By Rebecca LaFlure
Killeen Daily Herald

Some may look at retired 1st Sgt. Kathleen Johnson's 21-year military career and assume she stands by the tenets, "For God and country."

With duty stations spanning from South Korea to Iraq, Johnson said she's always served her country – just leave God out of it.

Thirteen years ago, Johnson, 43, founded the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers. What began as three people conversing online has since grown to 1,500 members nationwide.

Johnson, a Copperas Cove resident, went on to create a Fort Hood chapter in 2007 that provides local military atheists with an open forum to socialize, vent and learn from one another.

"If there's one thing church groups get right is fellowship," Johnson said. "Everyone wants to be around people who are like them."

Six of the group's 28 members met at Johnson's house Feb. 15 to catch up and discuss topics ranging from Richard Dawkins' latest book on evolution to Big Foot sightings.

Members welcomed home Cpl. Paul Brickey, 26, who recently returned from Iraq. Brickey has two dog tags -- one that identifies himself as an atheist and the other a militant Jedi.

"I used to be like, 'Eh, who needs an atheist group? What we going to do? Get together and not pray?'" Brickey said. "Then I thought it'd be cool to meet like-minded people. … To be able to express that I'm an atheist, especially in the military, is great."

Brickey and the other soldiers who attended this month's event represent the more than 23 percent of active-duty military personnel who identify themselves as non religious, according to 2009 report from the Defense Man Power Data Center. They outnumber Catholics, Evangelists, Buddhists, Muslims and Jews.

Despite the numbers, members of the MAAF say there is a stigma tied to being an atheist in the military, particularly in a post-Sept. 11 America that links serving God and country to patriotism.

"For every one person here," Brickey said, "there's a dozen who aren't here, afraid it'll be a career killer."

This stigma is what spurred Johnson to create a group for non-theist service members.

Johnson, who was raised "vaguely Christian," said she came to accept her religious belief–or disbelief--at about 10 years old.

"I'm pretty sure I was an atheist, even as a child. … I always asked uncomfortable questions," Johnson said. "I kept going up to the front of the church to get saved, but … I didn't feel it. After three to four times, I realized that was it."

Johnson joined the Army in 1986 and remained largely apathetic about her religious skepticism until her battalion's commanding officer in Korea threatened to downgrade soldiers' evaluations if they did not support her spiritual mission.

"She said it was our duty to see to soldiers' spiritual fitness and bring them to the light of Christ," Johnson said. "That was the last straw."

That day Johnson went to the library and searched for an organization dedicated to military atheists. When she saw there was none, she created her own.

Now vice president of the national American Atheists and president of Fort Hood's local military atheist chapter, Johnson organizes pizza socials, film viewings and other outings to connect local atheist and agnostic soldiers in the area.

"My other friends argue about which is better, Bud Light or Coors Light. That's as sophisticated as it gets," Johnson said as members participated in a discussion about the problem of evil argument. "This is refreshing."

Staff Sgt. Neil Moody, 25, attended the meeting with his wife, Spc. Megan Moody, 28. Raised in a fundamentalist Christian family, his mother pulled him out of public school at a young age and began to teach him from home to take the focus off secular subjects.

Moody said he read the Bible habitually, memorizing pages at a time, and considered becoming a minister.

"I really believed the whole thing, but I didn't feel like I was supposed to feel," Moody said. "I felt something was wrong with me."

After high school, Moody began to explore other religions and quickly jumped from one to another. He eventually settled on deism, a belief that a supreme being created the universe but does not intervene in human affairs.

"I then realized that I had come up with a God who was exactly the same as one who didn't exist," he said. "I decided to shed everything away."

At 21, Moody, stationed in Germany, said he finally came to terms that he did not believe in a higher power.

"There was a lot of fear," he said. "If I let go of belief and I'm wrong, I could go to hell."

Moody became a member of MAAF and began attending local meetings when he came to Fort Hood. He said the open environment the group offers is what attracted him to the meetings.

"It's kind of fun just to talk with people about movies and books and know it's not going to end in some awkward screaming match," Moody said.

During the meeting, members–spanning all ages, backgrounds and political ideologies–sat on large couches in Johnson's living room and discussed–often jokingly–the misconceptions they say many have about atheists.

They said atheists don't worship the devil or "St. Darwin," and aren't inherently angry people from broken homes.

They stressed that they do not dislike religion and aren't afraid of criticism. Instead, they welcome a solid debate.

"I'm as angry at God as I am at goblins," Brickey said. "And while it makes for good metal (music), I disbelieve in the devil just as much as God."

Johnson, however, said the largest misconception is that being an atheist makes her less American–a particularly painful sting for the Army veteran.

"Patriotism and believing in God are not linked," Johnson said. "We've always served."

Contact Rebecca LaFlure at rlaflure@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7548. Follow her on Twitter at KDHeducation.

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