Gothic.net Community - View Single Post - Woman denied US citizenship for being an atheist.

Saya · 06-15-2013, 07:49 PM

Its funny because I was thinking of that argument about religious privilege because you told me there was laws that atheists can't run for office in certain counties, but then I recently found out that they're really old laws that legally cannot be enforced due to a Supreme Court case in the sixties, and not only that actually apply to anyone who does not believe in the Christian God specifically, so Hindus and Wiccans and Buddhists, etc would be affected as well.

And this is actually something that has affect religious people. During the Vietnam War Muslims could not use the conscientious objector since the concept of jihad even exists, to Christian opinion, means that no Muslim is a pacifist. To claim conscientious objector status you had to belong to a sect that very specifically and officially would say that war is wrong and no believers should ever take up arms (like Mennonites). A professor of mine who is a veteran tried to use the fact he was Catholic to resist being drafted but it didn't work.

Current law does state that religious reasons are not needed. That I can find, this is not actually a rule: http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/S...0-0-44067.html This one is specifically for immigrants and very specifically says atheists are not excluded: http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/S...0-0-49904.html

You DO need to back up your statements. She said " my lifelong spiritual/religious beliefs impose on me a duty of conscience not to contribute to warfare by taking up arms", so she's being asked to back that up.

06-15-2013, 07:49 PM	#2
Saya Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 9,548	Its funny because I was thinking of that argument about religious privilege because you told me there was laws that atheists can't run for office in certain counties, but then I recently found out that they're really old laws that legally cannot be enforced due to a Supreme Court case in the sixties, and not only that actually apply to anyone who does not believe in the Christian God specifically, so Hindus and Wiccans and Buddhists, etc would be affected as well. And this is actually something that has affect religious people. During the Vietnam War Muslims could not use the conscientious objector since the concept of jihad even exists, to Christian opinion, means that no Muslim is a pacifist. To claim conscientious objector status you had to belong to a sect that very specifically and officially would say that war is wrong and no believers should ever take up arms (like Mennonites). A professor of mine who is a veteran tried to use the fact he was Catholic to resist being drafted but it didn't work. Current law does state that religious reasons are not needed. That I can find, this is not actually a rule: http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/S...0-0-44067.html This one is specifically for immigrants and very specifically says atheists are not excluded: http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/S...0-0-49904.html You DO need to back up your statements. She said " my lifelong spiritual/religious beliefs impose on me a duty of conscience not to contribute to warfare by taking up arms", so she's being asked to back that up.