[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 19, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9714-S9717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PRAYER IN THE ARMED FORCES
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, at the present time, the members of the
Armed Services Committee of the Senate and the members of the Armed
Services Committee of the House are in a conference. A great deal of
confidentiality is attached to that procedure. I do not in any way
intend to violate that confidentiality.
But before the conference--and this is not a matter of
confidentiality--is a provision in the bill of the House of
Representatives which is related to military chaplains. I will read
from the House bill.
Each Chaplain shall have the prerogative to pray according
to the dictates of the Chaplain's own conscience, except as
must be limited by military necessity, with any such
limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner
feasible.
That is the end of the proposed bill language. That is what I would
like to address at this time.
I first want to say that the Senate has no such provision, and
therefore we have to resolve the difference between the two bodies. The
House of Representatives put this provision in during markup, which is
the time they go over their bill. Another amendment was offered in that
markup and rejected. It is referred to as follows: ``Amendment to H.R.
5122, offered by Mr. Israel,'' Member of Congress, and it provides in
section 590, which I just read, relating to military chaplains: at the
end of the quoted matter inserted by each of the subsections (a), (b),
(c), (d), and (e), insert the following: ``, except that chaplains
shall demonstrate sensitivity, respect, and tolerance for all faiths
present on each occasion at which prayers are offered''.
I personally have not decided on what version I personally feel
should
[[Page S9715]]
address this problem, so I remain of an open mind. But I remain very
firmly of a mind that in the brief time that we have had an opportunity
to look at it and examine it here on the Senate side, the time is
inadequate to address an issue which I regard as of enormous
importance. This is an issue that I would hope this Chamber would have
the opportunity to discuss, whether to put into law a provision as
proposed by the House or a provision as proposed by Mr. Israel, a
Member of Congress, which addresses the perspectives of this issue from
a different angle. This is just an example of the diversity of views on
this important issue.
Among the conferees--I cannot name names; I will not--there is a
strong division, those in favor of certain language other than what is
in the House bill. Some conferees think that the provision by Mr.
Israel should be included. So there is at this time just an enormous
uncertainty among the conferees.
The House book that contains what we call report language, which is a
very helpful instrument to try to explain the background of how
provisions come into our legislation, trying to explain what some of
the words mean, this book is silent. The only report language is a
recitation, exactly, of the proposed bill language. So there is no
guidance that Congress is providing on this important phrase.
I hasten to point out that, as is the case in just about all matters
that we take up in the Armed Services Committee regarding the annual
authorization bill, the Secretary of Defense transmits to us opinions
that he has, on behalf of the Department, with regard to proposed
legislation. I now will have printed in the Record what is entitled:
The Department of Defense Appeal, FY 2007 Defense
Authorization Bill; Subject: Military Chaplains; Language/
Provision: House section 590 established chaplains at each of
the Military Services would have the prerogative to pray
according to the dictates of their own conscience, except as
must be limited by military necessity. The Senate included no
similar provision.
The Department of Defense position is they oppose this provision.
This reads as follows:
This provision could marginalize chaplains who, in
exercising their conscience, generate discomfort at mandatory
formations. Such erosion of unit cohesion is avoided by the
Military's present insistence on inclusive prayer at
interfaith gatherings--something the House legislation would
operate against.
The Department urges exclusion of this provision.
We have not decided as yet. But that is another dimension to the
diversity of thinking on this very important provision.
As all Members in this body fully appreciate and understand, when a
matter of this controversy comes along you are often singled out by a
variety of people who disagree. I have not taken a position, but
nevertheless I am being besieged by telephone, by bloggers, by
everything else--that I have taken this or that position. I will state
momentarily what I think should be done. But I am very proud of my
background.
I was blessed with two magnificent parents. We were active in the
Episcopal Church, and I have remained active in that faith nearly all
of my life, nearly 80 years now. My uncle was a rector of a very
prominent parish here in Washington, DC, in the shadow of the
Washington Cathedral where I was raised, not more than three blocks
from his church, and I was a regular attendee of Sunday school through
that. I am just sorrowful that people attack me personally, as if I had
no religious foundation. I have that foundation.
I have had the privilege to serve in uniform. Not a career--and I
have said it many times here on the floor of the Senate--of any great
note, a very modest career, but as a young, 17, 18-year-old in the last
year of World War II, just in the training command. We were trained to
be replacements to go overseas to the Pacific. The war ended. We were
sent home.
But many a time in the course of that period in military service, the
second chapter, this time as a United States Marine, a young officer
serving in Korea, the First Marine Air Wing, at a time when, indeed,
certainly the infantry troops in the front lines, where I visited on
occasion, were being subject to the most difficult combat under
rigorous conditions in Korea, but I knelt and prayed many, many times
with my fellow soldiers--men and women, fellow marines, fellow sailors.
