Competing Bills On Military Chaplain Prayer In Congress

On Friday, WorldNet Daily carried a discussion of the competing provisions on prayer by military chaplains that appear in the House and Senate versions of this year's Defense Authorization Bill. The House version would assure chaplains that they could pray according to the dictates of their own conscience, except for narrow limitations compelled by military necessity. The Senate version, on the other hand, would require chaplains, outside of religious services or ceremonies for their own faith, "to be sensitive to and respect the diversity of faiths represented" in their audience." Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, the recently court-martialed proponent of sectarian prayer in the military, strongly opposes the Senate version. He says it would empower the Pentagon to establish "pluralism" as a new form of religion. Klingenschmitt favors yet a third proposal that would merely amend current 10 USC 6031 to broadly permit chaplains to pray according to the manner and forms of their religious denominations.