"Rock Beyond Belief" Festival At Fort Bragg CANCELED

The organizers of the upcoming Rock Beyond Belief concert at Fort Bragg, NC have been forced to cancel the event because the authorities there have withdrawn their promised support for the event. Rock Beyond Belief was organized in response to Fort Bragg’s overwhelming sponsorship, endorsement, and support of a Christian evangelical event called Rock the Fort. When atheists and secularists around the country protested the government’s support of this event and requested it be canceled, officials at Fort Bragg stated that the same level of support would be provided to anyone who organized a similar event. That has now proven to be untrue, as demonstrated by the actions of Fort Bragg officials.

The actions Fort Bragg officials took against Rock Beyond Belief included denying the use of an outdoor venue, denying financial support, and demanding that any advertisement or sponsorship clearly state that Fort Bragg did no support or endorse the event. However, Fort Bragg previously provided Rock the Fort the requested outside venue, provided thousands of dollars in financial support, and freely promoted the event.

Direct from SGT Justin Griffith, Organizer, Rock Beyond Belief:

I am SGT Justin Griffith, the Foxhole Atheist stationed at Fort Bragg who is spear-heading the hot-button Rock Beyond Belief secular festival. As you are probably aware, we have just been given last-minute crippling restrictions by the Garrison Commander, Colonel Stephen Sicinski. He was the very last stop on our extremely lengthy approval process, and he decided to go against the advice of his own legal staff. Our event is/was %99.999 approved, with all of the major review processes giving us the green light and assuring us that we were getting everything we asked for. All the commander had to do was sign a letter. Instead he chose to implement a 100% reduction in funding (forcing us to cancel), an unexplained venue change to a tiny theater (Richard Dawkins in a room the size of a grade school gymnasium? Really?) It gets worse, he placed all of these restrictions so late in the game that we are completely unable to do much about it on our own.

However, I do not intend to go down without a fight. I have compiled a list of things that *anyone* can help us with. I am calling on each of you to please put out an alert, raid your user database, post whatever sort of blog/newsletter/news release/Facebook update/or whatever you can to help us put public pressure on the situation. Please make whatever phone call you are willing and able to make, and/or forward this to your ‘communications director’ if applicable. The more media, government, and overall visibility this discrimination gets, the better our chances at making a I have worked closely with many of you for advice and support in the past. Many of you I haven’t worked with, and I apologize for barging in like this. I wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t extremely important. It is the only option left for the foxhole atheists at Fort Bragg.”

For more details concerning the amount of support Rock the Fort received, see here:
FFRF: FOIA documents Army’s ‘Rock the Fort’ subsidy

For more information on the event and cancellation:
Rock Beyond Belief Canceled - US Army Being Sued In Federal Court

Posted by Kathleen Johnson