A petition organized by Jay Sekulow, of the conservative action group American Center for Law and Justice, which is signed by more than 80,000 people and supported by dozens of congressmen, aims to get President Bush to issue an executive order forbidding the “muzzling” of military chaplains by sensitivity guidelines that discourage evangelical proselytization of non-Christian students and soldiers. The petition’s supporters say such an order is necessary because the interim guidelines adopted by the Air Force after the religious scandals that have followed it since last June, which call for nondenominational prayers at military ceremonies, supposedly threaten the religious freedom of chaplains to pray in Jesus’s name and act according to their consciences (i.e., their ability to spread the Word to nonbelievers). Critics charge Sekulow and the petitioners of exploiting popular outrage to raise funds for their organizations.