Stargazer Posted July 25, 2019 Posted July 25, 2019 In the Name of the Church thread, some question came up as to what "religious preference" military ID tags carried as to the name of the church. Back on June 29 I messaged a FB friend whose husband was still on active duty with the question (didn't message him, cuz he's in some hush-hush unit and either isn't allowed or chooses not to use FB). Anyway, she didn't see my message until today, but now I have the answer for those of you who are still interested. This goes for the US Army only, but I suspect the other services are similar. Her response was to find an appropriate page on www.army.mil, which has this text, written by a military chaplain: "Service members can generally put whatever religious preference they want on their tags, including "Atheist" or "Agnostic." Some even ask for "Jedi" or "Druid." There is no list of official or approved religions--after all, that would constitute government endorsement of a particular religion." So you can ask to have LDS, MORMON, LATTER-DAY SAINT, COJCOLDS or whatever suits your fancy! Mine just said LDS. 3
smac97 Posted July 25, 2019 Posted July 25, 2019 Mine said "Latter Day Saint." I also had a separate tag that I wore: Thanks, -Smac 2
Kenngo1969 Posted July 25, 2019 Posted July 25, 2019 Reminds me of the Star Trek movie in which Kirk and Spock go back to Earth. Hoping to head off any comments about Spock's strange apprearance and demeanor, Kirk says, "Don't mind him. He was part of the Free Speech movement at Berkeley in the '60s. He did a little too much LDS."* *"Free speech"? On a college campus, of all places? Why, that's just crazy talk! Now, even if we merely think that the wrong person has been invited to speak (we don't care what s/he was actually gonna say!) we'll burn the sucker down!
Scott Lloyd Posted July 25, 2019 Posted July 25, 2019 13 hours ago, Stargazer said: In the Name of the Church thread, some question came up as to what "religious preference" military ID tags carried as to the name of the church. Back on June 29 I messaged a FB friend whose husband was still on active duty with the question (didn't message him, cuz he's in some hush-hush unit and either isn't allowed or chooses not to use FB). Anyway, she didn't see my message until today, but now I have the answer for those of you who are still interested. This goes for the US Army only, but I suspect the other services are similar. Her response was to find an appropriate page on www.army.mil, which has this text, written by a military chaplain: "Service members can generally put whatever religious preference they want on their tags, including "Atheist" or "Agnostic." Some even ask for "Jedi" or "Druid." There is no list of official or approved religions--after all, that would constitute government endorsement of a particular religion." So you can ask to have LDS, MORMON, LATTER-DAY SAINT, COJCOLDS or whatever suits your fancy! Mine just said LDS. LDS or COJCOLDS would not be consistent with current guidelines, which discourage the use of abbreviations in the name of the Church.
Stargazer Posted July 26, 2019 Author Posted July 26, 2019 16 hours ago, smac97 said: Mine said "Latter Day Saint." I also had a separate tag that I wore: Thanks, -Smac Yep, I had these, too. Not govt issue, of course.
Stargazer Posted July 26, 2019 Author Posted July 26, 2019 7 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said: LDS or COJCOLDS would not be consistent with current guidelines, which discourage the use of abbreviations in the name of the Church. Well, yer not gonna get the whole durn thang on those itzy bits of metal, are ya? 2
MustardSeed Posted July 26, 2019 Posted July 26, 2019 5 hours ago, Stargazer said: Well, yer not gonna get the whole durn thang on those itzy bits of metal, are ya? Dog tag the size of Flava Flav’s clock coming right up for ya
Stargazer Posted July 26, 2019 Author Posted July 26, 2019 Well, I decided to ask the Military Relations people the question of what should go on the dog tags! What a concept! Ask! The person who read my email thought I had written because I was active duty or enlisting, even though I was careful to explain that this wasn't the case. So take that into account. Here's the text of the email they sent me: Hello Bro. Stargazer, Thanks for reaching out with your question about dog tags and respecting the change in name which President Nelson has asked us to observe. You can ask your military unit to inscribe “CH Jesus Christ” (without the quote marks but with the spaces) on the dog tag. If you have “LDS” or “Mormon” and your unit won’t replace your dog tag, that won’t be an issue. If you are just coming into the military or your unit will replace your tag, please use the new designation. So, there we are! 2
smac97 Posted July 26, 2019 Posted July 26, 2019 13 hours ago, Stargazer said: Yep, I had these, too. Not govt issue, of course. Ah, the memories of the chain attached to that little medallion snagging on and pulling out my chest hair. That's an eye-watering recollection.
Scott Lloyd Posted July 26, 2019 Posted July 26, 2019 13 hours ago, Stargazer said: Well, yer not gonna get the whole durn thang on those itzy bits of metal, are ya? “Latter-day Saint” should fit OK.
pogi Posted July 26, 2019 Posted July 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Stargazer said: “CH Jesus Christ” (without the quote marks but with the spaces) A Bickertonite?