So I speak as one who has benefited through the years from the
religion that was instilled in me through my parents and the church of
my choice, and it has given me a great strength to face up to the
trials and tribulations that all of us experience in a lifetime.
I respect the chaplains. I went to chaplains on occasion, and I am
grateful for the counseling that they gave me. So I say, I look back
with a sense of humility on what the military has taught me. Many times
have I said I don't think I would ever have achieved the opportunity to
be a U.S. Senator had I not had the opportunity, the privilege of
serving in uniform during the periods of two conflicts of our Nation
and the learning that I received throughout the military. I have often
said the military did more for me than I ever did for the military. But
I just will stand my ground against anyone who wishes to challenge my
religion.
Now, in my 28th year in this magnificent Chamber, many is the time I
stood here as our Senate opens and listened to either our chaplain or a
visiting clergy. Each of us have the privilege of inviting from our
several States a visiting clergy to come and deliver a prayer. It is
part of the life of the U.S. Senate. I know of no effort ever to try
and censor or legislate the prayers given here in the Senate, either by
our chaplain or by the many who come from all over America to give
their prayers here. So I am not suggesting the military is like the
Senate. But it is an example of the use of prayer.
The military is different. It is for that reason, that it is
different, that I think it is important that we proceed to resolve such
problems as may exist today in the military regarding how our chaplains
pray, that we resolve that only after the institutions of the Senate
and the House of Representatives go through a careful and deliberative
process, not just try in the heat of resolving a conference report, in
brief meetings here and there among just a very few--well, sometimes
all the conferees, sometimes in small groups--trying to reconcile the
differences between legislative provisions in the House bill and those
in the Senate bill.
I would like to call our attention to the Constitution of the United
States. It says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances.
This is such a fundamental part of our democracy. It is a pillar of
strength in this Republic. But it is constantly reviewed by the courts
against the different factual situations that come up.
I think the military deserves no less than to have the most careful
and deliberative review of this suggested language rather than to put
it into law at this time. My recommendation--I will cooperate with the
conferees--is that I am not prepared to take any position on how this
language should be put into law or not put into law at this time. But I
do say that I will strongly recommend to the Committee on Armed
Services that the seriousness of this issue literally demands that as
soon as the new Congress convenes in January, the committees of the
Armed Services of the Senate and the House put on hearings at the
earliest possibility. You could start with this language as recommended
by the House of Representatives--the Senate has no language--to go
through a process where people can come in.
For example, I asked each of the chiefs of the chaplains of the Army,
Navy, and the Air Force to come in and speak to the conferees--there
were only four conferees there at that time--which they did. I attached
the utmost confidentiality as to what they said. But I was left with
the impression that now is not the time to try to quickly put this one
sentence into law by virtue of incorporating it into the final draft of
the conference report. Those chaplains would be quite willing to come
before the Congress in open session. Let the whole of the United States
see this debate unfold, as it should.
Prayer is very important to the men and women of the Armed Forces. I
remember so well the old maxim, ``There
[[Page S9716]]
is no atheist in the foxholes of war.'' Military people, military
families are heavily dependent upon the comfort that is given by
prayer--prayer alone or prayer with others.
I urge this Congress not to do at this time this one sentence. I will
read it again. I have difficulty, as many times as I have read it,
understanding exactly what it means.
It says: Each chaplain shall have the prerogative to pray according
to the dictates of the chaplain's own conscience except as must be
limited by military necessity.
What is that? What is military necessity? We should define that very
carefully. I continue:
With any such limitation being imposed in the least
restrictive manner feasible.
That, to me, is a complicated sentence and a complicated message to
put forth.
In conclusion, I will recommend to the conferees that at this time
Congress not enact this bill language in the House, that we defer it to
a time when the entire Senate and the entire House in open before the
public invites in as many as we can possibly accommodate to give their
views on the institution of the chaplain in the Armed Forces of the
United States, an institution that I have known since the closing days
of World War II and have known for over a half century and have seen it
function and have seen it work. Before we change those rules, I think
we owe no less to the men and women in the Armed Forces to have these
deliberative bodies of the House and Senate have their hearings, debate
the language, and then decide whether they wish or not to write
language that in many respects we were admonished by the Founding
Fathers to be careful, at least at the most under the First Amendment.
In addition, some of the concern--and I think it is a legitimate
concern--of those proposing this language emanates from actions taken
by the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, and I
believe--I have not seen it--the Department of the Army in issuing
certain guidance. The guidance was issued recently about this subject
of prayer and other matters relating to the chaplain.
I will not go into it, but I will put in today's Record the documents
that were issued by several military departments. You can read it for
yourselves.
