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Questions Continue On Improper Proselytizing In Military

By Howard M. Friedman

Today's New York Times reports that questions persist on whether the military continues to be involved in improper religious proselytizing. An official military suicide-prevention video shows former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw talking about how Christian prayer helped him through bouts of depression. The Pentagon says it has received 50 complaints of religious discrimination from all branches of the military from 2005 to 2007. In another incident, a former Air Force Reserve fighter pilot says he received a negative certification and ultimately lost his flying certification after writing a letter complaining about Christian prayers at homecoming ceremonies for service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. A lawsuit challenging improper promotion of religion in the military is pending in federal court. (See prior posting.)

Meanwhile, the Obama administration may be more sympathetic to complaints about church-state breaches in the military than was the Bush Pentagon. Last week for the first time, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met with activist Mikey Weinstein, head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, acknowledged to Weinstein that there is a problem. But retired General Bruce L. Fister, executive director of the Officers? Christian Fellowship, said: "the problem is that Christians are going to operate one way or the other, and whenever the church has been persecuted, it?s grown stronger."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on March 01, 2009 (boomark / email).