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 ...
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." - Thomas Jefferson
![](http://www.pbase.com/wm25burke/image/122106719/medium.jpg")
It would be a huge story.
Yeah, that’s why he backed that proposed seal. Like I said, you can’t change history. People can lie about it or ignore it but they can’t change it.
That was my thought as well. After briefly wondering why (if this report is accurate) up to 50% of these soldiers would decline to attend a Christian concert, I concluded that it very possibly had nothing whatsoever to do with their religious beliefs. I'm a Christian and I dislike most contemporary Christian music. It's likely I would have declined to attend this event as well were I one of the soldiers.
“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!”
I think most so-called “Christian” acts are people who couldn’t make it in the secular music world and so they try the Christian music thing.
Hey, it worked for Katy Perry.
Meet the New Boss, same as the Old Ba'al
--The Who?
Ba'al being a Hebrew word meaning owner, lord, master, possessor.
"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."
-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom
I’m with you there. I wrote this article off as politically inspired baloney, anti Christianism the moment I read it was news/Yahoo, and saw ‘AP’ in the link.
It’s little details such as those that one needs to hone to know to waste time reading the article or not. I don’t have a lot of time to spend, so I’ve come up with common denominators to use to determine legitimacy of news articles. News/Yahoo, and AP are two that cause me to accelerate to the next piece down the page.
Refute that Jefferson backed the seal. Refute the documents in his handwriting held by the Library of Congress. You can't.
"Hey, go ahead - refi the McMansion and buy those his and hers Cadirac Escapades... you'll be raptured before the ARM explodes. Consuuuuume!"
John 2:15-16
15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
NIV
"The insertion [of Jesus Christ] was rejected by the great majority..."
---Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom
I have posted links to historical documents (written in Jeffersons own hand). You post insults and opinion over and over and over.........and ONE lonely link.
...or even church services of our choice on Sundays we got stuck at the barracks cleaning...
**********
My CC (in 1984) didn’t do that. She recommended attending services, said they were enjoyable and a nice diversion even if you weren’t normally a churchgoer. But anyone who didn’t go just had free time in the barracks, they weren’t made to work. I think that’s as it should be.
>>I think that’s as it should be.
My experience in ‘86 was much the same; and I agree.
Your posts are filled with insults. That shows desperation. I have not insulted you once. However I do not believe you worth debating since you use insults with a sprinkling of opinion and then fact. Insults and large print only prove a lack of argument, not truth.
You insult the memory of every individual who has sacrificed in order that FREE Individuals can pursue and observe the Self Evident TRUTH of their relationship to their Creator for themselves.
The Masonic nature of America's founders is written in stone - in the memorials and streets of Washington D.C. - for all to see with their own eyes.You can not unexist it.It was under the oaths and protection of Free Masonry that the founders were able to codify the ideas which compelled them to overthrow the religionist tyrants who operated under the royal authority manufactured by the State "church" of England.If you don't believe that, then I suggest you read the work of James Billington - Librarian of Congress.
."..who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time..."---Thomas Jefferson, The Virginia Act for Religious Freedom
By posting historical links? No. You're trying to excuse your behavior. It won't work.
It was under the oaths and protection of Free Masonry that the founders were able to codify the ideas which compelled them to overthrow the religionist tyrants who operated under the royal authority manufactured by the State "church" of England.
No. But you have a real "bee in your bonnet" about Masons.
The State "church" of England was "just" a denomination. LOL, are you serious?
The Church of England is the official church in England. The Founders backed Christianity and no denomination because in Europe and England, the Kings religion was yours.
You can keep your conspiracy theories. They don't last long on FR.
How would you know..., hmmm....
We need to avoid the performer-audience relationship in worship.
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