LoudmouthMormon Posted July 26, 2019 Posted July 26, 2019 My father was a WWII vet. When he was setting his affairs in order around 2004-ish, he arranged for his own funeral at the veterans cemetery in Santa Fe NM. He tells me they hauled out a big book of all the different religious iconography he could pick for his headstone, and he had to argue for a full 45 minutes with three different people to select none of them. Next time you go to a vets cemetery, check out how many of them have no faith indication. You won't see many. Grandpa LM, however, won the fight that day.
Stargazer Posted July 26, 2019 Author Posted July 26, 2019 48 minutes ago, LoudmouthMormon said: My father was a WWII vet. When he was setting his affairs in order around 2004-ish, he arranged for his own funeral at the veterans cemetery in Santa Fe NM. He tells me they hauled out a big book of all the different religious iconography he could pick for his headstone, and he had to argue for a full 45 minutes with three different people to select none of them. Next time you go to a vets cemetery, check out how many of them have no faith indication. You won't see many. Grandpa LM, however, won the fight that day. As my late wife is in a National Cemetery (courtesy of my service), I visit her when I can, and there is definitely an abundance of symbols. I can't remember seeing any without a symbol, but I don't think I was looking for it. Who'd he argue with, anyway? The cemetery, or the funeral home folks? Seems a pointless thing for them to argue over, whoever it was. I wonder if they allow the FSM? OK, just checked, and that would be a NO. Here's the list of allowable belief emblems: https://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hmm/emblems.asp 1
Bill “Papa” Lee Posted July 26, 2019 Posted July 26, 2019 (edited) On 7/25/2019 at 5:09 AM, Stargazer said: In the Name of the Church thread, some question came up as to what "religious preference" military ID tags carried as to the name of the church. Back on June 29 I messaged a FB friend whose husband was still on active duty with the question (didn't message him, cuz he's in some hush-hush unit and either isn't allowed or chooses not to use FB). Anyway, she didn't see my message until today, but now I have the answer for those of you who are still interested. This goes for the US Army only, but I suspect the other services are similar. Her response was to find an appropriate page on www.army.mil, which has this text, written by a military chaplain: "Service members can generally put whatever religious preference they want on their tags, including "Atheist" or "Agnostic." Some even ask for "Jedi" or "Druid." There is no list of official or approved religions--after all, that would constitute government endorsement of a particular religion." So you can ask to have LDS, MORMON, LATTER-DAY SAINT, COJCOLDS or whatever suits your fancy! Mine just said LDS. Mine say, and I still wear them almost all the time, “LDS/Mormon”, as did many members. Of course that was 40 years ago, when I joined while living in Germany, and asked my Branch President what he had on his. Before that they said, “Southern Baptist”. Edited July 26, 2019 by Bill “Papa” Lee
Scott Lloyd Posted July 26, 2019 Posted July 26, 2019 19 minutes ago, Stargazer said: As my late wife is in a National Cemetery (courtesy of my service), I visit her when I can, and there is definitely an abundance of symbols. I can't remember seeing any without a symbol, but I don't think I was looking for it. Who'd he argue with, anyway? The cemetery, or the funeral home folks? Seems a pointless thing for them to argue over, whoever it was. I wonder if they allow the FSM? OK, just checked, and that would be a NO. Here's the list of allowable belief emblems: https://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hmm/emblems.asp I see you only have to go down about five symbols to find Moroni. What’s the argument about?
The Nehor Posted July 26, 2019 Posted July 26, 2019 4 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said: I see you only have to go down about five symbols to find Moroni. What’s the argument about? I do not see a Cthulhu symbol.
LoudmouthMormon Posted July 27, 2019 Posted July 27, 2019 15 hours ago, Stargazer said: Who'd he argue with, anyway? The cemetery, or the funeral home folks? He argued with 2 levels of bureaucrats who had a form with a blank line on it, when it needed a number on it. Not sure if they were funeral home, cemetery, or military, such folks exist everywhere. Their daily grind for years consisted of getting handed a piece of paper with a line with a number on it, and they'd go write the number somewhere else or type it into a computer somewhere. No number meant they couldn't do their job, which meant something was wrong. I'm sure you know the type, especially having been in the military, yes? 1
Scott Lloyd Posted July 28, 2019 Posted July 28, 2019 On 7/26/2019 at 2:08 PM, Stargazer said: Well, I decided to ask the Military Relations people the question of what should go on the dog tags! What a concept! Ask! The person who read my email thought I had written because I was active duty or enlisting, even though I was careful to explain that this wasn't the case. So take that into account. Here's the text of the email they sent me: Hello Bro. Stargazer, Thanks for reaching out with your question about dog tags and respecting the change in name which President Nelson has asked us to observe. You can ask your military unit to inscribe “CH Jesus Christ” (without the quote marks but with the spaces) on the dog tag. If you have “LDS” or “Mormon” and your unit won’t replace your dog tag, that won’t be an issue. If you are just coming into the military or your unit will replace your tag, please use the new designation. So, there we are! QED.
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