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 ...
That was so cute! :)
Since Jefferson had nothing to do with his memorial, your premise is invalid.
My daughter likes veggie tales; they’re cute and harmless stories and sometimes even manage some scriptural content.
Too bad none of them manages to articulate the Gospel though.
Come to think of it... neither have you.
Why is that?
A Christian sex party? Killer...!
Yet revisionist religionists like you still insist upon doing so - while IGNORING what Jefferson wrote, in his own hand, in his AUTObiography:
I do not believe in the masons, or any other kind of religion, i just believe in God and his son. and from what i have read about some of the founders, they believed in God but they did not believe in religion.
You've evidently confused conservatism with subjugation.
That's right FREELY - without the State "church" of England's boot upon their neck.", 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 FreedomFREELY - without fear of this kind of crap..."Following the trial, on 23 August 1305, Wallace was taken from the hall, stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to the Elms at Smithfield. He was hanged, drawn and quartered — strangled by hanging but released while he was still alive, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him"...all under the sanctioned religionist authority of the State "church" of England.
The lack of the “alleged” in this article is kind of “funny.”
They don’t preach at, or to, the audience during their shows.
Fair enough.
Thesing their songs, tell what Jesus did for them, and then leave.
Ummmmmm... Speaking as a Christian...that's preaching.
>>they believed in God but they did not believe in religion.
That’s my observation as well.
>>I do not believe in the masons
I’m not a mason - but I do believe the lodges in America served a purpose before the legal protections of the 1st amendment were set in place.
They’re as fallible, and as prone to corruption, as any other human institution. With instances where the secrecy provided was abused - often harboring Fire in the Minds of Men - but usually only managing to burn down the village with it.... or worse.
Are you suggesting that Jesus and the apostles were in error when they sang psalms together after the last supper, before our Lord was crucified?
"The foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; ...the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained..." George Washington, First Inaugural, April 30 1789
What is your actual experience in/with the US Military?
>>If they rejected Jesus
They didn’t reject Jesus. They rejected including coercive language in The Virginia Act for the Establishment of Religious Freedom.
Their objective was to Establish religious FREEDOM - not just another Religious State.
I think many of them, including Jefferson, recognized - for themselves - that Jesus IS the Truth. But they also recognized the RIGHT of others to find and see that Truth with their own eyes and FREE minds; or NOT.
1986 to 1992 with various elements of the ARNG.
What’s yours?
“They sing their songs, tell what Jesus did for them, and then leave.”
“Ummmmmm... Speaking as a Christian...that’s preaching.”
No, that’s testifying. They are simply telling what happened to them.
Preaching takes that to the next level by urging a committment from the audience.
That’s not what BarlowGirl does.
Their objective was to Establish religious FREEDOM - not just another Religious State.
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.
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