According to the Army Times, the US Army is investigating claims that Soldiers were punished when they declined to attend a concert by a Christian music group in May. 

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.

Interestingly, the punishment was reportedly telling the Soldiers to go back to their barracks.

As others have noted elsewhere, this “scandal” may be a result of selective semantics.  Within military training environments, it is not unusual for those who opt out of voluntary events to be sent back to their rooms.  This is most frequently done during religious services conducted non-simultaneously (ie, a Christian service and a Jewish service).

In addition, since those participating in the event, whatever it may be, are unable to use their personal items, the same restriction is often (though not always) placed on those who do not attend. 

One former servicemember reported declining to join his unit’s support of a local football bowl game; in return, he stood six hours of guard duty in the cold rain.  To those outside the military, it could be viewed as “punishment,” but it was nothing of the sort.  True, it may not seem “fair” by some standards.  Still, some even volunteer to sit extra duty during such optional events because it earns them either status or credit for future events.  There are probably thousands of such voluntary events in the military every year, though they generally stay well below the radar even when they’re on national TV: like, say, a Stephen Colbert taping, as has happened once and will happen again.  It is unlikely anyone was “forced” to go, though those who did not may have ended up doing menial tasks.

In this particular incident, it is likely the unit was marched to the event — which some reported as “pressuring” — because the unit commander was attempting to demonstrate support for an official military program.  The treatment of the Soldiers who chose not to participate does not appear to have been anything different than the way they would be treated after opting out of any other voluntary event — religious or not.

The fact that it was a Christian concert is irrelevant to the incident, though it does add a conspiratorial undertone (and thus shock value) to the loud accusations.  In fact, this may even be a good example of spiritual neutrality in the military — because the Soldiers were treated exactly the same way regardless of any religious content within the voluntary event. 

In summary, no religious event was mandatory, and the treatment of the Soldiers was not related to the content of the event.  Now, who would see a conspiracy of “religious tyranny” in an event conducted just like any other non-religious event?  As if that had to be asked: 

Mikey Weinstein claims Christian-themed events are “ubiquitous” throughout the military…

“Whenever we see this egregious, unconstitutional religious tyranny our job is to fight it,” he said.

And further:

[Weinstein] said [those] who were pressured into attending the concert – and then punished if they chose otherwise – were “spiritually raped by their commanding officers.”