The Army is facing questions over a “spiritual fitness” portion of a mandatory questionnaire, with some atheists calling it “invidious and not inclusive” of soldiers who are nonbelievers.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation learned in December that soldiers were being asked to respond to statements such as “I am a spiritual person” and “I believe there is a purpose for my life.”
If soldiers received a low score on their spiritual fitness questions, they received an assessment that said “Spiritual fitness is an area of possible difficulty for you. … Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal.”
Perhaps they could have a statement that exempts atheists from the following “spiritual assessment”? As in, “I only acknowledge material existence. (Skip to question _.)” And, “I acknowledge more than material existence. (Please answer the following __ questions.)
Of course, the freedom from religion movement is quite evangelistic in its work and will only stop once they remove any but their religion of “non-religion”. The irony is doubtless lost on them.