On 8/22/2010 9:54 AM, Secular Humanist wrote:
On 8/22/10 1:51 PM, Canuck57 wrote:
On 8/22/2010 4:37 AM, Secular Humanist wrote:
On 8/22/10 3:14 AM, jps wrote:
On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:22:35 -0400, Secular
wrote:

On 8/21/10 12:57 PM, jps wrote:

Isn't this sweet? Iinstitutionalized Christianity in the military...

RICHMOND, Va. — The Army said Friday it was investigating a claim
that
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.

Fort Eustis spokesman Rick Haverinen told The Associated Press he
couldn't comment on the specifics of the investigation. At the
Pentagon, Army spokesman Col. Thomas Collins said the military
shouldn't impose religious views on soldiers.

"If something like that were to have happened, it would be
contrary to
Army policy," Collins said.

Pvt. Anthony Smith said he and other soldiers felt pressured to
attend
the May concert while stationed at the Newport News base, home of the
Army's Transportation Corps.

"My whole issue was I don't need to be preached at," Smith said in a
phone interview from Phoenix, where he is stationed with the National
Guard. "That's not what I signed up for."

Smith, 21, was stationed in Virginia for nearly seven months for
helicopter electrician training when the 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 or offended by the religious
theme
of the event.

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.

About 20 of the men, including several Muslims, refused to attend the
concert based on their religious beliefs, he said.

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, he said.

"But once you get in there, you realize it's evangelization," Smith
said.


There's little difference between these evangelicals and the taliban.
The world would be far better off without either.

Like the present row over the Muslim center in NY, these institutional
evangelists cheapen the very foundations of our country. How could
anyone looking from a third party POV assume that our military is
anything other than crusaders for Jesus?

Killing in the name of Jesus? Protecting freedom in the name of
Jesus? Killing Islamic fundamentalists with Christian
fundamentalists?

Makes me feel like we haven't made it out of the dark ages yet.


Now, if we could get all the christian fundies and islamic fundies to
kill each other on one isolated battlefield somewhere...say, in
texas...south carolina...some really backwards state... :)

Or better yet, put all their leaders on island somewhere with weapons
all over the place.

But does bring up a point, perhaps time for a world wide law banning the
teaching of slavery, beheading, hate, intolerance under the guise of a
cult/religion? Start who scale executing violators?

A world-wide law? I thought you righties were against that. You better
check with Palin-Bachmann-Gingrich or you won't be welcome at the next
teabagger confab.

You don't have to be a rightie/Tea Party to want basic human rights. In
fact, being less for big government is part of keeping freedoms.

In fact, nothing at all impedes the rights of others from the Tea Party.
You get more rights. If you want employment insurance, buy it. If
you don't, don't. The choice is yours. But with big fat government
they tax you be you like it or not.

In fact, if the governments could not borrow money and had to live
inside their means and lowered taxs, we would have a lot less war and
government waste on bailouts. Leaving the wealth in producers hands is
good.

Roads, K12 education and police for common law, good. But that is very
little of overall government spending. Government is clearly too big
for our common good.
--
Is government working for you, or are you working for the government?