Posted on 08/21/2010 4:32:22 AM PDT by tlb
dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band's concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up.
Col. Thomas Collins said the military shouldn't impose religious views on soldiers.
"..it would be contrary to Army policy,".
Pvt. Anthony Smith said he and other soldiers felt pressured to attendt.
"My whole issue was I don't need to be preached at," Smith said "That's not what I signed up for."
Christian rock group BarlowGirl played as part of the "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts."
Smith said a staff sergeant told 200 men in their barracks they could either attend or remain in their barracks. Eighty to 100 decided not to attend, he said.
"Instead of being released to our personal time, we were locked down," Smith said. "It seemed very much like a punishment."
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation first reported on the Christian concert. The foundation said it was approached by soldiers who were punished for not attending.
The group's president, Mikey Weinstein, claims Christian-themed events are "ubiquitous" throughout the military, and he credited the soldiers for stepping forward.
"Whenever we see this egregious, unconstitutional religious tyranny our job is to fight it," he said.
Smith said he and the other soldiers were told not to use their cell phones or personal computers and ordered to clean up the barracks.
Smith said he went up the chain of command and traced the concert edict to a captain, who said he simply wanted to "show support for those kind of events that bring soldiers together."
While not accepting blame, the officer apologized to the soldiers who refused to attend the concert and said it was not his intent to proselytize.
"But once you get in there, you realize it's evangelization," Smith said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
And Col. Tom Collins ?
The military never had a problem using such tactics to enforce support for the UFC. You can give to charities who support anti-christian agendas or stand inspection. You’re choice.
Something tells me that had the concert in question not been Christian-themed but the same thing happened to the soldiers involved, there would be no story at all.
Dude needs to do some research.
Congress was apprehensive about the moral condition of the American army and navy and took steps to see that Christian morality prevailed in both organizations. In the Articles of War, seen below, governing the conduct of the Continental Army (seen above) (adopted, June 30, 1775; revised, September 20, 1776), Congress devoted three of the four articles in the first section to the religious nurture of the troops. Article 2 "earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers to attend divine services." Punishment was prescribed for those who behaved "indecently or irreverently" in churches, including courts-martial, fines and imprisonments. Chaplains who deserted their troops were to be court-martialed.
This would be a chaplain-sponsored program, and I’m a retired chaplain. There are ZERO chaplains I know of that would ever attempt to make attendance at a religious event mandatory. All of them would know better, and such a thing would be rejected out of hand.
In short, I’m saying that this article isn’t giving all of the story. There is something missing.
This simply wouldn’t be done by the chaplains.
You know, there are even Christians who would rather clean than listen to that type of music. I wonder if there were some of them in the group that didn’t go!
This would be a chaplain-sponsored program.......
True That! This is simply a company grade officer charlie foxtrot.
Why the hell is the CO throwing a “Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concert?”
I don,t blame anyone for not wanting to go to a christian concert, they are, from what i have seen of them, just a bunch of young entertainers who although may be christian oriented do not know the gospel from fairy tales, and also the music sounds like they are playing for a sex party or something.
I have seen quite a few in Church and did not like any of it, their purpose it seems to me is to live off of the land so to speak, captured Audience,that feels obligated to donate.
“”My whole issue was I don’t need to be preached at,””
BarlowGirl is a three-girl band that played out our Youth Conference a few years ago.
They don’t preach at, or to, the audience during their shows.
Thesing their songs, tell what Jesus did for them, and then leave.
I wonder if they had been Muslim, singing the praises of Allah, playing power chords on a Fender Stratocaster, burqas flowing in the nighttime breeze, would this have been a story????????????
How would you know..., hmmm.....
Agreed. This story doesn’t make sense, imho.
Had I been there, I probably would have declined to attend. I vastly prefer hymns, gospel tunes, oratorios, and other traditional forms of sacred music to "Christian rock."
I wouldn't have attended either. I get really uncomfortable with having to listen to music that blurs the divide between music and entertainment. Worship isn't entertainment.
Gee...Soldiers complaining about having to run a buffer, clean the showers and put the magazines in the dayroom back on the rack.
This ain’t news...this is Army life.
When I was on the USS Coral Sea, we had two different shows, one was Wayne Newton, the other was Barbara Mandrell. Not exactly my cup of tea, however, they put on a good show. I appreciated their efforts.
Mandatory fun is part of millitary life. We always joked about it. Don’t want to go to the
If this wasn’t a Christian band, these guys would have no recourse.
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