As a previous posting notes, last month, a Conference Committee report on the Defense Authorization Act called for both the Air Force and the Navy to repeal their recent regulations governing the activity of chaplains and reinstate policies from earlier rules. Now Jews On First reports that on October 2, three days after Congress passed and the President signed the Defense Appropriations Act, the Air Force issued new guidelines for chaplains. The new rules appear to implement the mandate to reinstate policies from the Air Force's 1999 guidelines. The guidelines now provide that the Chaplain Service "requires awareness of, and sensitivity to, the diverse religious needs of Air Force members". They define the Chaplain Service's Global Ministry as one that is sensitive to the "religiously pluralistic environment" in which it operates, and state that "chaplains adhere to the requirements of their endorsing religious organizations while providing for the spiritual and religious needs of all Air Force members, their families, and other authorized personnel".
However, according to the same report by Jews On First, Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, charges that "Air Force leadership went about issuing these [new] guidelines in a subversive manner, without engaging in an open dialogue about the proper role of religion and chaplains within the Air Force."
