In the Armed Forces

Serving your country doesn’t mean giving up your rights. The military is required under the U.S. Constitution to remain neutral toward religion.

You cannot be compelled to pray, attend religious services, or hide or atheism in order to advance your career or receive fair treatment from your superiors.

Your chain of command cannot require you to attend a religious event.

Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 1300.17 (Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services) instructs that, “The DoD places a high value on the rights of members of the Military Services to observe the tenets of their respective religions or to observe no religion at all.” DoDI 1300.17(4)(a).

To that end, “unless it could have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, and good order and discipline, the Military Departments will accommodate individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs (conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs) of Service members.” DoDI 1300.17(4)(b). Exactly what could constitute an “adverse impact” on things like unit cohesion is unclear.

Each of the Services has its own set of regulations implementing DoDI 1300.17. 

If a service member seeks an accommodation through the chain of command but is still ordered to attend a religious ceremony, service, or other event, they may seek assistance from their Service’s Military Equal Opportunity office by following the procedures for either an informal or formal complaint for religious discrimination. The MEO may then investigate the matter and attempt to formulate a solution.

Courts have consistently found that it is constitutional for the U.S. military to employ chaplains.

The U.S. Constitution contains two provisions protecting the religious rights of citizens: the Establishment Clause (“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion . . .”) and the Free Exercise Clause (“. . . or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”)

While the two Religion Clauses are sometimes at odds with one another, forcing the government and the courts to strike a balance between competing interests, in the case of the military chaplaincy, the Clauses are complimentary. The Establishment Clause demands that the government be neutral toward religion. It cannot favor one religious view over others, nor can it show hostility toward religion generally. At the same time, the Free Exercise Clause demands that the government afford its people the “opportunity to practice their faith at places of their choice.” If the branches of the military did not provide chaplains for deployed religious service members, it would violate the Free Exercise Clause by depriving them of the opportunity to practice. In addition, making no provision for the various faiths of service members could be seen as a hostility toward religious belief generally, which the Establishment Clause prohibits.

Moreover, Congress has the constitutional authority to set up and fund the chaplaincy program. While both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause demand that members of our armed forces be able to practice their faiths, the War Powers Clause of Article I of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the authority to, among other things, “provide for the common Defence,” “to raise and support Armies,” and to “make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces.” As a result, the federal courts are hesitant to involve themselves in military matters. “Caution dictates that when a matter provided for by Congress in the exercise of its war power and implemented by the [Armed Forces] appears reasonably relevant and necessary to furtherance of our national defense it should be treated as presumptively valid and any doubt as to its constitutionality should be resolved as a matter of judicial comity in favor of deference to the military’s exercise of its discretion.”

The Department of Defense refuses to recognize atheist or humanist organizations as “endorsing agents” for chaplains. 

As a result, this effectively bans humanist chaplains, preventing atheist and other nonreligious service members from having access to the same sort of confidential guidance that’s available to religious service members from a chaplain who shares their worldview.

While many smaller religious groups have their own chaplains, the more than one-third of U.S. service members who are nonreligious do not.

Because the military prohibits atheist and humanist chaplains, you do not currently have access to a chaplain who shares your beliefs. While religious chaplains are required to support all troops regardless of faith, many atheists find this inadequate. We believe this is a disservice to our troops. Pentagon policies banning humanists from serving as chaplains discrimination perpetuate discrimination and leave members of our community without a valuable resource.