GUEST COMMENTARY: Compulsory prayer is never fair

c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The U.S. Naval Academy _ unlike West Point or the Air Force Academy _ requires every student to attend prayers before lunch. No one is excused. Everyone must listen to the prayer. There is no choice in the matter. Some midshipmen came to the American Civil Liberties Union to […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The U.S. Naval Academy _ unlike West Point or the Air Force Academy _ requires every student to attend prayers before lunch. No one is excused. Everyone must listen to the prayer. There is no choice in the matter.

Some midshipmen came to the American Civil Liberties Union to seek help, after raising their concerns _ to no avail _ through the chain of command. Some reported that in order to avoid standing out from their peers and provoking disapproval from their superiors, they bowed their heads even though they did not want to do so. Others said that they stood respectfully at parade rest, and were criticized by upperclassmen, and shunned by other midshipmen, because they were not praying.


Many who have written to defend the Naval Academy’s practice insist on calling these prayers “voluntary” or “optional.” They also suggest that those who do not want to pray should be “tolerant” of those who do. Many have written rather hostile _ nasty, really _ criticisms of the ACLU and the midshipmen who object to mandatory prayer as a matter of conscience.

Curiously, all of the articles that I have read in support of required attendance at prayers fail to mention any scripture from any holy book that says it is a good idea to force people to attend prayers. Nor do any of them suggest that midshipmen should be “tolerant” of those who do not wish to pray. And sometimes their hostile language _ in support of forced attendance at prayers _ suggests something of an unheavenly inspiration in their thinking and rhetoric.

The ACLU _ apparently unlike those who think it is a good idea to force people to attend prayers _ believes prayer should be a completely voluntary action. It should come from the heart and not demand others’ participation. Attendance at prayer should be decided by individuals, religious communities and families. It is not something that commanding officers in the military should require of their subordinates.

Could there really be anything less religious than requiring people to attend prayers?

Anyone who wants to pray before a meal should be permitted to do so and can do so. There is a constitutional right to pray _ for those who wish to pray. And the ACLU would happily represent any midshipman who is ever told by any commanding officer that he or she cannot pray _ whether before any meal or at any other personal time.

But the ACLU is also ready to represent anyone who does not believe that the superintendent of the Naval Academy should require him or her to attend someone else’s prayers.

There really is a very easy solution at the Naval Academy that maximizes the right to heartfelt praying without requiring forced attendance. All midshipmen who wish to pray together before lunch should be free to attend the Naval Academy chapel where they can hear prayers together. In addition, anyone who wishes to pray individually before a meal has a right to do so. And no military officer compels anyone to pray or not to pray. Simple. Easy. Constitutional. Fair.

After all, there should be no compulsion in matters of religion.

(T. Jeremy Gunn is the director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief in Washington, D.C.)


KRE/PH END GUNN550 words

A photo of T. Jeremy Gunn is available via https://religionnews.com.

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