Chaplain: Must I Pray in Jesus Name?
Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has an interesting and lengthy response to a chaplain’s letter asking if its ok not to pray in Jesus Name — one of the points of controversy for chaplains in the US military:
Praying in Jesus’ name isn’t simply a cultural addendum at the end of a request…We pray in Jesus’ name because Jesus commanded us to do so (Jn. 14:13)…
Moore notes that men of faith are expected to pray in accordance with their faith. No one expects a Muslim to pray like an Episcopalian, just as the Hindu who opened Congress with his version of prayer was not expected to sound like a Baptist or a Catholic. (A Fort Bragg chaplain recently did the same thing — in Jesus Name.) It is no more logical to assert that a Christian should neuter his prayer.
Again, chaplains are leaders of faith — no leaders of a civic religion:
Chaplains don’t serve chiefly a civic function. They are there, first of all, to guarantee the First Amendment liberties of military and other personnel to the free exercise of religion. If the government decides that the only chaplains who can serve are those willing to pray like Unitarians in public, one wonders what would remain of the purpose of chaplaincy at all.
When Jesus’ disciples asked him how to pray, he taught them “The Lord’s Prayer.” It does not end “in Jesus’ name.”
The issue is this–sometimes a chaplain prays at military ceremonies that the entire unit is required to be at: change of command, etc. Sometimes the chaplain is praying at his or her own services that are religious services. Chaplains have long recognized that there is a distinction. You don’t evangelize at military ceremonies. You don’t go out of your way to alienate. You seek to say prayers to which all can say, “Amen.” That is not the time to be thumbing your nose at people.
A chaplain has the right to pray however he wants, whenever he wants. This doesn’t mean it is always the wisest thing. If he cannot pray in a way that includes all at a military ceremony (which is civil religion), he might want to think about gracefully declining the invitation. For example, a memorial ceremony for a Jewish or Muslim soldier. Insisting on one’s one right to pray “in Jesus’ name” would be an insult.