The House-Senate conferees on the FY 2007 Department of Defense authorization bill reportedly have dropped the House of Representatives-approved safeguard allowing military chaplains freedom of conscience and speech in their public prayers. (For background, see my earlier post.)

The House safeguard had stated:

Each Chaplain shall have the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the Chaplain’s own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible.

But Defense Department voices had objected:

This provision could marginalize chaplains who, in exercising their conscience, generate discomfort at mandatory formations. Such erosion of unit cohesion is avoided by the Military’s present insistence on inclusive prayer at interfaith gatherings–something the House legislation would operate against.

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I must confess I don’t understand the hooplah about whether Senator George Allen is Jewish or not. According to Washington Jewish Week:

In addition to having a Jewish mother or father, “personal observance” of Judaism is a factor, and one must identify with the religion.

Since George Allen was raised a Christian and did not observe Judaism, she said he would not be considered Jewish.

Who cares? What’s the difference? Faith is a profoundly private matter. We live, after all, in the land of religious freedom. I just can’t see how the Jewish heritage or lack thereof is a really a “gotcha” moment against Allen.

Indeed, I am of the view that identity in America is mostly self-constructed. Senator Allen decided to be a conservative, Christian American. Then that is what he is, regardless of who his maternal grandfather was. That’s the kind of country in which we live, where the past does not dictate the present or the future.

I wrote of this from a personal experience of being a naturalized American of Asian descent and origin a while back in the Seattle Times. I reproduce it below:

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