I got another chain letter from my evangelical mother and step-father and felt the need to respond to it. The letter claimed that the ACLU was trying to deny people in the military the right to pray as well as preventing people in the Navy from mentioning Jesus in their prayers. I instantly recognized this as an issue that a little research on snopes or urban legend would shed light on. Not surprisingly, the chain letter was part of more than one that has been circulating since 2005.
My response to the chain letter is included below the fold:
Please do me the honor and charity of reading to the end.
This email is an urban legend and is patently false. Whether it is crosses on headstones or prayer in the military, the ACLU does not oppose such religious displays.
In fact, the ACLU has defended the right of all faiths to display the religious symbol of their choice on the graves of soldiers who have lost their lives in service to their country. The ACLU has, instead sued against exclusionary policies in regards to this issue. Some people oppose the right of some religious persons to display the symbol of their faith on the graves of their dearly departed. Pagans recently won a hard fought battle to allow relatives to place the pentacle, the symbol of the Wiccan faith, on the headstones of soldiers of that faith who died in combat. Opposition to allowing the pentacle to be displayed on the headstones of Pagan/Wiccan soldiers was due to the common misperception that the pentacle is a satanist symbol.
According to the ACLU:
The ACLU has long argued that veterans and their families should be free to choose religious symbols on military headstones — whether Crosses, Stars of David, Pentacles, or other symbols — and that the government should not be permitted to restrict such religious expression in federal cemeteries.
As for the ACLU trying to forbid the use of prayer, this is an exaggeration of the facts. The ACLU only opposes COMPULSORY prayer. They argue that people should not be forced to pray, or be forced to pray to a particular faith, but should be allowed to follow their own conscience.
In a suit the ACLU did file against the Naval Academy, the ACLU argued:
Members of the military have a right to pray or not pray as they personally see fit, and that right is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. It is one of the fundamental rights they put their lives on the line to defend in service to their country. But the government should not be in the business of compelling religious observance, particularly in military academies, where students can feel coerced by senior students and officials and risk the loss of leadership opportunities for following their conscience.
As for not being allowed to pray "In Jesus name," this myth comes from an incident in 2005 in which Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt claimed he was being censored by his superiors "because I pray in Jesus' name." Klingenschmitt ran afoul of Navy rules requiring that prayers delivered in settings other than religious ceremonies (namely secular public events) be non-denomenational.
Though we may disagree on whether public events should be exclusively Christian, I personally believe it would be unfair to force soldiers who happen to be Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists or Pagans to be forced or compelled to say Amen to "In Jesus name" in a public event. No rules exist, however, to prevent such declarations from occurring during Christian religious services or ceremonies on military bases or any federal military facility.
Facts about these cases can be obtained at Snopes and at the following Urban Legend website:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/...
Press releases from the ACLU are cited, but can also be obtained directly from the ACLU.
In closing, none of this has any bearing on whether you should or should not practice your faith. PLEASE extend your prayers to the men and women laying their lives on the line for our country. I have asked for such prayers on behalf of friends, who have served abroad. In fact, I lost one such friend in Afghanistan, when he was killed by a roadside IED. He was buried in Winchester, Virginia beneath a headstone that bore the Christian cross and was honored for his service during a Christian service. No one from the ACLU objected to references to Jesus or to the Christian faith expressed at his service and burial. When he was finally laid to rest, and taps was played in the distance to honor his falling, I wept.
Sincerely,
xxxxxxxx
Though I don't always respond to such chain letters, I think it's important to correct the record, especially when the chain letter is rooted in some exaggeration of the facts of directly conflicts with the truth. I tried valiently not to include jibes against other Christians, because I felt the larger issue was more important than any ax I had to grind.
For instance, I was well aware of the headstone issue, because I have been following it through the Pagan community. It's not "some people" that opposed the use of the pentacle, it was specifically evangelical Christians. I also edited out a portion at the end that reminded them that the only people protesting soldiers funerals, were Fred Phelps and his band of crazy Christians. I edited both of these out, however, because my agenda was to bridge the gap between fact and faith and people tend to stop reading if you bash groups they self identify with.
In this case, though I never received a response from this set of parents, a couple of people included on their distribution list did read it and thanked me for doing so. For that reason, I will continue to fight such distortions whenever I can.