“Rock Beyond Belief,” the atheist counter-event to the Billy Graham Evangelical Association’s “Rock the Fort,” has apparently managed to obtain sufficient funding to proceed.  Prior statements seemed to indicate RBB would not back down from its “demand” that Fort Bragg give it money (even as the manufactured controversy “increased [their] funding“).  This continued even after Fort Bragg pointed out “Rock the Fort” was funded from the Christian collection plate, not by the US military. 

Apparently unable to solicit enough general interest from like-minded atheists, extraordinarily wealthy “freethinker” Todd Stiefel has stepped up to provide $50,000.  Even that otherwise “positive” announcement continued the theme of attacking the US military:

[The Stiefel Freethought Foundation] has pledged $50,000 to support the Rock Beyond Belief secular festival at Ft. Bragg. Due to discrimination by the U.S. Military against our event and in favor of Evangelical Christian events, RBB is currently cancelled pending litigation [sic]. SFF has donated $1,000 so far to offset the costs of RBB.

As a result, RBB is apparently backing down from its demand the US military pay for its event.

It’s good to see “Rock Beyond Belief” is finally, if reluctantly, fulfilling the same requirements of every other group that requests an event on Fort Bragg; that is, it is accepting equal treatment, rather than continuing its cries for special treatment.