question about the military

[patrick1]

Interesting. Definitely contrary to what you would think. But The Heritage Foundation is a biased source and the numbers are pretty old. Could be interesting to see some new ones. Also the 75% identifying as whites in 2004 is in the entire population - not young people, which is the relevant demographic here.

How is the Heritage  Foundation biased when it comes to military demographics?

It is general orthodoxy in some quarters that the military uses the poor and minorities as cannon fodder.  This myth dates back to Vietnam, when the economic angle certainly had some elements of truth but the minority one didn't and doesn't. Anything that points out that these assumptions are wrong, as demonstrated by dead0, are called biased.

[patrick1]

People in the military are also much less like to be evangelical Christians than the general public, although this is not true for the chaplains.

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/article_19c66ee6-82b8-59f7-b3d5-fd3cc05bc538.html

Indeed another common missconception.  I certainly run into more atheist/agnostics than I do Holy Rollers.  And the few "churchy" people I have run into have been the crazy nice, not too preachy types.  That's not to say there haven't been cases where ugly things happened in the name of the Lord, but they are few and far between and are career enders when the sh**t hits the fan (and it always does).

Since you were in the Chair Force maybe you can answer me this:  I've read that the USAF officer cadre, particularly those from the academy, has an inordinate amount (esp. in relation to the other branches)  of evangelicals. Any truth to that?