Air National Guard Base to Retain Chaplain Invocations at Ceremonies Despite Atheist Complaint
ICC Note: Despite receiving a letter of complaint from the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), an Air National Guard Base has opted to continue their practice of chaplain invocations during official military ceremonies. The FFRF argued that the prayers were unconstitutional because they showed a government bias favoring Christianity. However, Senior Counsel Mike Berry noted the Department of Defense’s instruction which protects “individual expressions of religious belief.”
By Heather Clark
03/21/2017 United States (Christian News Network) – Officials with an Air National Guard Base in New Hampshire have decided to retain chaplain invocations at military ceremonies despite receiving a complaint from a prominent professing atheist organization.
The Texas-based religious liberties organization First Liberty reported in a national press release on Monday that the Pease Air National Guard Base “will continue their tradition of including prayer during military ceremonies, despite receiving a letter from a special interest group demanding that they stop.”
“We’re very pleased to see the New Hampshire Air National Guard do the right thing and continue their tradition, as the law clearly allows,” Senior Counsel Mike Berry said in the statement. “It is perfectly constitutional to offer invocations at military events and service members have every right to exercise their faith under the First Amendment.”
Berry had sent a letter just last week to commanding officer Col. James Ryan to contend that the prayers are legal and do not need to be discontinued. He countered correspondence from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which sought to end the chaplain-led invocations out of its belief that their inclusion is unconstitutional.
Berry pointed to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the National Defense Authorization Act, as well as the Department of Defense (DoD) instruction entitled “Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services.” Berry said that under these rules, “the DoD must accommodate individual expressions of religious belief, which undoubtedly include a military chaplain’s invocation.”
First Liberty also noted the 1997 federal court ruling in Rigdon v. Perry, which upheld the rights of two chaplains who desired to preach in favor of banning partial-birth abortion.