c. 2006 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Retired Army Chaplain David Peterson models how he thinks sensitive Christians should pray in public.
“I pray in Jesus’ name but I always give a little introduction, just two or three seconds: `I’m going to pray according to my tradition and I encourage you to pray according to your tradition,”’ said Peterson, a retired colonel who coordinates chaplain ministries for the Presbyterian Church in America.
“I think it’s important to show that not everybody is Christian and we want to show respect.”
Peterson is responding to a growing conflict between principles of tolerance and free speech. The issue has figured most prominently in new guidelines directing U.S. military chaplains. But it’s also playing out at city council meetings, civic group banquets and even Boy Scout gatherings.
The conflict has centered on evangelical Christians following their tradition of praying “in Jesus’ name.”
Nationwide legal disputes reveal that some are offended by prayers that refer to the Christian deity at the expense of other _ or no _ religious beliefs. In response, some Christians, like Peterson, try to explain themselves before praying. Others use more generic and inclusive names to avoid creating offense.
“I think everybody pre-censors today,” said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization. “We have a politically correct, obsessed society. The prevailing rule of the day is don’t offend anybody.”
He said instances in which people’s prayers have been altered for the sake of tolerance have grown “worse and worse” in the last decade.
But Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the New York-based Jewish Council for Public Affairs, welcomes the “general presumption” he has noticed of people shaping their prayers.
“I think we should find a way to pray that allows most other people around us also to find God,” said Gutow, who recently met with Air Force officials about their latest guidelines. “When somebody prays in Jesus’ name, … I wonder if they couldn’t also find another way to bring God in the room.”
Prayer skirmishes have become increasingly common. Recent cases include:
_ The Rev. Hashmel Turner, a pastor and Fredericksburg, Va., City Council member, wants to invoke the name of Jesus when his turn comes in the council’s rotation for opening its meeting with prayer. In November, the council, under threat of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, adopted a proposal to offer nondenominational prayers. With the Rutherford Institute’s help, Turner sued the council in January. The case is pending.
_ In November, a federal judge halted sectarian prayers at the start of meetings of the Indiana state legislature after four taxpayers sued, saying the prayers violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. In February, Rep. Mike Sodrel, R-Ind., responded by introducing a bill that would remove the content of speech at legislative sessions from judicial review. The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
_ The American Center for Law and Justice has collected more than 200,000 names in a petition campaign that urged President Bush to sign an executive order that would permit chaplains to pray in public according to their beliefs. That effort prompted the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces to declare its support for the status quo. Religious accommodation policies “are being refined as needed through military channels,” the group told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a March 1 letter.
The issue flared prominently at Bush’s 2001 inauguration, when evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, ended his invocation “in the name of the Father, and of the son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Some were offended, saying the prayer excluded non-Christians, but Graham defends his right to pray as he does.
“I’m not belittling a Jew or a Muslim or someone else because I … pray in the name of the one who died for my sins,” he said on ABC’s “Nightline” in March.
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The Rev. Al Sampson, a United Methodist pastor from Chicago, said he prefers a broader approach when he gives public invocations and benedictions.
“I always pray `in the name of the God of our ancestors’ and the reason I do that is because there are a whole lot of other groups that represent many paths to God,” said Sampson, who serves as the chaplain for the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.
But some Christians argue that the Bible instructs them to pray in Jesus’ name and that censoring their prayers violates their religious freedom .
“Jesus Christ is my God and I will pray to him,” said Navy Chaplain (Lt.) Gordon James Klingenschmitt of Norfolk, Va., who objects to a Navy policy issued in February that urges chaplains to use inclusive prayers outside worship settings.
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Guidelines from the U.S. Air Force, also released in February, say chaplains “will not be required to participate in religious activities, including public prayer, inconsistent with their faiths” but also state that “nondenominational, inclusive prayer or a moment of silence may be appropriate for military ceremonies … when its primary purpose is not the advancement of religious beliefs.”
The Rev. Billy Baugham, executive director of the International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers in Greenville, S.C., questions the terminology, which is not yet finalized.
“It implies that when a chaplain prays in the name of Jesus Christ, that he is … trying to advance his belief,” Baugham said. “That is simply not the case.”
Rather, he said, a chaplain is “simply stating the authority by which he makes the prayer.”
Responding in part to the Air Force controversy, the National Association of Evangelicals issued a February statement on religious freedom calling for increased sensitivity by those who pray.
“A military chaplain may preside, preach, or pray in sectarian language with a like-minded congregation that has voluntarily assembled,” states the document. “The same chaplain ought to use the more inclusive language of civic faith when praying at memorials or convocations with religiously diverse audiences.”
The statement has been endorsed by some of the NAE’s member denominations and called “very helpful” by Rear Adm. Robert F. Burt, the deputy chief of Navy chaplains.
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But all evangelicals do not agree on this matter and the group hopes the statement will foster further dialogue, said Martin Nussbaum, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based attorney and general counsel to the president of the evangelical association.
“When you’re calling people together to pray” in a civic setting, he said, “you don’t want to exclude at that moment.”
The Rev. Gregory Johnson, president of Standing Together, a Salt Lake City-based ministry that aims to foster relations between evangelicals and Mormons, disagrees with the NAE.
“I would encourage them to offer a distinctively Christian prayer, not to necessarily offend but just because that’s who you are,” he said of Christian chaplains.
Johnson, who has prayed “in the name of Jesus” at National Day of Prayer events as well as at political and Boy Scout functions, added his view holds for people of all faiths at all kinds of ceremonies.
“I would not be offended in the slightest if they prayed in the name of the God of Israel or in the name of Muhammad,” he said. “I think real tolerance is seen in our ability to accept difference, not uniformity.”
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Editors: To obtain photos of retired Army Chaplain David Peterson and the Rev. Gregory Johnson of Standing Together, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. For a file photo of Franklin Graham praying at the 2001 inauguration of President Bush, search by subject (Franklin Graham). Check “exact phrase” for best results.
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