Accommodation of Religious Practices in the Military Services
As a follow up to yesterday’s post on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, I wanted to share a little bit about military policy regarding religious freedom and the accommodation of religious practices. When I entered the Army, the Department of Defense was operating under the 1988 version of DOD Directive 1300.17: “Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services.” The directive contained one paragraph that outlined the basic policy. 3.1. A basic principle of our nation is free exercise of religion. The Department of Defense places a high value on the rights of members of the Armed Forces to observe the tenets of their respective religions. It is DoD policy that requests for accommodation of religious practices should be approved by commanders when accommodation will not have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, standards, or discipline. The remainder of the document described implementation of the policy and gave specific guidance in cases r...