Camp Pendleton video of “Elijah” song

Published On: February 9, 2015|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|2 Comments on Camp Pendleton video of “Elijah” song|

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I hope someone at your organization can tell me if the video of Camp Pendleton marines singing a fundamentalist religious song, “The Days of Elijah” was taken at a sanction military event, or was at a church service that was not mandatory?

 

I’m one of those “chuckleheads”, as Alan West called us, who is concerned about the creeping Evangelism in our military and if this was an official Marine event, I want to encourage my U.S. Senators (Merkley and Weiden) and Representative (DeFazio) to push for a formal investigation.

 

Thanks much,
(name withheld)
Hi (name withheld) …
We did look into this video, and we found out that it was at a chapel event. This doesn’t mean that it’s not problematic and appalling, and it also doesn’t mean that everyone in attendance was there completely voluntarily, but, unfortunately, what it does mean is that there’s really nothing we can do about it.
What you refer to as “creeping Evangelism in our military” is a bit of an understatement — “creeping” would have been an accurate description fifteen years ago, but as of now it’s not just creeping; it has now fully crept in and completely infested the military.
Our biggest concern right now with videos like this “The Days of Elijah” one — even bigger than whether or not anyone was forced or coerced to attend the event — is that they are putting these videos out on the internet for our Islamic extremists enemies like ISIS to use as great propaganda tools for recruiting. While we might make the legal or constitutional distinction between it being a chapel event or it being a mandatory command-sponsored event, our extremist enemies around the world aren’t going to make that legal or constitutional distinction — they’re just going to see hundreds of United States Marines in uniform singing about being in a holy war, which makes putting a video like this one out on the internet dangerous and stupid beyond words. But MRFF’s adversaries, like Allen West, just can’t seem to grasp that.
Chris Rodda
Senior Research Director
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Chris:  Thank you – Greatly! – for your reply.  I will share your thoughts with my Facebook group of friends, some of whom are like Alan West and just don’t “get it”.   I (and most of my FB friends) appreciate what MRFF does.
(name withheld)

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2 Comments

  1. mac July 12, 2015 at 11:19 am

    This is so disturbing on so many levels. I couldn’t watch the whole video. Really, really sickening indoctrination of young minds.

  2. mike brockett September 22, 2018 at 9:44 am

    Great Video!
    You error stating this a song about holy war. The war was over when Jesus rose from the grave. The Marines are simply acknowledging that fact.

    Mike Brockett

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