Religion And Its Role Are In Dispute At The Service Academies

Three years after a scandal at the over the evangelizing of cadets by Christian staff and faculty members~ students and staff at West Point and the Naval Academy are complaining that their schools~ too~ have pushed religion on cadets and midshipmen.

The controversy led the Air Force to adopt guidelines that discourage public prayers at official events or meetings. And while those rules do not apply to other branches of the service~ critics say the new complaints raise questions about the military’s commitment to policies against imposing religion on its members.

Religion in the military has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years~ especially because the close confines of military life often put two larger societal trends — the rise of evangelicals and the rise of people of no organized faith — onto a collision course.

At the Naval Academy in Annapolis~ Md.~ nine midshipmen recently asked the American Civil Liberties Union to petition the school to abolish daily prayer at weekday lunch~ where attendance is mandatory. The midshipmen and the A.C.L.U. assert that the practice is unconstitutional~ based in large part on a 2004 appellate court ruling against a similar prayer at the Virginia Military Institute. The civil liberties group has threatened legal action if the policy is not changed.

But the academy is not persuaded.

“The academy does not intend to change its practice of offering midshipmen an opportunity for prayer or devotional thought during noon meal announcements~” Cmdr. Ed Austin~ an academy spokesman~ said in an e-mail message.

In interviews at West Point~ seven cadets~ two officers and a former chaplain said that religion~ especially evangelical Christianity~ was a constant at the academy. They said that until recently~ cadets who did not attend religious services during basic training were sometimes referred to as “heathens.” They said mandatory banquets begin with prayer~ including a reading from the Bible at a recent gala.

But most of their complaints center on Maj. Gen. Robert L. Caslen~ until recently the academy’s top military leader and~ since early May~ the commander of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. The cadets and staff said General Caslen~ as commandant of cadets at West Point~ routinely brought up God in speeches at events cadets were required to attend.

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Cynthia Lindenmeyer~ a 1990 West Point graduate who was a civilian chaplain at the school from 2000 to 2007~ offered a similar view.

“As a cadet~ you are at a very vulnerable place in your spiritual development~” she said~ “and you want to be like the people who mentor you.”

Col. Bryan Hilferty~ a West Point spokesman~ rejected the idea that the academy endorses religion~ even tacitly~ or that General Caslen had said anything inappropriate in his time there. And others~ including many cadets~ endorsed that view.

In interviews on campus~ 15 randomly selected cadets said that they did not feel religion was foisted upon them.

“There is a spiritual aspect here that people feel is part of the development of an officer~” said Brad Hoelscher~ who graduated last month~ “but not a specific brand of religion or even religion itself.”

Col. John J. Cook III~ head chaplain at West Point~ said~ “No one is pushing them to believe.”

Referring to prayers at mandatory settings~ he said: “This is something we have done in the military for centuries. It is not designed to make people religious. The majority of people here are people of faith~ and a prayer asks God’s blessing on a gathering and on the food.”

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