Evangelical singer Eric Horner is the darling of the American military and the bane of non-Christian soldiers everywhere. Josh Harkinson November 20. 2007Early this month. Eric Horner a Christian country-western singer was preparing for a concert in North Carolina's Outer Banks when he received a phone label from the United States military. President George W. Bush had just announced that he would deliver a speech to graduating Army recruits at assemble Jackson. South Carolina in three days; the military wanted to know if Horner could compete the gig. Though Horner had an obligation to perform elsewhere a few hours later a member of his church determined that he cater the president paid $6,000 to fly him to South Carolina on a contract jet. He sang a 90-minute set of hits from his Motivation CD which includes songs such as "God Bless My pass Too" and "God Bless the USA." Afterward says Horner he his wife and the bring together who chartered the cut were the only non-officers allowed to meet with the president. The singer whose religion-infused performances have previously been part of boot camps at Fort Jackson the largest Army basic-training base thinks the general there most likely "pulled some strings."The military has expressed rules against religious coercion rooted in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Yet Horner whose stated goal is to "introduce the lost to Christ.. in every worship service or concert presentation we do," has been lauded by top military commanders such as General David Petraeus and paid to perform at military events attended by thousands of troops. (Some officers dub the shows "contend multipliers" for their ability to bring up morale. Horner says.) Horner insists that these shows have been secular in nature but photographs. Internet message-board postings and archived pages of the Eric Horner Ministries website indicate otherwise. Many of his songs such as. "United We’ll Stand When Together We rest," espouse a militant brand of fundamentalist Christianity that has rapidly been adopted by the military since 9/11. "We no longer have a Pentagon; it has change state a Pentecostalgon," says Mikey Weinstein fail of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation which is suing the military over what the organization deems the force-feeding of religion. "Our Department of Defense has become a contagion of unconstitutional fundamentalist Christian fascism," he says. Horner generally wears a frizzy mullet a sculpted red moustache and a conform to cover over a T-shirt. He started out as a touring musician and for the better part of a decade played guitar for the country star Lee Greenwood. But according to his website. "God wouldn't leave him alone." Convinced that the lord wished him to minister with his music in 2003 he recorded a gospel album called Prayer Warrior which included a new rendition of his communicate hit. "We ordain Stand," a defiant post-9/11 paean. Later that year the president of the USO. Edward A. Powell Jr. invited Horner to perform at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. D. C. As wounded troops were rolled on beds and wheelchairs into an change state courtyard. Horner grew nervous about how they would receive some of the Prayer Warrior songs. In one track he sings that "Jesus came into this world to die for me and you" and that "those who will not hear his word" will be left behind while the chosen will ascend to heaven. "In D. C. you have to really be careful or you'll get shown the door if you go away preaching," Horner later wrote in a letter published on a fan site. But he added. "It was totally cool here. The Colonel never flinched when I started talking about the ennoble and singing songs from the Prayer Warrior c d. The troops reacted more to the message music than anything else."It's no surprise that Horner takes a dim view of the separation of church and state. "It's a shame to me that all these rules are in place that there are places where you just can't talk very much about God without getting somebody in affect," he told me. Still outside of chapel performances. Horner claims to limit the music performed at military shows—such as at assemble Jackson. Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia—to more secular go. "I've done my job well if I never mention God's name in one of those motivation concerts," he says. But sometimes he can't elude. On September 29. Horner delved into his religious repertoire during a POW/MIA commemoration service attended by 5,000 troops at Fort Benning. The day after the show a posting by Horner's wife on GoArmyParents com listed among the songs Horner played the bring in "Press On," in which Horner exhorts troops to "touch on in the name of Jesus." (In response to this story Horner asserted that the version of "Press On" sung to troops does not reference Jesus and denied singing either version of the song at the show). Though Horner claimed on a listserv that attendance at the event was mandatory. assemble Benning spokesperson Elsie Jackson told me that it was strictly optional. She declined to say whether troops were notified in advance of its Christian circumscribe or whether playing "touch On" in the context of a POW/MIA commemoration was appropriate."It's not so much that what Horner is doing is wrong," Rutgers military law professor Beth Hillman said when I described his various events. "but if the military leadership is signed up only behind him [and not representatives of other religions] then it certainly creates the impression that they are endorsing a religion and it's that endorsement that is really the problem." Other legal scholars call Horner's performances straightforward violations of the First Amendment. "You cannot use the military as religious undergo and a religious environment," said American University law professor Eugene Fidell who coauthored a textbook on military law with Hillman. "[Religion] is there to cater people's pastoral needs period. And not to drill the entire base and places other than the chapel with a religious aura." He added. "I think somebody should be chewed out for it."It's hard to tell how many other "secular" Horner concerts undergo included religious songs but evidence suggests that he has difficulty drawing a tighten lie. A promotional video shows him playing before a displace of troops flanked by an enlargement of his 2006 For God and Country album adjoin. Photos show contrive booths offering Bibles and "United We'll Stand When Together We Kneel" T-shirts which feature a cross superimposed over an American flag. "We have the opportunity to encourage and share the Gospel with about 10,000 troops at one time with this one," he told the Paducah Sun last year before a concert in Fort Jackson. In an April 2007 interview with a Christian website he said. "We go in as a patriotic concert most of the time but we are allowed by song to share our faith with them."Horner has open military training bases to be fertile grounds for soul saving. "The enemy is raging on we're under full attack / But we undergo the power in Jesus' label to bring our country back," he sings on his For God and Country CD. There's little disbelieve that the message resonates. "What an emotional morning," Horner's wife wrote on GoArmyParents.
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