Colorado Springs Gazette - Air Force Refines Its Policy on Faith - Document Gives Chaplains More Leeway

February 10, 2006

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 More on this topic 
Revised guidelines 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 dont believe, youre 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 doesnt 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 dont 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. Weve 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 were 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 hadnt 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.