Unneeded and Divisive

Let us pray that Congress stops meddling with military chaplains.

"UNNECESSARY and likely counterproductive." That's what a major interest group had to say Tuesday about a provision that has snarled completion of the defense authorization bill. The provision -- contained in the House version but not in the Senate-passed measure -- would permit military chaplains to offer explicitly sectarian prayers at public events. But that negative assessment, and the call on congressional negotiators to drop the amendment, didn't come, as you might assume, from the usual separation-of-church-and-state types. Rather, it was contained in a letter to lawmakers from the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. "At this time, our country needs no legislation in this area," the Rev. Haggard wrote. He is right.

The House provision has been pushed by some evangelical ministers who contend that new Air Force and Navy guidelines violate the rights of chaplains whose faith requires them to pray in the name of Jesus Christ when they offer public prayers. It would guarantee chaplains "the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the chaplain's own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible."

We respect the chaplains' convictions about the demands of their faith. But we are also concerned about having such sectarian prayers at events that military personnel of other faiths, or no faith at all, are compelled to attend. No one disputes that chaplains are free to pray as they wish, and as their religion demands, at private, voluntary services. The argument is about what rules should govern religious speech at public, nonreligious events. In fact, as the Defense Department explained in stating its opposition, the military's "present insistence on inclusive prayer at interfaith gatherings" is more conducive to "unit cohesion."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) went to the Senate floor Tuesday evening to make clear his opposition to including the amendment in the defense bill. Instead, Mr. Warner said that lawmakers should hold hearings at the start of the next Congress and that in the interim the military should suspend enforcement of the new guidelines.

Mr. Warner deserves credit for his efforts to get the amendment out of the authorization bill. But the better resolution of this complicated and divisive issue would be for Congress to stay out of it and leave the matter in the hands of the military services. In the long run, the best resolution would be not to drain prayer at public ceremonies of specific religious content but to discourage prayer at such events as inherently and unnecessarily divisive.