by TChris

The First Amendment's Establishment Clause prohibits government from favoring one religion over another, and from promoting religion generally. That constitutional requirement applies to the military just as it applies to all other branches of government. As a Washington Post editorial notes today, it's disturbing to learn that an Air Force Academy chaplain urged cadets to convert classmates "by warning that they 'will burn in the fires of hell' if they do not accept Christ."

During basic training, freshman cadets who decline to attend after-dinner chapel are marched back to their dormitories in "heathen flights" organized by upperclassmen. A Jewish student is taunted as a Christ killer and told that the Holocaust was the just punishment for that offense. The academy's head football coach posts a banner in the locker room that proclaims, "I am a Christian first and last. . . . I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."

First and foremost, government officials and employees are part of Team America -- a team that is equally open to all religious beliefs. The Pentagon contends that it has addressed the problem of religious intolerance by appointing a task force, but the Post questions whether the task force conducted its investigation in good faith.