At issue: Free speech, military chaplains

A free-speech rights group says there have been increasing reports from military chaplains claiming that military commanders are unjustly suppressing their worship services.

The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) has been working with Congressman Walter Jones (R-North Carolina) in urging President Bush to issue an executive order to protect the right of military chaplains to pray and worship according to their faith. ACLJ spokesman Colby May says unfortunately there are numerous reports of chaplains being ordered to restrict their prayers while on the front lines in Iraq.
 
"The forum of worship that they may learn from their tradition -- Baptist, Catholic, whatever -- are [sic] essentially being suppressed," says May. "[C]ommanders are asking that prayers not be in, for example, Jesus' name and that they otherwise sort of be 'non-denominational or not sectarian.'"
 
May contends that in many of these instances, chaplains believe this is infringing on their expression faith through their "ordaining body." He says chaplains, unlike regular soldiers, are assigned through their "ordaining agency," which means they bring their traditional worship practices with them.
 
"When the military says you can't do it, you can't pray in Jesus' name or whatever, these problems surface," the attorney explains. "So that's the kind of reports we're getting from members of the military as well as from members of Congress."
 
The ACLJ spokesman says the president needs to take action to put a stop to this government hostility against religion.

Commanders are asking but they can't order a chaplain to pray in a particular way...that would be an unlawful order...and we still have a few chaplains who think they are evangelists...that's not their job. The rules of the Chaplains' Corps have been clear for decades: tend to the religious needs of service members and do not allow our American religious practices to become an issue with a host nation people or government...every religious service I have attended while deployed has been dignified, focused on the soldier's needs and very comforting...and many touching military ceremonies I attended last year in Afghanistan -- Marine Corps Birthday, Army Birthday, recognitions and remembrances for fallen comrades, and others were opened and closed with prayers that ended in 'Jesus name.'

Me-thinks some of these activist chaplains are creating a tempest in a tiny teapot because their commanders recognize prosyletizing when they see it.