Soldiers allege punishment over Christian show - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Soldiers allege punishment over Christian show

The Army is investigating allegations that soldiers were pressured to attend a Christian concert — and punished when they refused.

Pvt. Anthony Smith says he was one of 80 soldiers in Advanced Individual Training at Fort Eustis, Va., who were punished for opting not to attend a Christian rock concert on post. The soldiers were confined to their barracks, ordered to clean and were barred from using cell phones and other electronics, according to Smith and another soldier who asked to remain anonymous.

The Army is conducting an investigation into the incident, ordered by Lt. Gen. John E. “Jack” Sterling, Training and Doctrine Command chief of staff, TRADOC spokesman Harvey Perritt said. Perritt and a Fort Eustis spokesman declined to offer details while the investigation continues.

Col. Thomas Collins, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said the military should not impose religious views on soldiers.

“It’s not a problem to hold a Christian rock concert on an Army post; it’s a problem if soldiers who didn’t want to attend were compelled to attend or feel punished for not attending,” he said. “That is not consistent with Army policy.”

Smith said he believes his spiritual life should remain private.

“The religion thing being shoved down my throat is really something that doesn’t work for me,” said Smith, now in Arizona with the 640th Aviation Support Battalion. “As far as what I believe, I believe there’s something out there, but it’s a really personal thing with me. If I have a relationship with God or that entity, it is not anybody’s business, ever.”

BarlowGirl, the Christian rockers who played at Eustis as part of a Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concert Series, describe themselves on their website as “tender-hearted, beautiful young women who aren’t afraid to take an aggressive, almost warrior-like stance when it comes to spreading the gospel and serving God.”

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is readying a federal lawsuit, according to its founder, Mikey Weinstein. He blasted the commander who originated the concerts, saying the shows are a “walking neon sign of Defense Department-sanctioned, ignominious fundamentalist Christian supremacy and exceptionalism.”

On the evening of May 13, Smith was with A Company, 1st Battalion, 222nd Aviation Regiment, which was in training at the Army Aviation Logistics School. The student leader and the duty noncommissioned officer, a first sergeant, assembled the company in formation and marched it to the mess hall for dinner. After dinner, the unit was marched to the parking lot just outside the concert venue, Smith said.

“As soon as they told us we were marching to chow because we were going to this concert together, people started to f---ing freak out, people started to get angry,” Smith said. “There were several Muslims in the company, and people started getting upset right away.”

Smith said A Company appeared to be the only group entering the concert as a unit.

Outside the venue, the troops were asked to split into two groups, those attending and those who would not. Smith and the others who opted out were marched to the barracks, where they were placed on “lockdown,” their activities were restricted until the concert ended.

“Anybody in the military will tell you that lockdown is a form of punishment,” Smith said. “When we don’t want to go to this concert and we’re not allowed to use our laptops or our cell phones or music, we’re not allowed to be sitting in our beds — that’s a form of punishment.”

Smith and eight other soldiers attempted to file a complaint with a succession of Equal Opportunity officials in their chain of command.

Smith said as he went through the ranks, each official tried to dissuade him from filing a formal complaint, and all but one of the soldiers who first complained with him backed off.

Smith said he spoke with the company commander, who told him that he took responsibility for directing the first sergeant to send the unit to the concert.

Smith and the other soldier, who asked not to be identified, said they would be willing to join the planned federal lawsuit. Neither said they want to see other soldiers punished; Smith said he wants soldiers to “know and understand” why he and the other soldiers were wronged.

“I want to help other people; I don’t think that anyone should have to feel this,” Smith said. “I think that somebody should look into these spiritual fitness events because I’m pretty sure all of them are Christian. I guarantee I can’t go to an Army base and see a Muslim rock concert described as spiritual fitness.”

Both soldiers said the incident has changed their view of the Army and the country. The soldier speaking anonymously about the incident said he fears people who are irreligious by choice are no longer tolerated.

“We have mob rule, where it is purely Christian in every direction,” he said. “For someone like me, you feel surrounded.”

Brig. Gen. Brian R. Layer, who was the commanding general of the Army Transportation School at Fort Eustis during the May incident, inherited the spiritual fitness concert series from Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers. A professed born-again Christian, Chambers went on to Fort Lee, Va., and in April became director for logistics at Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.

As head of Army Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee, Chambers duplicated the series, telling a post newspaper in 2008, “The idea is not to be a proponent for any one religion ... It’s to have a mix of different performers with different backgrounds.”

Between 2007 and 2009, the Army paid $125,000 to a booking agency for Christian performers for events at Fort Lee and Fort Eustis, according to USAspending.gov, a searchable database of federal spending. The contractor was Indiana-based Street Level Artist Agency.

Several performers who were publicized in the post newspaper and played at Eustis in recent months all advertised themselves as conveying a Christian message: Mark Schultz, Josh Wilson, the Micah Watson Band, Brandishing Steel, True Liberty, Alathea, Phil Keaggy, SonicFlood and BarlowGirl.

Lauren Barlow, a band member, said in her Twitter feed Aug. 21 that the band “knew nothing at all about soldiers being forced to go to our show.”

A federal lawsuit by Military Religious Freedom Foundation would be the third in a series it has undertaken against the Army over the last few years. The two prior lawsuits, which took aim at alleged proselytizing by members of the armed forces, were dismissed.

In January, a federal judge in Kansas dismissed Spc. Dustin Chalker and the foundation’s 2008 lawsuit against the Defense Department, ruling Chalker failed to exhaust all available remedies before filing suit.

Chalker claimed his rights were violated when he was compelled to attend military events at Fort Riley, Kan., where prayers were made without regard to his status as an atheist.

Also in 2008, a voluntary dismissal was filed in a federal lawsuit in which Spc. Jeremy Hall alleged he was harassed and discriminated against because he is an atheist.