Joining with the NJDC, America's highest circulation Jewish newspaper -- New York Jewish Week -- has editorialized against the new Air Force guidelines on religion within the service that represented such a collapse in the face of right wing pressure.
Finding the correct balance between the right of all Americans to worship as they choose and safeguarding religious minorities is never simple. What may be a sincere religious obligation for some can trample the religious rights of others — often the dilemma when it comes to proselytizing.
That is why the controversy that began with reports of widespread religious coercion at the Air Force Academy, and quickly mushroomed to encompass military chaplains, has been so difficult for so many people. An initial set of Air Force guidelines issued last June directly addressed the problem at the Colorado Springs school and offered detailed guidance for military leaders. But faced with pressure from conservative Christian ministries and irate members of Congress, the Pentagon beat a hasty retreat.
The revised draft guidelines issued last week include laudable provisions requiring neutrality when it comes to religion and stating that “superiors need to be sensitive to the potential that personal (religious) expressions may appear to be official.” But the Air Force retreated to generalities, dropping earlier provisions detailing how those broad rules might apply in a military environment where proselytizing is rampant, sometimes by superior officers. The new draft also dropped “guiding principles” that demanded respect for people of different religious beliefs and for the nation’s culture of diversity.
The new draft guidelines put the strongest emphasis on protecting the free exercise rights of all military personnel, rights we all support. But inevitably, the shift in focus away from protecting religious minorities will send the message that some rights are more important than others.
So will the fact that the Pentagon apparently gave in to intense pressure from Christian ministries that claimed — inaccurately — that the initial draft guidelines would prohibit chaplains from praying “in the name of Jesus” and stifle the religious free speech rights of Christian personnel. That backtracking could have damaging consequences in the broader military establishment, which is looking to the Air Force guidelines as a potential model for fostering religious tolerance in an increasingly diverse military.
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