**lawmakers join Jones' call for president to protect military
chaplains' first amendment rights**

**Washington, D.C.**---In a letter today to President Bush, 69 Members
of Congress joined Third District Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC)
in urging the President to protect by Executive Order the constitutional
right of military chaplains to pray according to their faith. In a
Capitol Hill press conference last week, Representatives Mike McIntyre
(D-NC), Todd Akin (R-MO), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Mike Conaway (R-TX) and
Jim Ryun (R-KS) joined Jones to call attention to the pervasive problem
of the suppression of religious freedom throughout our nation's Armed
Services.

Expressing their concern for those who have suffered from restrictions
placed on the religious expressions of their faith, Members of Congress
sent the following letter to President Bush:

*** ***

***We are disappointed and gravely concerned to learn that the right of
military chaplains to pray according to their faith is in jeopardy. As
you may know, the Air Force leadership recently released proposed
guidelines that will restrict how Air Force chaplains can pray, and if
approved, those guidelines may well be implemented throughout the entire
DoD. We believe that the Air Force's suppression of religious freedom is
a pervasive problem throughout our nation's Armed Forces, and it has
come to our attention that in all branches of the military it is
becoming increasingly difficult for Christian chaplains to use the name
of Jesus when praying. There are currently no laws or regulations that
prohibit chaplains from praying according to their respective
denominations or different faiths, and we are deeply concerned that
chaplains are now being instructed on what to say when they pray.***

***Throughout our nation's history, chaplains not only have remained an
integral part of our military, but they also have always prayed
according to their faith tradition. We believe that if chaplains are
chosen to pray before a professional setting, they have a constitutional
right to adhere to the religious expressions of their faith. For
Christian chaplains, praying in the name of Jesus is a fundamental part
of their belief and to suppress this form of expression would be a
violation of religious freedom.***

***The current demand in the guidelines for so-called "non-sectarian"
prayers is merely a euphemism declaring that prayers will be acceptable
only so long as they censor Christian beliefs. Current surveys in the
military indicate that upwards of 80 percent of soldiers identify
themselves as Christians, and such censorship of Christian beliefs is a
disservice not only to Christian chaplains, but also to the hundreds of
thousands of Christian soldiers in the military who look to their
chaplains for comfort, inspiration, and support, just as our military
soldiers of other faiths look to their chaplains.***

***While some military members may find certain prayers to be offensive
and wrongly claim that they are not non-pluralistic, we believe these
restrictions raise constitutional issues involving the Establishment,
Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment (There are
numerous other offensive provisions throughout the proposed guidelines,
including the onerous provision that chaplains can only speak of their
faith with officers---the "peer to peer" provision). Officially
inhibiting or defining what chaplains can and cannot say in effect
establishes an official religion and burdens our military's chaplains'
right of free speech.***

***We are requesting that you, as Commander and Chief, protect by
Executive Order the constitutional right of military chaplains to pray
according to their faith.***

**For additional information or to schedule an interview with
Congressman Walter B. Jones please contact Kathleen Joyce at (202)
225-3415.**