Air Force Takes Giant Step Back
by TChris
As reported here, here, and here, the Air Force Academy took some well deserved heat for allowing religious extremists to proselytize while expressing intolerance of other religious views held by cadets. The controversy sprouted a lawsuit, and the Academy rescinded a code of ethics for chaplains that endorsed their right to evangelize those who weren't already affiliated with a religious body.
The evangelical right reacted with outrage to a perceived attack on Christianity. In response, the Air Force caved, "dropping a requirement for chaplains to respect others' rights to their own beliefs and no longer cautioning top officers about promoting their personal religious views." The new rules permit superior officers to lecture cadets about religion so long as it is "reasonably clear" that they are speaking personally, not officially. The new rules emphasize the vitality of the free exercise clause while undermining the protections afforded by the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Chaplains and superior officers, like everyone else, have a constitutionally protected right to freely exercise their religion. But government-provided chaplains and military officers who work for a government academy aren't free to ignore the establishment clause, which prohibits the government's endorsement or advancement of religion. Permitting proselytizing by a superior officer amounts to a government endorsement of the officer's belief, even if the officer thinks it is "reasonably clear" that he's speaking on his own behalf.
"Reasonably clear from whose perspective, the superior's or the subordinate's?" asked [Michael] Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate. "When a senior member of your chain of command wants to speak to you 'reasonably' about religion, saying 'Get out of my face, sir!' is not an option."
The new rules "respect the rights of chaplains to adhere to the tenets of their religious faiths" without respecting the right of a captive audience -- cadets attending the academy -- to adhere to their own views without being subject to efforts by superior officers to convert them. It's disheartening that the Air Force Academy so quickly caved in to pressure from the religious right to undo its reforms.
| < Libby, Cheney and Fitz, Part II | Public Defender System Crushed by Katrina > |
