RE: Air Force sued over religious intolerance

[Alan Brownstein]

With respect, Chaplain Klingenschmitt, I believe most of the comments on the list on this issue are not directed at your case. Indeed, the focus of most comments were not even on what military Chaplains may or may not say. Certainly that is true for my posts.   But since the issue of military chaplains has been raised, let me suggest a few distinctions that might be helpful. When a Chaplain is conducting a service that is properly designated for personnel who share his faith, I think he has broad discretion as to what he may say during that service.   The question is what constraints, if any, may limit the exercise of his discretion as a matter of constitutional law – and alternatively, what constraints, if any, may military authorities impose on the exercise of his discretion as a matter of military policy.   It seems to me that there are several situations where constraints might be permissible. (And I assure you Chaplain Klingenschmitt that the only one of these situations that even remotely bears any relevance to your case, as I understand it, is the last one – involving a memorial service. I am trying to probe the outer limits of doctrine in this area. I do not want these examples to be misconstrued as suggesting anything negative about your conduct)   If a Chaplain’s comments placed the physical security of military personnel of other faiths at risk, would such comments justify intervention? That, of course, is the extreme case and it is difficult to imagine anything like that happening today. If a Chaplain’s comments incited the harassment of military personnel of other faiths, would such comments justify some response from the authorities? If such harassment in fact occurred and could fairly be understood to have been caused by a Chaplain’s comments, would some kind of intervention be warranted? If a Chaplain’s comments caused distrust among military personnel of various faiths and undermined moral, that may be a harder case – in part because of the indeterminacy of the harm alleged (distrust and loss of morale) and in part  because of the difficulty in demonstrating causation. Should we trust the judgment of military authorities in such situations? If a Chaplain’s comments during a memorial service for a soldier or sailor would be experienced by military personnel of others faiths as disparaging or hurtful – to such an extent that they would feel unwelcome at the service and would be discouraged from attending future memorial services for deceased comrades or shipmates, should anything be done by military authorities. This last case involves a conflict between the religious liberty of the Chaplain to conduct the service according to the dictates of his faith and the interest of military personnel of other faiths who want to be able to show their respect for, and to memorialize, a fallen comrade by attending a memorial service in his honor. I suppose one way to resolve that conflict would be to hold two memorial services; one a more sectarian service for members of the decedent’s faith and the other a more ecumenical service for military personnel of diverse faiths. I’m not sure how often dual services would be necessary. I have certainly attended funeral services for Christian colleagues and have never heard anything said that made me feel unwelcome or disparaged my faith. But I recognize that this may not be true for the services of all the diverse Christian sects in our society. Would holding dual services be an acceptable solution to this last situation?   Alan Brownstein UC Davis           Now as law professors, as teachers of our future leaders, will you actually teach your students that government should agree with them, and side with Mr. Weinstein and Yale Divinity, and enter the Protestant Chapel to silence the chaplain's speech with military policemen?  Sandy?  Paul?  Chip?  Alan?  I cannot think you really believe what you're saying.  Please keep the government out of my chapel.  Please.    I hope I've not been disrespectful to anyone.  This is a very emotional subject for me.    Very respectfully, Chaplain Klingenschmitt   Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.

_______________________________________________
To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see 
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw

Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.  
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can 
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the 
messages to others.