I think that we should put in report language in our bill two things:
First, that the Secretary of Defense will stay--that means hold in
abeyance--enforcement of these newly promulgated regulations until such
time as the Congress has had an opportunity to hold its hearings, go
through a deliberative process, and then decide whether it wishes to
act by way of sending a conference report to the President for purposes
of becoming the law of the land.
So it is twofold: let the system of the chaplain, which has been
operating for my lifetime, half a century, serving the needs of the men
and women of the Armed Forces, continue to do as they have done but
stand down any regulations until studied by this coequal branch of the
Government, which under the Constitution has a very special language
provision that says we have a responsibility to care for the needs in
general of the men and women of the Armed Forces. That is what the
conference report does.
I am hopeful that the conferees will see the wisdom of this action,
let this bill go forward to the President's desk so it can become law,
and it can care for the men and women of the Armed Forces.
That will be written in report language. It does not have the force
of law. But I am basically assured by the Department of Defense that
they will comply; stay for the time being the most recent regulations,
whatever they wish to call them, that have been sent out to their
respective commands until Congress has had a reasonable time within
which to decide whether they feel it is necessary to prepare for the
President's signature a new law.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that additional materials
regarding this subject be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Department of the Navy
SECNAV Instruction 1730.7C
d. Chaplains
(1) Chaplains are Qualified Religious Ministry
Professionals (RMPs) endorsed by a Department of Defense
(DOD)--listed Religious Organization (RO) and commissioned as
CHC officers.
(2) As a condition of appointment, every RMP must be
willing to function in a pluralistic environment in the
military, where diverse religious traditions exist side-by-
side with tolerance and respect. Every RMP must be willing to
support directly and indirectly the free exercise of religion
by all military members of the DON, their family members, and
other persons authorized to be served, in cooperation with
other chaplains and RMPs. Chaplains are trained to minister
within the specialized demands of the military environment
without compromising the tenets of their own religious
tradition.
(3) In providing religious ministry, chaplains shall strive
to avoid the establishment of religion to ensure that free
exercise rights are protected for all authorized personnel.
(4) Chaplains will provide ministry to those of their own
faith, facilitate ministry to those of other faiths, and care
for all service members, including those who claim no
religious faith. Chaplains shall respect the rights of others
to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold
no beliefs.
(5) Chaplains advise commands in matters of morale, morals,
ethics, and spiritual well-being. They also serve as the
principal advisors to commanders for all issues regarding the
impact of religion on military operations.
(6) Chaplains are non-combatants. Chaplains are not
authorized to obtain weapons qualifications, warfare
qualifications, or bear arms; however, chaplains who attained
weapons or warfare qualifications during prior service as a
combatant are authorized to wear their awards and/or warfare
qualifications. Chaplains are eligible to qualify for and to
wear the insignia of qualification designations such as Fleet
Marine Force, Basic Parachutist, and Navy/Marine Parachutist.
6. Responsibilities of Commanders
a. Commanders shall provide a Command Religious Program
(CRP) in support of religious needs and preferences of the
members of their commands, eligible family members and other
authorized personnel. The CRP is supported with appropriated
funds at a level consistent with other personnel programs
within DON.
b. Chaplains will not be compelled to participate in
religious activities inconsistent with their beliefs.
c. Commanders retain the responsibility to provide guidance
for all command functions. In planning command functions,
commanders shall determine whether a religious element is
appropriate. In considering the appropriateness for including
a religious element, commanders, with appropriate advice from
a chaplain, should assess the setting and context of the
function; the diversity of faith that may be represented
among the participants; and whether the function is mandatory
for all hands. Other than Divine/Religious Services,
religious elements for a command function, absent
extraordinary circumstances, should be non-sectarian in
nature. Neither the participation of a chaplain, nor the
inclusion of a religious element, in and of themselves,
renders a command function a Divine Service or public
worship. Once a commander determines a religious element is
appropriate, the chaplain may choose to participate based on
his or her faith constraints. If the chaplain chooses not to
participate, he or she may do so with no adverse
consequences. Anyone accepting a commander's invitation to
provide religious elements at a command function is
accountable for following the commander's guidance.
d. Commanders shall, when in a combat area, only assign,
detail, or permit chaplains, as non-combatants under the
Geneva Convention, to perform such duties as are related to
religious ministry under Art. 1063 of reference (b).
e. Commanders shall not assign chaplains collateral duties
that violate the religious practices of the chaplain's
religious organization or that require services in a capacity
in which the chaplain may later be called upon to reveal
privileged or sensitive information.
f. Commanders shall not assign chaplains duties to act as
director, solicitor, or treasurer of funds, other than
administrator of a Religious Offering Fund; or serve on a
courtmartial; or stand watches other than that of duty
chaplain.
____
U.S. Army
Army Chaplains & Military/Patriotic Ceremonial Prayer: How
does the Army Chief of Chaplains address chaplains and
Military/Patriotic Ceremonial Prayer?
