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February 10, 2006
Air Force refines its policy on faith
Document gives chaplains more leeway in
ministering
By Tom
Roeder, The Gazette
New Air Force religion guidelines issued Thursday give
chaplains the right to refuse orders that violate their beliefs.
Guidelines issued last summer required chaplains to minister to people
of all faiths in a nondenominational setting, causing an outcry from
evangelical groups that wanted their clerics to promote Christianity.
The new rules appeased those groups by allowing evangelicals to
“adhere to their tenets,” and only participate in religious activities
that comply with their beliefs.
The Air Force also dropped a provision requiring chaplains to respect
the rights of all faiths and nonbelievers.
The changes displeased civil rights groups that supported a prior set
of rules issued to address claims that began last year of religious
discrimination at the Air Force Academy.
“The rules show that if you don’t believe, you’re a second-class
member of the U.S. Air Force,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of
the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for the Separation of
Church and State.
“This document reads like a bill of rights for chaplains,” Lynn said.
“It doesn’t deal with the fact that a lot of nonbelievers exist in the
Air Force.”
Evangelicals said the changes will allow their members to proselytize
and to refuse to give nondenominational prayers.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for
Law and Justice, said Lynn is right about the new rules giving
chaplains more freedom.
And that made his group happy.
“We think this is an important and positive move by the Air Force,”
said Sekulow, whose Washington, D.C.-based group gathered more than
200,000 signatures on a petition to protest a requirement in the
previous guidelines that all chaplains had to give nondenominational
prayers at public events.
The revised rules still ban officers from using their rank to convert
subordinates and caution chaplains against most work-place prayer.
Bruce DeBoskey of Denver, regional director for the Antidefamation
League, said the new rules lack a strong statement against
discrimination and don’t put limits on evangelism.
“We thought the interim guidelines were a positive step,” he said.
“This is a significant step backwards.”
Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens, however, said the interim
rules and the new rules are essentially the same, with the revisions
just adding clarity.
“The basic intent of the guidelines has not changed from the first
version,” Stephens wrote in an e-mail. “We’ve also changed language
where comments indicated that the original language had been
misunderstood.”
The new religion guidelines caution Air Force members about pressing
their beliefs, but they allow room for some proselytizing.
“Nothing in this guidance should be seen to limit the substance of
voluntary discussions of religion, or the exercise of free speech,
where it is reasonably clear the discussions are personal, not
official, and they can be reasonably free of the potential for or
appearance of coercion,” the one-page set of rules reads.
The Air Force Academy, which was investigated by the Pentagon last
year after claims that commanders and chaplains proselytized and used
rank to push Christian beliefs, issued a statement supporting the new
rules.
“We welcome the revised guidelines and — while we’re already in
compliance with them — will continue to refine and improve all of our
programs encouraging and supporting religious respect among everyone
at the Air Force Academy, staff and cadets alike,” spokesman John Van
Winkle said in an e-mail.
The investigation of the academy concluded that, while commanders at
the school had been insensitive, they hadn’t discriminated.
Academy graduate Mikey Weinstein filed suit against the Air Force last
fall claiming that non-Christian cadets faced religious discrimination
at the school. Weinstein wants an outright ban on uninvited
proselytizing in the service.
The Air Force contests his claim, which is pending in U.S. District
Court in New Mexico. |
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