I rarely cite the Huffington Post but chose to do so in this instance. The punishment of U.S. soldiers for refusing to attend an evangelical concert is beyond any excuse offered by the general who established the series of evangelical concerts, or by his staff members. This falls under religious discrimination and is prohibited by U.S. Army regulations, Dept. of Defense regulations, and by the United States Constitution.
Such discrimination, combined with a history of frank proselytization by an evangelical flag officer is grounds for immediate relief from command and discharge from the Army. “Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concerts” is a thinly veiled attempt at conversion to Christianity, an attempt to build an all-Christian military.
Given the recruitment catch basin for the U.S. armed forces, southern whites, poor blacks and whites, and others who grew up with a strong tradition of church attendance; there seems to be little awareness among the troops of the intent to proselytize, and even less objection as these troops have grown up with and been reinforced with the pairing of fundamentalist Christianity with patriotism. Today’s volunteer enlisted soldiers grew up as targets of Nixon’s, Reagan’s, and Bush’s southern strategy. They don’t see the illegality of anyone trying to use the military to spread and export Christianity. Nor do they see the impact such actions have upon the world outside our borders. They essentially have grown up with the mindset that tells them non-Christians are as much their enemy as the insurgents they battle in Asia.
One of my regular correspondents suggested that the removal of Major General James E Chambers from command and from duty will be interpreted as “”a war against Christianity.” My response was that I viewed his actions as unconstitutional, illegal, unethical, and providing justified. General Chambers has, in effect declared a personal war against all non-Christians by his actions. He’s willing to send troops that he views as his own contribution to a new Crusade against Islam into battle. He’s safe in knowing that his “born-again” ass will never be at risk of harm in battle. How despicable he is.
The U.S. armed forces are assembled and trained to protect the security of this nation, its citizens and its properties and territories. It is to have no ties to any religion. Its commanders are to serve the nation, not demagogues, evangelists, and ideologies based upon ancient myths. Just as the loyalty of troops to Islam’s ideology can and has fallen into question since the attacks of 2001; so can the loyalty of Christian troops fall into question. We’ve seen multiple examples of internal terrorism carried out by Christians. The question of where loyalty begins and ends must be faced with all religions, not just Islam.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/us-soldiers-punished-for-_b_687051.html
U.S. Soldiers Punished for Not Attending Christian Concert
“For the past several years, two U.S. Army posts in Virginia, Fort Eustis and Fort Lee, have been putting on a series of what are called Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts. As I've written in a number of other posts, "spiritual fitness" is just the military's new term for promoting religion, particularly evangelical Christianity. And this concert series is no different.
On May 13, 2010, about eighty soldiers, stationed at Fort Eustis while attending a training course, were punished for opting out of attending one of these Christian concerts. The headliner at this concert was a Christian rock band called BarlowGirl, a band that describes itself as taking "an aggressive, almost warrior-like stance when it comes to spreading the gospel and serving God."
Any doubt that this was an evangelical Christian event was cleared up by the Army post's newspaper, the Fort Eustis Wheel, which ran an article after the concert that began:
Following the Apostle Paul's message to the Ephesians in the Bible, Christian rock music's edgy, all-girl band BarlowGirl brought the armor of God to the warriors and families of Fort Eustis during another installment of the Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert Series May 13 at Jacobs Theater.”
“The Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert Series was the brainchild of Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers, who, according to an article on the Army.mil website, "was reborn as a Christian" at the age of sixteen. According to the article, Chambers held the first concert at Fort Lee within a month of becoming the commanding general of the Combined Arms Support Command and Fort Lee in June 2008. But he had already started the series at Fort Eustis, as the previous commanding general there. The concerts have continued at Fort Eustis under the new commanding general, as well as spreading to Fort Lee under Maj. Gen. Chambers. The concerts are also promoted to the airmen on Langley Air Force Base, which is now part of Joint Base Langley-Eustis.
In the Army.mil article, Maj. Gen. Chambers was quoted as saying, "The idea is not to be a proponent for any one religion. It's to have a mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds." But there has been no "mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds" at these concerts. Every one of them has had evangelical Christian performers, who typically not only perform their music but give their Christian testimony and read from the Bible in between songs.
Another problem with these concerts, besides the issues like soldiers being punished for choosing not to attend them, is that they are run by the commanders, and not the chaplains' offices. It is absolutely permissible for a chaplain's office to put on a Christian concert. It is not permissible for the command to put on a Christian concert, or any other religious event. Having a religious concert series that is actually called and promoted as a Commanding General's Concert Series is completely over the top.”
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2010/08/pentagon_investigating_christi.php
Pentagon Investigating Christian Concert Coercion
Posted on: August 24, 2010 11:31 AM, by Ed Brayton
Meet the Military Man Battling Dangerous Christian Extremism in the Military
A pervasive Christian supremacist milieu exists inside the U.S. military that's a danger not only to constitutional order, but to the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
http://www.alternet.org/story/147511/meet_the_military_man_battling_dangerous_christian_extremism_in_the_military?page=entire
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