Public prayer in Jesus’ name debated

Posted: 4/28/06

Public prayer in Jesus’ name debated

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Re-tired 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 people 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.”

Last 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.

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.”

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 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,” the document states. “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.