The Air Force has acted wisely to set servicewide guidelines mandating respect for all religious – or non-religious – beliefs. The rules come after complaints about intolerance at the Air Force Academy.
Acting Air Force Secretary Pete Geren and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper, who issued the interim guidelines Monday, properly realized that the rules needed to apply throughout the Air Force, not just the academy.
The guidelines note that religious freedom is guaranteed in the very Constitution that servicemembers are sworn to defend. But some at the academy apparently forgot that. A task force appointed to investigate charges that evangelical Christians were favored over non-Christians reported in May that it found perceptions of intolerance but no overt religious discrimination.
Things like a “Team Jesus” banner in a football locker room, grouping cadets who don’t attend chapel into a “Heathen Flight,” or telling those who don’t believe in Jesus they’ll go to hell crossed the line even before adoption of the new guidelines.
“Abuse or disrespect of our wingmen, our fellow Air Force people, including disrespect based on religious beliefs or the absence of religious beliefs, is unacceptable,” the guidelines say. Free exercise of beliefs are to be accommodated, but “we will not officially endorse or establish religion, either one specific religion or the idea of religion over non-religion.”
One problem was that the academy’s emphasis on “spiritual strength as a pillar of leadership … was misinterpreted by some as requiring religious faith,” said Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, the Air Force special consultant who helped draft the guidelines. Gen. Jumper has redefined the concept as “the human spirit – that part of us that enables us to overcome almost impossible odds,” Resnicoff said, and the guidelines call it “inner strength.” He noted that the academy already had adopted many principles of the guidelines, such as training commanders to anticipate religious needs of non-Christian cadets.
Air Force members can still pray and discuss religion (within parameters), but prayers at public events or ceremonies must be non-sectarian and not “advance specific religious beliefs.”
Decidedly Christian prayers – and outright proselytizing – have caused friction in other military branches in recent years as the number of evangelical Christian chaplains has increased dramatically. So the Air Force guidelines may be a good starting point for addressing a broader problem in all the armed forces.
