"Agitator" Chaplain Klingenschmitt's comments on the "new" House legislation...
1) THE FIRST AMENDMENT ALREADY ALLOWS CHAPLAINS FREEDOM "TO PRAY ACCORDING TO THE DICTATES OF THEIR CONSCIENCE." (Is any phrase more distinctly American than this? Even Congressman Israel voted for this, he just wanted more added.) The new House bill merely restores the law to the way it's always been since 1860 (as I shall prove), and rebukes Secretary of Navy's recent efforts to reverse 231 years of Navy history by suddenly censoring excluding, and punishing certain chaplains for the content of their prayers. If commanders allow only "non-sectarian" prayers but punish "sectarian" prayers, the government is clearly favoring a government-established religion, promoting chaplains who comply, and banning all other diverse religions that don't fit the commander's preferred
faith. It's always better to "take turns and share the prayer" (even with Sailors of many diverse faiths) than to establish a "litmus test" for which prayers are sufficiently "non-sectarian" and which prayers have "too much Jesus" in them.
2) THE LIBERALS LOST THIS DEBATE IN CONGRESS IN 1859...Read Naval Law Review Volume 51(p. 217), by CDR Wildhack about TITLE 10 SECTION 6031, the history of the exact same section of US Code now being amended by Congress, here:
"As in our day, questions about the manner and forms of worship have also long been a part of the history of the Chaplain Corps. Early regulations specified that the duties of chaplains included having to 'read' prayers. In 1859, the Speaker of the House of Representatives asked the Secretary of the Navy whether chaplains were required to
'read' prayers or
follow any particular forms or ceremony in leading worship, and if the Navy had any evidence of a requirement that non-Episcopal chaplains had to follow the Episcopal liturgy. In replying, the Secretary explained that he was not aware that the instruction to 'read' had ever been construed to require a literal reading from a particular prayer book, but rather as a requirement that prayers be offered aloud without specifying they be read from a book, written down by the chaplain beforehand to be read later, or offered extemporaneously. To further reassure the Speaker and his colleagues in Congress, the Secretary announced a new order officially interpreting the requirement that prayers be 'read' to mean that prayers be 'offered,' thus leaving the chaplain free to follow the dictates of his own religious tradition. Perhaps in response to such communication with Congress, new Navy Regulations adopted in 1860 included this addition: 'Every chaplain shall be permitted to conduct
public worship according to the manner and forms of the church of which he may be a member.' No longer merely a regulation, that language is now in force as part of the United States Code."
3) THE ISRAEL AMENDMENT would've required "sensitive" prayers, and outlawed "insensitive" prayers (who decides that?), again requiring commanders to decide which prayer content is "government-approved" and which prayer content should be "government-banned." Isn't it the government's job to NOT DECIDE which prayers are OK? RESPECTING SAILORS RIGHTS REQUIRES WE LET THEM TAKE TURNS AND SHARE THE PRAYER. Sailors can volunteer to become "lay-leaders" (with equal status to a chaplain) and recite prayers according to their own tradition. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY demands equal access to the public microphone, for all diverse faiths equally, not just one "government-sanitized civic religion" that hogs the
microphone and excludes all others (especially excluding evangelical chaplains who pray in Jesus name.)
4) The history of this year's remarkable legal battle is here: www.persuade.tv
Again I welcome personal calls from your students, and case-studies.
I pray in Jesus name,
Chaplain Klingenschmitt
719-360-5132 cell
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