Posted: Nov 17, 2014 11:59 pm
This is what I wrote:
Hello,
I participated in last week's field exercise for the 39th HG Battalion. The official closing ceremony was a mostly nice event, with the band, medals and promotions. However, there was a feature that I found highly dubious, and it was the service. There were a hymn, a sermon, prayer and a blessing. It was certainly a nice initiative for the handful of believeing Christians present, but for me, and most likely the majority, it was slightly offensive, or at least irrelevant. I hope we do not experience anything similar in the future, and I base this on the following:
1) Since 1/1 2000, church and state are separate. The Armed Forces shall, as part of the state, not favor any particular creed.
2) The Armed Forces' written policy on equality from 2012 to 2014 (16 100:54891), page 16, states that:
"[The commanding officer is responsible to] ensure that personnel can freely practice their faith and be given the opportunity to celebrate religious holidays, which also includes the freedom from religious practices, celebrations and ceremonies"
Regarding the latter point, Sunday's (16/11 2014) prayers can be seen as a violation of the right of those present to not participate in religious ceremonies, especially as they weren't given any option. Practitioners of other religions and atheists had a Lutheran ceremony inflicted on them, without the option to leave. If this is repeated, I will see myself forced to take it to higher authorities, but I hope that the whole thing was a mistake and that the current regulations will be followed in the future.
With kind regards,
(signed)
Soldier, 391st Home Guard Company