by Jordan Elias

Created on: March 31, 2010   Last Updated: April 02, 2010

Do not pray for me, America.

You will not vote for me for public office, but you will let me fight your battles.  You will not let me teach your children, but you will let me protect them.  You will not listen when I speak, but expect me to hang on your every word.  You will question my morality, call me a sinner or worse, but will not see moral hypocrisy or the sins of your people.  You call me irresponsible, misguided, unaccountable, but you are wrong.  I am accountable to the world I live in, and whether you see it or not ... so are you.

I am a husband, a father, a brother, a son, a friend, a teacher, a student, an American Soldier about to spend a year apart from my loved ones on your behalf.  Because you will not fight your own battles or stand up to be the role model you expect others to be.  I will spend a year apart from my loved ones not because I hate the enemy or because I love my country; only because my country offers me no other way to support myself or those who depend on me.

And I will fight on your behalf, against my own judgment and principles.  When I come home some will call me a hero.  But if those people really knew me they would condemn me to burn for eternity.   I am an atheist.   I am an atheist fighting for a nation that openly despises me for my ideology.  Because I do not share in the mythos of society's accepted religions I am hated, feared, ridiculed.  Because I put my faith in the physical, present world I am called a heretic.  But through all of this I am still here, fighting, struggling, caring, loving ... accountable for my actions, responsible for myself and those who count on me.

Someday maybe this Christian nation will see the millions of atheists for what they are - responsible, caring American citizens.  Someday maybe you will vote for me for public office.  Someday maybe I will be allowed to teach your children.  Someday maybe you will listen when I speak.  Someday maybe we will all acknowledge that we are first accountable to each other.

But for now I remain a devoted husband and father, a loving son, brother, and friend, a lifelong student and teacher, and conflicted American Soldier.  I will do my duty on your behalf, alongside my brothers and sisters at arms.  Not because I expect anything from you in return.  Only because I am accountable for my actions in this world.  Do not pray for me, America.

I am an atheist.

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