Praising Allah In The Military
posted by Dan Filler
Congress is considering legislation that would allow military chaplains to use sectarian prayers at nondenominational events. Supporters argue that Chaplains should be free to pray as their faith demands. Opponents worry that such prayers (lets be more precise: prayers that invoke the name of Jesus) will have the effect of excluding some in attendance and erode cohesion within the unit. (The Pentagon, which opposes the bill, actually frames it less in terms of marginalized troops, and more in terms of marginalized chaplains, saying “This provision could marginalize chaplains who, in exercising their conscience, generate discomfort at mandatory formations.”)
This proposal is really a one-way ratchet which is likely to create discomfort for various non-Christian soldiers, but which will rarely marginalize Christian soldiers. For example, few Christian soldiers will be troubled by Jewish prayers since they always reference a single God, referred to typically in English as “God.” They are sort of like “lesser included” versions of Christian prayers. (It is possible that a rabbi might use a Hebrew term, and this would potentially be alienating…though in my experience, many might simply find it “curious.”) Christian prayers which invoke Jesus exclude all Jews and Muslims (and people of many other faiths, not to mention agnostics and atheists) because they involve praying to a person who, in other religions, is explicitly not God. Sooner or later, at a non-denominational event, a Muslim chaplain will praise Allah, an Arabic term for God (and indeed essentially the same singular God as one would find in Christianity and Judaism). But though Allah may reference the same God, the term now carries loads of cultural baggage, such that many may hear that invocation as an explictly anti-American or anti-Christian statement.
If I truly believed that the Representatives supporting this legislation were ready – even eager – to hear chaplains praise Allah at non-religious events, I’d be more sympathetic to their cause. Call me a cynic, but I suspect that they’re simply trying to promote Christianity in circumstances where they see little downside. Twenty years from now, if Islam has grown in importance within the military, I suspect that these folks would be the first to argue for non-sectarian prayer. “It’s just not fair to our Christian troops”, they’d argue.
September 19, 2006 at 11:16 am
Posted in: Culture, Current Events, First Amendment, Religion
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Responses (2)
Patrick S. O'Donnell - September 19, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I think your analysis is right on target. It’s refreshing to read something dealing with religions in which the writer actually evidences some knowledge, however rudimentary, about the respective traditions.
Antiquated Tory - September 21, 2006 at 6:56 am
My grandfather had the fun of being a Jewish soldier in the American army in the days of mandatory Sunday services (1912): Christian and with a definite Protestant flavor at that. One Sergeant from Brooklyn was disciplined for yelling out during Stand Up for Jesus “For Christ’s sake, sit down!”
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