Soldiers punished for skipping Christian concert
 

Troops say they were punished for skipping Christian concert - Aug 2010
Army probing claims that dozens of soldiers were banished to their barracks

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. 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.

LINK

http://brokenzombie.com/junk_bin/gfy/bible.jpg


:2 cents: The shit is a fuckin' disease.

Agree 100%

:2 cents:

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/b/b...arlow-girl.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/88/21...5ff6065b7c.jpg

Not even decent eye candy. I would have considered attending if they were hot. :2 cents:


(Earplugs) :thumbsup

Your crusades against Christianity are laughable, they had a choice to go or not I fail to see what is the problem.

Maybe if he wasnt such a fucking pussy ass liberal he wouldnt "feel" like it was a punishment. Sounds like he didnt have too much fun that day while other people were partying.
His quote sums up all I need to know about the whiny little bitch: Awww you poor fucking baby STFU soldier.

Is this the best we can do around here for trolls these days? When did GFY get this soft? :disgust

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/...603bc0cfe5.jpg

nuff said...


Spanx!
Jack

Looks like nearly half of them didn't want to go. Even most Christians don't want their faith mixed with their music. Most bands that do that end up sucking bad, only a few can pull it off.

They were put on lock down. Sounds like something the extreme religious right would do.

:eek7:eek7

GFY gets more pathetic every day.

I know it's totally :offtopic, but I agree completely. I'm not religious, but I stumbled upon the christian metal scene in the early 90's and did discover a couple of bands that totally fucking rocked. I mean, I would rotate these guys' discs out with my Deicide and Cannibal Corpse cds.

In my opinion, the main three christian metal/death metal bands that actually pull it off are:

MORTIFICATION


TOURNIQUET



LIVING SACRIFICE


Other than that, most christian bands suck. Hail Satan!

I heard the Muslim band that opened was da'bomb!

It apparently was a duty day...with the option of getting out of duty if one wanted to attend the "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert." It was an event apparently being sponsored by the CG and unit commanders would like to see a good turn out...but it was not punishment per se...to be ordered to remain in barracks and clean...being a duty day.

Leave it to amputate to skew the facts, then call someone else a troll, call religion a disease, all while claiming "freedom of religion" when Muslims want to build a mosque near the WTC. The stupidity of this kid is priceless.

Yep Common Practice!
If we didn't go to any Church we wanted to on Sundays, we stayed and cleaned.
Nothing New!
Move along!

Once again we twist the story around to make it sound like something bad and evil happened.

I remember being in the military and being locked down for a day or a weekend or what not. But by law, they couldn't stop us from going to church. Those who wanted to go to church went to church, and those who didn't stayed behind. No one got any free time or what not.

So you get locked down for not being a christian? Thank goodness there's no jews, hindus, muslims or any other religions enlisted.

Wow. Really? A Jew can be reprimanded for not wanting to go to a Christian concert or church service? Seriously? You have to be absolutely fucking joking. Good way to kill moral.

The sad thing is, is that there is no invisible man in the sky who's going to make everything ok. It doesn't exist. He, her, it. No invisible guy in the sky. Hubble would have taken his picture by now.

The only civilization that came close to getting religion right was the ancient Egyptians. If you're gonna worship a God, ain't no better one than Ra. I pin my hopes of survival on the sun. I'll get on my knees and pray to that big burning bitch.

Everyone else can fuck off.

NO,
They got lock down or more than likely told to go back to their barracks, because they didn't want to attend what happened to be a Christian concert.
If it would of been a (insert religion) event, same thing!
On Sundays we could PICK what Church i any you wanted to go to, if you selected NONE, you stayed and Cleaned.

Felt Pressured in the Military, HA Really No.... Guess that is better than being TOLD you had to go!

Ok, cool. Never heard of anyone being locked down because they didn't want to attend a Jewish event, but I'm Canadian.

We're too busy spending millions of tax payer dollars patriating Sri Lankin terrorists and pseudo refugees to worry about the effects of religion on our soldier's moral.

I just saw this article on Yahoo news. And it is misleading.

When I was in boot camp we were totally locked down - no anything at all - but one night we were allowed to see Full Metal Jacket (ironic, isn't it?). No one was forced to go, and anyone who decided not to go stayed behind in the barracks.

No one was literally "locked down"...they were ordered to remain in barracks. No one was "reprimanded". Being a duty day...they were given the choice of attending the concert...or remaining in barracks...during duty hours. This is nothing unusual and is SOP.

And if they were forced to go to a MUSLIM concert you'd be here bicthing abut thier Constitutional right were violated. Like most right wing christian nutjobs you're a fucking hypocrite.

worst people ever

Hitler
Stalin
Saddam
Serial killers
Child molesters
hypocrites( means YOU )

congrats on being only slighly better than a child molester.

You have to be a good practicing Christian to visit new lands, meet new people and shoot them. LOL

Saloth Sar and Mao Zedong will be disappointed to not get any recognition.

It's still a disease, you're infected with it, camcrybaby is still a troll, and I never cried "freedom of religion" anywhere. You're confusing me again with someone that gives a fuck Demon. I don't give a fuck if the muslims get their NY dry cleaners or whatever the fuck it is, but I damn sure also won't accept being forced to pray to jeebuz. Punish me or kill me first. No facts were "skewed".... that's just your catchy way of ignoring the facts and hijacking my thread for your own agenda, as usual. The fact is they were told to go sing & pray to jeebuz or the punishment is lockdown and cleaning all day. Maybe next time they'll have an Islam day and those who don't want 72 mythical virgins can spend the day peeling potatos.

It's no christian event if it doesn't involve any sort of punishment!

:error:error:error:error

Not like you have a shot at doing either one. :1orglaugh

I find things like peeling potatos to be quite relaxing and much less irritating than religion.

Agreed. But I've pulled KP before, (actually for this very reason.... I was given the choice to go celebrate the birth of baby jeebuz, or go on KP all day.... I chose KP)... and peeling potatos all day for hundreds of soldiers is anything but fun.... :winkwink:

What's KP?


edit// found it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KP_duty

Fucking pathetic isn't it. :Oh crap

Kitchen Police

means being a military kitchen slave for a whole day.

When will the Muslim Rock concert night be? lol