New Jersey Jewish News
Commentary 02.16.06

Andrew Silow-Carroll
Editor-in-Chief

The new religious guidelines for the Unites States Air Force Academy could have been worse, and it is gratifying that they assert that the military finds religious intolerance unacceptable.

Unfortunately, other aspects of the guidelines represent a retreat. The Revised Interim Guidelines Concerning Free Exercise of Religion in the Air Force waffle when it comes to the content of prayers and other communications made to members of minority faiths by the Christian majority. So where an interim set of guidelines outlawed public prayer in official settings, the new rules allow for public prayer providing it “not imply government endorsement of religion and should not usually be part of routine official business.” The new guidelines also soften the language advising senior officers to respect the faiths of minorities, and, in words that reflect the hand of groups like Focus on the Family, reaffirm those officers’ rights to free exercise of religion.

In fact, the most troubling aspect of the guidelines-writing process is the way in which evangelical activists and lawmakers succeeded in asserting a sort of “reverse victimhood” — making the dubious case that limitations on explicitly Christian prayers would violate their religious rights. Maj. Gen. Charles Baldwin, the Air Force’s chief of chaplains, in an interview with the Washington Post, acknowledged the pressure from evangelicals.

Jewish leaders are focusing on what the guidelines got right. They are putting their faith in the Air Force’s officer class to read these guidelines, to heed the negative experiences of the past few years, and to create a more tolerant, less coercive atmosphere for religious minorities and nonbelievers. Let’s pray the officers uphold the academy’s motto: “Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do.”

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