Air Force JAG Commissions First Hijabi Lawyer

The U.S. Air Force JAG Corps has for the first time selected a Muslim woman who wears a hijab for a commission in the Judge Advocate General Corps. According to yesterday's UT News and an earlier report in The Arab American, recent University of Toledo law graduate Maysaa Ouza believes that she is the first hijabi to apply to the Air Force JAG Corps.  The Air Force issued its latest version of Policy Directive 52-2 on accommodation of religious practices in Feb. 2016.

Air Force Academy Says Football Players Can Continue Pre-Game On Field Prayers

Yesterday's Christian Post reports on last month's controversy over U.S. Air Force Academy football players praying together in the end zone before the start of games. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation complained after several players kneeled in prayer on the field before the start of the December 5 Falcons contest against the San Diego State Aztecs.  MRFF argued that pre-game prayer pressures non-Christian athletes to join in.  Before the Falcons final game on Dec. 29, the Air Force Academy countered with a statement, saying in part:

The United States Air Force Academy will continue to reaffirm to cadets that all Airmen are free to practice the religion of their choice or subscribe to no religious belief at all.  The players may confidently practice their own beliefs without pressure to participate in the practices of others.

Air Force Amends Instruction On Religious Freedom and Accommodation

Last week, the U.S. Air Force announced that Air Force Instruction 1-1 on Air Force Culture has been updated as of Nov. 7 to clarify standards on free exercise of religion and religious accommodation. The amended Instruction (full text) strengthens free exercise and religious accommodation rights of military personnel, and weakens restrictions on proselytizing. The new amendments provide in part:

Every Airman also has the right to individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs, to include conscience, moral principles or religious beliefs, unless those expressions would have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, good order, discipline, health and safety, or mission accomplishment.....

[Leaders] must ensure their words and actions cannot reasonably be construed to be officially endorsing or disapproving of, or extending preferential treatment for any faith, belief, or absence of belief.

Gone from the amended version is previous language providing that leaders "must avoid the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates."

The original version of the Instruction allowed religious accommodation requests to be denied on the basis of "military necessity."  The new amendments provide:

If it is necessary to deny free exercise of religion or an accommodation request, the decision must be based on the facts presented, must directly relate to the compelling government interest of military readiness, unit cohesion, good order, discipline, health and safety, or mission accomplishment, and must be by the least restrictive means necessary to avoid the cited adverse impact.

The amended Instruction also makes it clear that these guidelines on religious expression apply to communications on social media.

Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers has an analysis of the amendments as well as a chart of the changes in language in the 2014 amendments.

Air Force Will Allow Enlistees and Officers To Drop "So Help Me God" From Oath

The U.S. Air Force announced yesterday that effective immediately it would allow enlisted members and officers who wished to do so to omit the words "So help me God" from enlistment and officer appointment oaths.  The change comes after the Department of Defense General Counsel issued an opinion concluding that the omission is permissible despite language in federal statutes setting out the language of the oaths that include the phrase. The Air Force requested the opinion after an enlisted man who is an atheist insisted on omitting the phrase. (See prior posting.) According to ABC News, the other branches of the military already allow the omission, as did the Air Force until a policy change last year.

"God" In Pledge and in Military Oath Challenged Anew By Humanist Group

Stars and Stripes reported earlier this week that the U.S. Air Force is seeking an opinion from the Defense Department's chief lawyer on whether an enlisted man who is an atheist can refuse to include the phrase "so help me God" in his re-enlistment oath. Among the armed services, only the Air Force has a policy that does not make inclusion of the phrase optional.  The American Humanist Association has threatened to sue on behalf of the airman, who is stationed at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada-- if the issue is not resolved next week.

Meanwhile last week the American Humanist Association launched a national campaign urging everyone to sit out the pledge of allegiance until the phrase "under God" is removed from it. The organization has created a website devoted to the campaign. The campaign yesterday released a letter it sent to New Town, North Dakota school officials complaining about a teacher's refusal to allow a first-grader to sit out the pledge.

Air Force Academy Controversy Over Cadets Posting Bible Verses

The U.S. Air Force Academy which is no stranger to church-state controversies is now in the midst of one over whether cadets may post Bible verses on the whiteboard each cadet has on his room door.  As reported yesterday by Fox News, the controversy began after a cadet leader posted a verse from Galatians on his dorm room door and another cadet contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.  When MRFF's head complained, the Bible verse was erased.  A dozen other students, though, upset by the removal of the verse began to post other Bible verses-- and some from the Qur'an-- on their own doors. The Academy did not require these to be removed because the students involved are not cadet leaders. meanwhile a coalition of religious advocacy groups has offered assistance to any cadet sanctioned for posting Bible verses on his door.

Nativity Scene On Air Base Creates Controversy

The annual flare up over religious displays on public property at Christmas time appears to have moved this year to military bases. AP reports that at Shaw Air Force base in South Carolina last Friday, a group of volunteers from the base chapel set up a nativity display near a small lake where a tree lighting ceremony was scheduled for Friday evening.  The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a church-state watchdog, lodged a complaint with the Pentagon and officials ordered the display taken down because it reflects only one religious tradition.  God and Country blog details some of the negative reaction to the removal of the display.