Rules on religion

last updated 8 January 2015

Colorado Springs

The U.S. Air Force last week ordered commanders and other personnel not to push their religious faith on the job, or even to promote “the idea of religion over nonreligion.” A task force proposed the guidelines in June after investigating complaints that evangelical Christians at the Air Force Academy in Colorado were openly proselytizing and harassing cadets of other faiths. In the first concrete application of the rules, a football coach who once posted a “Team Jesus” banner in a locker room announced he was ending his traditional pre-game prayers. The guidelines discourage anything other than “brief nonsectarian prayer,” and even that is only permitted in extraordinary circumstances, such as before imminent combat.