A Victory for Military Chaplains

For the past year and a half, our Office of Government Affairs at the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) has been working on behalf of military chaplains throughout the country and around the world in order to protect their right of freedom of speech. 

Regulations issued in 2000 and 2005 by the military significantly curtailed the ability of chaplains to pray according to the dictates of their conscience.  The issue became so significant that chaplains began contacting our office and the office of Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) and others expressing their concern over this censorship.  In case after case, chaplains were told not to pray in Jesus name or to refrain from using a specific deity.  It reached such a point of concern that legislation was necessary to end this censorship and discrimination.

On Capitol Hill, our government affairs team, as well as our senior attorneys, worked on legislation with Congressmen Jones, Todd Akin (R-MO), and Duncan Hunter (R-CA) to draft language into the Defense Authorization Bill that would have protected the chaplains right to pray.  There was opposition to this free speech initiative.  Nevertheless, the House leadership stood firm on this issue.  The legislation passed overwhelmingly in the House and was on its way for approval when a roadblock appeared in the Senate.  We mobilized our members from around the country to demand that these chaplains be protected.  By radio, television and email, we pursued an aggressive strategy to protect the right of military chaplains to pray.  Despite the Senate roadblock, I am happy to report an important albeit temporary victory for our chaplains.

While the Senate did not adopt the language that we helped negotiate in the House version, it did include a provision in the measure which rolled back the existing regulations that served as the basis for the censorship.  These regulations issued by the Air Force and the Navy became the foundation from which these acts of censorship took place. 

In a temporary victory, Congress rolled back those regulations that were causing the difficulty for the chaplains and reinstated earlier regulations that were more protective of the free exercise of religion.

At the same time, the ACLJ examined this issue from a legal perspective.  In providing the Air Force with a legal analysis of proposed guidelines which would have restricted how Air Force chaplains can pray, we concluded that Air Force chaplains and all military chaplains have a constitutional right to pray according to their faith.  We recommended that the Air Force abide by legal precedent which supports the constitutionality of faith-specific prayer for military chaplains.

What happens now?   Debate on military chaplains begins anew.  We are intensifying efforts to ensure that the temporary victory achieved in Congress in the fall of 2006 becomes permanent in 2007.

Congress has said that it will revisit this issue fully in January or February when the 110th Congress gets underway.  There will be major hearings on this issue in both the House and Senate examining the prayer issue in great detail.  We are already preparing for these hearings and will engage this issue fully as hearings ramp up.

For now, we along with members of Congress recognize the fact that the temporary victory is important and a significant accomplishment. 

As Congressman Todd Akin put it, I am happy that we have taken a step towards restoring the freedom that our military chaplains ought to enjoy, referring to the temporary Congressional victory.  While I would have liked stronger language protecting the religious freedom of chaplains, this legislation is a first step forward in protecting the First Amendment rights of chaplains and all the men and women serving our country in the military, said Akin.

We concur.  And, at the American Center for Law and Justice, we remain committed to ensuring that legislation passes in 2007 that will provide a permanent solution guaranteeing that the constitutional rights of our military chaplains are protected once and for all.