They were nice people and weren't as isolated as some of the fundies that we talk about on this site

I just thought of another factor limiting fundies in the military. The enlisted soldier isn't paid a lot. There are housing and medical benefits to make up for the low pay but it would be difficult to support a very large family on such a salary.

[fundiefan]

The gays can openly serve in the military! Who would put their precious gift from god in that environment?

Especially not when the young ones can stay home and bring in money by being a shining example of their parent's lives / success - thus, bringing mom & dad some cash. I'm thinking the standard families here; Maxwells, Dougie, Browns, Botkin's, etc...those who hold their children up as examples of their own perfect godliness; those who need their adult children in order to maintain their image - and their empire.

If any of Dougie's kids joined the military, his dress up days may come to an end. Can't pretend to be a real man when your offspring is actually doing it for realz and earned his uniform instead of buying it at the dress up shop.

[Katiebug]

My brother's in the military (don't forget the Coast Guard!). He enlisted at 17, right after high school, and has been in the service for 7 years. He spent a year deployed to Iraq, among other interesting things. He's a bit of an anomaly having made it to the ripe old age of 25 without marrying and having kids. He's mid-level enlisted and is politically conservative while remaining nominally a mainline Protestant (he's not much of a churchgoer). The most religious servicemembers he knows would be considered fundie lites, not fundies. There are a lot of nondenominational/megachurch goers as well as Southern Baptists, but that may be a function of where he's stationed in the South. There are plenty of servicemembers he knows who are politically liberal and not religious at all. He knows Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Wiccans, atheists, etc.

The military is not a bad gig for a fundie lite kind of guy who wants to be able to marry and have kids young, and to have traditional gender roles in the family. However religiously/morally a lot of fundies would not want to work in a fairly diverse environment - having to be subordinate to women, gays, those of other races, and those who are not Christian (much less the same brand of Christian). It's just too much of a culture shock.

The other services may have more conservative Christians - wasn't there an issue at the Air Force Academy a few years back where non-Christian cadets were harassed/the subject of aggressive proselytizing/forced to participate in religious activities by evangelical officers and senior cadets? I recall seeing a documentary about this on streaming Netflix a while back.

[maybeizfundie]

There are plenty of fundamentalists and conservative Christians in the military. VF and the Duggars are only one manifestation of fundamentalism, after all. It is curious though, that with all the hyper patriotism, there is so little actual service.

Some of the individual people who are snarked on here may be pacifist. I know quite a few who went "kooky fundy", who haven't fully joined anabaptism but did pick up on that particular belief. Even a few who left promising military careers (and lost many friends) because of this newfound belief.

My b-i-l comes from a super conservative Catholic family with a long history of military service, and is in the process of joining up. Big change for my sister and our family, as we traveled the anabaptist road for a long time.

[MonkeyMomma]

And why bother joining up when you can start your own creepy paramilitary "ministry" a la Bradrick.org? :roll:

[Guest Anonymous]

And why bother joining up when you can start your own creepy paramilitary "ministry" a la Bradrick.org? :roll:

AND be exempt from that icky old Constitution.

[Austin]

If they join the military, they might actually have to take orders from a woman. An ebil feminist woman of higher rank then they have, and their tiny penises would shrivel up and fall off.