On 8/22/10 6:58 PM, Canuck57 wrote:
On 8/22/2010 9:44 AM, Secular Humanist wrote:
On 8/22/10 1:35 PM, Canuck57 wrote:
On 8/21/2010 1:22 PM, Secular Humanist 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.

Huge difference. Never heard of evangelicals chopping heads off or
torching a person for being an "infidel". Arranged marriage of children,
female/child mutilation and other things seem absent with evangelicals.
Nope, Taliban are a bread out of a barbaric medieval past for sure.

But agree in that religious conversion of others is often the root of
religious problems in achieving peace. The other being a ego maniac
sociopath wanting totalitarian and fascist power over others.



You haven't heard of Christians chopping off heads or setting people
afire for religious reasons, eh? Or Christian arranged marriages?

If not, then you haven't spent any quality time studying history.
And you don't have to go back to medieval times for examples.

Not since Salem witch trials. Sort of evolved since then. Unlike Islam
that is stuck in the past. But given the Islam way is to keep literacy
down, especially for the women it is really a subversive cult.

And in recent times, never saw a Christian family woman get stoned,
beheaded or mutilated because of "religion", because the perp is a
psychopath and not a Christian.

I am not really religious at all, close to atheist but really agnostic.
But raised a practicing protestant I did read the bible a few times. And
I have read translated versions of the Koran... they don't compare one
bit as to the benefit to a civilized society.



You apparently are unaware of how many of the top leaders of fascist
Germany and Italy were christians.