Christian Conservatives Ask Bush to Protect 'Muzzled' Chaplains

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Christian Conservatives Ask Bush to Protect 'Muzzled' Chaplains

By Adele M. Banks, Religion News Service, via BeliefNet, November 17, 2005

Political leaders and grass-roots petitioners have asked President Bush to issue an executive order that would allow chaplains to pray in public according to their religious beliefs.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington-based legal organization, is spearheading a petition drive signed by more than 80,000 people. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and dozens of members of Congress have made a similar request.

The requests come at a time when the Air Force faces legal action about alleged proselytism in its ranks. In addition, the Air Force recently released interim guidelines about religious expression, fueling concern among Christian conservatives that religious freedom is under assault.

Sekulow called the issue "one of the hottest topics" on his live call-in radio show this year.

"It's not just the guidelines issue," he said of the Air Force document. "It's an undercurrent inside the chaplaincy right now that has military chaplains feeling like they're muzzled."

Arthur Schulcz, a Vienna, Va.-based lawyer who represents evangelical chaplains and chaplains' organizations, said it is among the issues that have arisen in several lawsuits he is pursuing on behalf of chaplains who feel they have been subject to religious discrimination.

"They have been told not to pray according to their faith tradition and according to the dictates of their conscience," he said.

Military officials say a chaplain's speech should depend on his or her setting.

"The typical chaplain is able to function as he/she would in their native faith group setting the vast majority of the time," said Air Force Col. Richard K. Hum, the executive director of the Armed Forces Chaplains Board, in response to e-mailed questions. "The government cannot dictate to a chaplain how they should pray. ... But DoD (Department of Defense) directives require that chaplains be cognizant of the `pluralistic military environment."'

The Air Force guidelines, which could be finalized by year's end, have prompted additional concerns about what chaplains can and cannot do. Jones' letter to the president, which has been signed by 74 members of Congress, declares that the new guidelines will limit how Air Force chaplains can pray.

"Praying in the name of Jesus is a fundamental part of Christian belief and to suppress this form of expression would be a violation of religious freedom," Jones and others wrote in the Oct. 25 letter.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, expressed in a separate letter to Bush his concern about a section on chaplains in the Air Force guidelines, which reads in part: "They must be as sensitive to those who do not welcome offerings of faith, as they are generous in sharing their faith with those who do."

Said Brownback: "Dictating how they pray and approach religious discussion not only hampers this task, but is also government interference in the conduct of religious exercise of clergy."

The guidelines also state that "a brief, nonsectarian prayer" can be used in "nonroutine military ceremonies." Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said the Air Force may be "refining" that section for the future set of guidelines.

As it mulls the exact wording of the rules, the Air Force is facing a lawsuit from U.S. Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein who wants to halt what he considers unconstitutional evangelistic practices within its ranks, among chaplains and others.

His suit cited an Air Force deputy chief of chaplains who said chaplains would not proselytize but could evangelize the unchurched. The Air Force chaplains issued a code of ethics statement in January with similar wording. It differentiated between converting people of other faiths and evangelizing those who are "not affiliated" with any religion. Stephens said that statement was "withdrawn for further study" two months before Weinstein filed his suit.

The current wording in the military service's interim guidelines has prompted passionate written responses from various groups concerned about religion.

For example, the Presbyterian and Reformed Joint Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel, which includes the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, cautioned that the guidelines could be interpreted in such a way that "the chaplain is left to the role of a morale officer" rather than a faith group representative.

The International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers told Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne that proposed actions could "be perceived as hostility to religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids."

While conservative critics fear the guidelines will restrict chaplains, church-state separationists are hopeful that the eventual guidelines will clarify their permissible activities.

"I think it's unclear and that's led to part of the problem," said Rob Boston, a spokesman for Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

His organization wrote a seven-page response to the interim guidelines requesting clarifications that would forbid chaplains from "proselytizing individuals who subscribe to other faiths or who claim no religious faith."

Boston dismissed the petition drive as "a fund-raising ploy" for Sekulow's organization. "This is being portrayed as an attack on Christianity when, in fact, all we're really asking for is that the Air Force respect and accommodate all religious beliefs within its ranks and not extend preference to a group that happens to be the majority," he said.

Sekulow, on the other hand, views the drive as one related to freedom for the military and its chaplains.

"I think it's one of the most significant issues of religious freedom in our country," he said. "You've got chaplains afraid to say `in Jesus' name.' ... They're fighting for freedom abroad and this is a basic fundamental freedom here."

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