US Military Supporting Christian Extremist Events

Fort Eustis and Fort Lee, US Army forts in the state of Virginia, have been putting on a series of "Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts" for the past several years. These concerts have an evangelical Christian message and promote religion in the military of a supposedly secular state.

On May 13 of this year, around 80 soldiers at Fort Eustis were punished for refusing to attend one of these fanatical Christian concerts. This one in particular featured the all-girl rock group BarlowGirl as the headliner. The band describes itself as having, "an aggressive, almost warrior-like stance when it comes to spreading the gospel and serving God."

The father of the girls in the band, the Barlow sisters, was quite happy that his daughters could perform for the military. "We really believe that to be a Christian in today's world, you have to be a warrior, and we feel very blessed and privileged that God has given us the tool to deliver His message and arm His army," he said.

Some of the soldiers who were punished for refusing to attend the event filed a complaint with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Here is an excerpt from the MRFF account:

The week prior to the event the [unit name and NCO's name withheld] informed us of a Christian rock event that was about to take place on Thursday the 13th.

"On Thursday 13th at 1730 we were informed that instead of being dismissed for the day, the entire company (about 250 soldiers) would march as a whole to the event. Not only that, but to make sure that everyone is present we were prohibited from going back to the barracks (to eliminate the off chance that some might "hide" in their rooms and not come back down).

We were marched as a whole to chow and were instructed to reform outside the dining facility. A number of soldiers were disappointed and restless. Several of us were of different faith or belief. A couple were particularly offended (being of Muslim faith) and started considering to disobey the order.

From the dining facility we were marched back to the company area. There was a rumor circulating that we may be given a choice later on to fall out or attend. Though it was only a rumor it was also a small hope enough to allow us to follow along a little longer before choosing to become disobedient. We were marched back to the company area. To our dismay there was still no sign of us having a choice.

We started marching to the theater. At that point two Muslim soldiers fell out of formation on their own. Student leadership tried to convince them to fall back in and that a choice will be presented to us once we reach the theater.

At the theater we were instructed to split in two groups; those that want to attend versus those that don't. At that point what crossed my mind is the fact that being given an option so late in the game implies that the leadership is attempting to make a point about its intention. The "body language" was suggesting that "we marched you here as a group to give you a clue that we really want you to attend (we tilt the table and expect you to roll in our direction), now we give you the choice to either satisfy us or disappoint us." A number of soldiers seemed to notice these clues and sullenly volunteered for the concert in fear of possible consequences.

Those of us that chose not to attend (about 80, or a little less that half) were marched back to the company area. At that point the NCO issued us a punishment. We were to be on lock-down in the company (not released from duty), could not go anywhere on post (no PX, no library, etc). We were to go to strictly to the barracks and contact maintenance. If we were caught sitting in our rooms, in our beds, or having/handling electronics (cell phones, laptops, games) and doing anything other than maintenance, we would further have our weekend passes revoked and continue barracks maintenance for the entirety of the weekend. At that point the implied message was clear in my mind "we gave you a choice to either satisfy us or disappoint us. Since you chose to disappoint us you will now have your freedoms suspended and contact chores while the rest of your buddies are enjoying a concert."

At that evening, nine of us chose to pursue an EO complaint. I was surprised to find out that a couple of the most offended soldiers were actually Christian themselves (Catholic).

The Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concert series was Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers' idea. Chambers held the first concert at Fort Lee within a month of becoming the commanding general of the Combined Arms Support Command in 2008. He had been doing this at Fort Eustis for sometime before this, and his work is being continued by its new commanding general. The concerts are also promoted to those on Langley Air Force Base.

According to Chambers, his idea was to have a religiously diverse selection of performers, but clearly he was telling lies because only radical, fundamentalist Christians have performed in his events. Another problem is that only the chaplains' offices are allowed to hold religious events, the command officers are not.

These religious fundamentalist bands are very expensive, causing taxpayers of all religions to shell out anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 per band. The MRFF looked into other military "spiritual fitness" events, and it was found that $3.5 million went down the drain for one Christian extremist event.

Instances of Christian bigotry happen in the American military on a regular basis. What is happening in Virginia is just another example of this. With all of this in mind, as well as the recently exposed war crimes (thanks to Wikileaks), one must wonder if the American military is really any better than the Mujaheddin they are fighting. Perhaps the US Christian crusaders should climb back into the caves with their Taliban brothers.