The Anti-Defamation League Tuesday called on members of the U.S. Senate and House Armed Services Committees to hold hearings on what the group termed "coercive proselytizing and religious activity in the military."

The organization said the effort was aimed at creating specific guidelines to ensure that the military remains "accessible and welcoming to servicemen and servicewomen of all faiths, and to those of no faith at all."

The 2007 Department of Defense Authorization bill, approved by the last session of Congress, directed the Secretary of the Air Force and the Secretary of the Navy to rescind their existing guidelines on religious activity, the ADL noted.

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"That decision reversed much of the progress that resulted from a series of meetings between high-ranking Air Force officials and ADL leaders after a pervasive climate of religious intolerance was exposed at the U.S. Air Force Academy," the ADL said in a statement.

"Those meetings, and the conclusions of an independent Pentagon inquiry, led, in August 2005, to the adoption of formal guidelines to protect against religious intolerance and discrimination in the Air Force Academy and the Air Force as a whole."

Glen S. Lewy, ADL National Chairman, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director said that government institutions like the United States Air Force Academy [USAFA] and the Naval Academy "bear a special responsibility to avoid religious coercion and to respect the rights of religious minorities guaranteed by the Constitution.

They cited testimony which "documented a climate of religious intolerance for members of minority religions at USAFA and instances of inappropriate proselytizing and unwelcome religious harassment at that honored federal institution.

"These charges of religious harassment and unwelcome proselytizing were especially disturbing in the context of the military command structure within our nation's military service academies (and, indeed, anywhere in the military) in which instructors, officers, and upper class cadets have virtually absolute command authority over their students and subordinates, creating a unique potential for undue pressure on an individual to conform in order not to jeopardize his or her military career," Lewy and Foxman wrote in a letter to Den. Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The League also termed "disturbing" a promotional video produced by the Washington-based evangelical organization Christian Embassy, which featured effusive endorsements of the evangelizing work of the Christian Embassy by a number of high-ranking military officials who appeared on camera in uniform - some apparently in their Pentagon offices.

"Whether intentional or not, this promotional video gives the appearance of government endorsement of these evangelical Christian views and suggests, at least, Pentagon acquiescence in Christian Embassy evangelizing work," Lewy and Foxman said.

ADL has urged the Armed Services Committees to hold hearings that would "begin a process that will result in the promulgation of new guidelines on religious activity for the service branches."

Editors Note: The full text of the letters to the Chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, and additional background on the League?s response to the Air Force Academy controversy are available on the League?s Web site at www.adl.org.