Fort Bragg Bias: Military Fails To Keep Promise To Support Secularist Event

[Adsos Letter]

SOURCE: The Wall of Separation
March 7th, 2011
By Sandhya Bathija.

Back in September, Americans United urged Army officials to cancel an evangelistic event at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

AU said “Rock the Fort” targeted both service personnel and civilian families in the surrounding community for conversion to evangelical Christianity. Despite its clear religious nature, the rally and concert received the full backing of military brass, who helped advertise and fund the event to the tune of $54,500.

*snip*
Despite our protest, military officials went ahead with the program. They said Rock the Fort was sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and that the military was just being supportive. They said they would do the same for any other comparable event.

That has apparently turned out to be an empty promise.
*snip*

LINK: http://blog.au.org/2011/03/07/fort-bragg-bias-military-fails-to-keep-promise-to-support-secularist-event/
____________________________________________________

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Radical fundies with history's best-ever weapons! What could go wrong?

[madmax]

2. So taxpayers paid the 54k?

:wtf:

[Adsos Letter]

3. "...Rock the Fort received financial subsidies that Sicinski made clear Rock Beyond Belief would not

Not sure how much of that was voluntary, and how much from taxpaid funding (have to do more research). There is this, however:

"Griffith pointed out that Fort Bragg officially endorsed and co-sponsored the evangelical event, noting that every flyer, poster and media advertisement contained official Fort Bragg phone numbers. The press releases publicizing Rock the Fort were even on Fort Bragg letterhead, and publicity emails were sent by Fort Bragg officials."

and

"Just last month, Griffith was told that his event would receive the same level of support as Rock The Fort. But in a letter March 1 from Col. Stephen Sicinski, the promise evaporated."

"Sicinski...insisted that any advertising must include a disclaimer asserting that the event was being put on without any support from Fort Bragg. He added that none of the expenses for Rock Beyond Belief would be paid for by the military."

[madmax]

4. Thanks, I'm going to pay more attention to this

no taxpayer money for this stuff. I live in NC didn't know about this 'Rock the Fort'. I need to read my local paper more.

[peacebird]

5. we need to contact congress to demand that taxpayer money not go to support evangelical

attempts to convert new followers on military bases. Separation of church and state? ESPECIALLY if equal funds are NOT being spent on the other point of view.

[Countdown_3_2_1]

6. The military faces death of a regular basis...

No one is really going to separate religion and soldiers. Dealing with death and its consequences is more of a concern for soldiers than other govt employees.

I don't really begrudge them this.

If this were the Department of Agriculture, sure I would be concerned. But not the military.

[starroute]

8. This isn't about the soldiers -- it's about proselytization

Nobody's trying to take away their military chaplains or their right to pray in any convenient foxhole.

But the US military -- and taxpayer dollars -- should not be supporting the ability of one particularly intolerant Christian sect to run its conversion operations at the expense of all other forms of belief or non-belief.

Surely you can see the difference?

[Adsos Letter]

9. I'm glad you responded. You expressed it much better than I could have.

:thumbsup:

And, for the record, I am also an Army veteran (Field Artillery) and a Christian.

:thumbsup:

[muntrv]

7. Our tax dollars should not be funding this nonsense.