A FUNDAMENTAL underpinning of life in the United States and its military forces is the First Amendment tradition of religious freedom in which no faith - or lack of faith - is favored or denigrated.
In the immediate aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings, Army Chief of Staff General George Casey issued a timely warning against any backlash toward Muslims. But acts of intolerance aren’t the only threats to religious freedom in the military or at Fort Hood. Another challenge is the proselytizing of service members by evangelical Christians. The nonprofit Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which assists troops who recoil at being pressured by church members, is handling 18 complaints at Fort Hood alone.
Indeed, complaints to the foundation come from US military bases all over the globe - 15,000 in the last three years, with 96 percent from Christians. Many say they are being pressured by evangelicals. Incidents range from mandatory attendance at military events featuring Christian prayers to complaints that troops’ promotion chances are hurt because they do not attend a superior officer’s church. For its part, the Defense Department says it has received just 50 such complaints in the past three years. The foundation says service members are reluctant to draw attention to themselves by bringing concerns to military superiors.
This is not a new problem for the armed services. After reports in 2005 of military-sponsored religious activities at the Air Force Academy, including a football locker-room banner of “Team Jesus,’’ the military did an investigation. Since then, military officials say there has been additional training for officers in all services and a greater effort to ensure tolerance of non-Christian faiths.
The foundation says the academy investigation was a whitewash and did nothing to stop violations. In 2008, the group joined with Dustin Chalker, an Army combat medic who was decorated with a Purple Heart in Iraq, in suing the Department of Defense for forcing Chalker to attend three military events with sectarian Christian prayers. More effective than a successful suit against the Pentagon would be a clear statement from the commander in chief. President Obama should remind all members of the services that the Constitution they swear to defend prohibits the establishment of a national religion.