AR 1651-1, Chaplain Activities in the United States Army,
has several pertinent statements. Paragraph. 1-4 a. reads,
``In, striking a balance between the `establishment' and
`free exercise' clauses the Army chaplaincy, in providing
religious services and ministries to the command, is an
instrument of the U.S. Government to ensure that soldier's
religious `free exercise' rights are protected. At the same
time, chaplains are trained to avoid even the appearance of
any establishment of religion.'' Paragraph 4-4h. reads,
``Military and patriotic ceremonies may require a chaplain to
provide an invocation, reading, prayer, or benediction. Such
occasions are not to be considered religious
[[Page S9717]]
services. Chaplains will not be required to offer a prayer,
if doing so would be in variance with the tenets or practices
of their faith group.''
Chaplains provide prayer within worship services governed
by the tenets of their faith. Chaplains also provide prayer
in public ceremonies which are patriotic/military (sometimes
called secular). The former are completely voluntary; the
latter are often required functions at which all manner of
people are present. It is at these non-worship ceremonies
that the Chaplains must consider their obligations to assist
every Soldier to pray.
There is no Army regulatory guidance prohibiting an
individual from praying or directing an individual to pray in
any specific manner. AR 165-1 is intended to strike a balance
between a Chaplain's right to freely express his or her own
personal religious beliefs and the Chaplain's duty to ensure
that every Soldier is afforded his or her ``free exercise''
rights under the Constitution.
Pluralism and religious accommodation are trained
throughout the Chaplain life cycle with the bulk of the
subject matter conveyed in the foundation courses at the
Chaplain Officer Basic Course. AR 165-1 is the reference for
this training.
The Army Chief of Chaplains sees no reason to provide
additional guidelines concerning Chaplains and public prayer
since AR 165-1 is sufficient.
The Army Chief of Chaplains will not dictate how an Army
Chaplain performs his or her prayer. Chaplains are trained
and expected to use good judgment when addressing pluralistic
audiences at public, non-worship ceremonies.
____
U.S. Air Force
revised interim guidelines concerning free exercise of religion in the
air force
We are sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the
United States. In taking our oath we pledge our personal
commitment to the Constitution's protections for free
exercise of religion and its prohibition against government
establishment of religion.
We will remain officially neutral regarding religious
beliefs, neither officially endorsing nor disapproving any
faith belief or absence of belief. We will accommodate free
exercise of religion and other personal beliefs, as well as
freedom of expression, except as must be limited by
compelling military necessity (with such limitations being
imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible). Commanders
should ensure that requests for religious accommodation are
welcomed and dealt with as fairly and consistently as
practicable throughout their commands. They should be
approved unless approval would have a real, not hypothetical,
adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion,
standards, or discipline. Avoidance of schedule conflicts
between official activities and religious observances can
enhance unit effectiveness and demonstrate mutual respect.
Chaplain service programs are the responsibility of
commanders. Chaplains impartially advise commanders in regard
to free exercise of religion, and implement programs of
religious support and pastoral care to help commanders care
for all their people, including opportunities for free
exercise of individual beliefs. We will respect the rights of
chaplains to adhere to the tenets of their religious faiths
and they will not be required to participate in religious
activities, including public prayer, inconsistent with their
faiths.
Leaders at every level bear a special responsibility to
ensure their words and actions cannot reasonably be construed
to be officially endorsing nor disapproving any faith belief
or absence of belief. In official circumstances or when
superior/subordinate relationships are involved, superiors
need to be sensitive to the potential that personal
expressions may appear to be official, or have undue
influence on their subordinates. Subject to these
sensitivities, superiors enjoy the same free exercise rights
as all other airmen.
Voluntary participation in worship, prayer, study, and
discussion is integral to the free exercise of religion.
Nothing in this guidance should be understood to limit the
substance of voluntary discussions of religion, or the
exercise of free speech, where it is reasonably clear that
the discussions are personal, not official, and they can be
reasonably free of the potential for, or appearance of,
coercion.
Public prayer should not imply Government endorsement of
religion and should not usually be a part of routine official
business. Mutual respect and common sense should always be
applied, including consideration of unusual circumstances and
the needs of the command. Further, non-denominational,
inclusive prayer or a moment of silence may be appropriate
for military ceremonies or events of special importance when
its primary purpose is not the advancement of religious
beliefs. Military chaplains are trained in these matters.
General rules regarding use of Government computers apply
to personal religious matters as they do for other personal
matters. Chaplain programs will receive communications
support as would comparable staff activities.
These guidelines are consistent with the responsibility of
commanders to maintain good order and discipline, and are
consistent with the core values of the Air Force: integrity
first; service before self; and excellence in all we do.
____________________