L et?s get this straight.
A former Annapolis midshipman, someone we paid to attend the Naval Academy to learn to lead others into battle, is so cowed by peer pressure he couldn?t handle a lunchtime prayer? And his convictions are so strong he will only speak anonymously, through the American Civil Liberties Union, on the matter?
How did our Naval Academy admit him given the competition for the honor of an appointment?
Such cowardice has no place in a service academy. And it should strike fear into those who might and those who eventually must serve under this “leader.”
Second, since when did the Constitution protect an individual?s right not to be uncomfortable?
Who cares if “not participating makes you stand out, and peer pressure made me feel like I?m different or do not respect others as much.” Part of becoming an adult is learning how to handle yourself in those situations. Forcing others to live by your rules is not how the world works, nor how the military operates. Certainly dread enemies don?t give a hoot. If following orders is not something the recently graduated midshipman can abide, he should leave the military and repay taxpayers for his education before he puts those in his command in harm?s way.
Third, the prayer in no way violates the Constitution?s guarantee that the government will make “no law respecting the establishment of religion.” The prayer is non-sectarian and participation voluntary.
What the midshipman and the eight others the ACLU recently represented in writing say they want is to wipe expressed religion from the public square ? for which there is no right. In fact, doing so makes private, personal faith or atheism the rule of the land. How fair is that?
The Anti-Defamation League challenged the prayer in 2005 and lost. The ACLU should drop its protest and all plans for a lawsuit and start focusing on real crimes instead of inventing injustice where none exists.
Where were the ACLU and its anonymous nine, for example, when midshipmen were put in real danger by abuse of religious and government authority at the academy by sexual predator and Catholic chaplain Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee? The chaplain, HIV-positive, pleaded guilty last year to 11 charges, including forcing himself on a midshipman.
The Naval Academy should disregard the protest and maintain the voluntary prayer. Nine people must not be allowed to force others to make them comfortable at the expense of a long-standing, respected and voluntary tradition.
