August 29, 2005
The Air Force issued new religion guidelines to its commanders today that caution against promoting any particular faith - or even "the idea of religion over nonreligion" - in official communications or during meetings, sports events or ceremonies.
The guidelines discourage public prayers at official Air Force events or meetings other than worship services - one of the most contentious issues for many commanders. But the guidelines allow for "a brief nonsectarian prayer" at special ceremonies such as those honoring promotions or in "extraordinary circumstances" such as "mass casualties, preparation for imminent combat, and natural disasters."
The Air Force developed the guidelines after receiving complaints from cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs that evangelical Christians in leadership positions were using their positions to promote their faith.
The new guidelines apply not just to the Academy, but to the entire Air Force. They will be completed later this year when Air Force generals meet and consider any recommendations they hear from their commanders.
"We support free exercise of religion, but we do not push religion," said Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, a Navy veteran who was hired this year as a special assistant to the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force and who helped write the guidelines. "I think many of the people I spoke to maybe should have known this already, but they were operating based on misperceptions."
He said that some Air Force members he had spoken with "mistakenly assumed" that because the military encourages "spiritual strength as a pillar of leadership," they were given license to promote strong belief in Christianity within the military.
Two Congressional Democrats who had criticized the Air Force Academy, Steve Israel of New York and Lois Capps of California, cautiously welcomed the guidelines.
"It's actually a refreshing acknowledgment by the Air Force that it had real problems that needed to be corrected. It's a good step forward," said Representative Israel, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
But one Academy graduate who is an outspoken critic, Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, said the guidelines meant nothing because the Air Force refused to discipline officers who overstepped the boundaries. "All this does is increase the level of confusion," he said.
The guidelines try to balance the Constitutional guarantee of free religious expression with Constitutional limits on government endorsement of religion.
The guidelines say, "Supervisors, commanders and leaders at every level bear a special responsibility to ensure their words and actions cannot reasonably be construed as either official endorsement or disapproval of the decisions of individuals to hold particular religious beliefs or to hold no religious beliefs."
Some of the guidelines remind commanders of the need to accommodate the rights of Air Force members to practice their religion, either with the clothes they wear or the foods they eat, or by having time off to attend worship services or to observe holy days. "Requests for accommodation should be approved except when precluded by military necessity," the guidelines say.
Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady, Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel, said the military's religious diversity is one of its greatest strengths "at a time when many nations are torn apart by religious strife."
B. Jessie Hill, an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law who has studied religious expression in government institutions, said the guidelines are "an attempt to comply with what's constitutionally required and may even go beyond what's required."
For example, the United States Supreme Court has in the past, upheld military prohibitions on wearing religious headgear, like a Jewish yarmulke, Professor Hill said. "It seems like there's room to argue here that the Air Force is holding itself to a higher standard" by permitting more religious expression than it even needs to.
She added, "What will be interesting is to see how it's put into practice."
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