Atheist 'Rock Beyond Belief' festival approved by Fort Bragg

After about a year of wrangling, Fort Bragg’s Garrison Commander has approved the Rock Beyond Belief event, an alternate to Franklin Graham's "Rock the Fort" evangelical concert.  Despite calls by  Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to stop the government-sponsored proselytizing event , Fort Bragg went ahead with the Graham event, with Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick promising that it would not infringe on anyone's freedoms and that "Fort Bragg would provide the same opportunity to non-Christian religious groups that want to host similar events."

Based on these representations, Sgt. Justin Griffith and others arranged for a freethinkers' star-studded "Rock Beyond Belief" and for months, they were led to believe that they would receive support from the Army similar to what the evangelical group had received.

The original Rock Beyond Belief concert was scheduled for April 2, 2011, but Fort Bragg reneged on its support.

Sgt. Justin Griffith reports that on March 31st, 2012, Fort Bragg will be hosting Rock Beyond Belief with the full support it was promised. Its key speaker, Richard Dawkins, is expected to draw thousands.

The event, which is free to the public, will feature many other speakers and musicians. Fort Bragg’s prestigious Golden Knights parachute team has been requested for an epic jump.

More information is available at Rock Beyond Belief's website.

D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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