Because the meal is mandatory, all cadets are marched into the venue. A devotion or meditation is given by the chaplain, and then there is prayer.

If anyone does not bow his or her head and clasp their hands in "prayer position," they stand out like sore thumbs. One cadet said that if a person does not want to pray, or does not believe in God or in prayer, he or she is seen as not being a team player, and can suffer retribution.

The Naval Academy has eight chaplains, and all but one are Christian. The chaplains are all officers.

So, there is pressure to be a team player, and to be dutiful cadets, and part of what some cadets are feeling is that this pressure to pray is not right or fair.

The feeling of discomfort in the military because of religion erupted publicly three years ago when it was reported that cadets in the Air Force Academy were being pressured by Evangelical Christian superiors to adhere to their faith.

That's not a good thing. God cannot be forced on people, nor should God be forced on people.

Why don't people get that?

The superiors at the U.S. Naval Academy say that religion is necessary for strong moral development. They want their men and women to have strong and moral character.

But while religion can make some of us more strong and more "moral," it doesn't do that for all people. In fact, for many people, religion, because of the way it is too often jammed down people's throats, makes them less moral and less strong.

Instead of being a vehicle for strength, too often religion is a tool for manipulation and control, using fear and guilt as the weapons of mass emotional destruction.

There is way too much time put into trying to get people to be "religious" rather than trying to get them close to God.

Personally, I think there's a place for religion in the military, but by "religion," I mean a spiritual connection with God that gives a person strength to survive when he or she is in the midst of a war.

Seems to me one needs a special strength when they're surrounded by death, dying and destruction.

But everyone might not derive that strength from God, and certainly not from a "version" of God and religion stuffed down their throats.

The military does not lend itself to independence, not in thought or in action. Military personnel march the same, salute the same, make their beds the same, shine their shoes the same, answer officers the same, follow orders the same ... that's part of the military culture, and anyone who does not want to do that, or live that way, ought never enter the military or certainly not enroll in a military school.

But nobody - not even a commanding officer - can make someone believe in something he or she does not believe in. One's spirituality is a personal matter, too personal, oftentimes, to even talk about.

So, thinking that participating in a mandatory prayer is making one's character stronger because it is making one pay attention to religion and therefore to God, is just stupid.

I offer that comment respectfully.

I still don't think praying before meals is threatening ... but then, I believe in prayer.

Not everybody does.

The ACLU has written a letter to the Naval Academy, asking it to stop the prayer at the mandatory lunch meals. If the Academy balks, the ACLU is threatening to file a lawsuit.

I hope it doesn't come to that.

I hope that the Naval Academy and indeed the military in general will "get it:" that religion cannot and should not be forced on anyone.