{"id":16748,"date":"2012-03-09T00:09:46","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T03:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=16748"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:14:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:14:03","slug":"atheist-concert-emphasizes-controversial-song-in-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/09\/atheist-concert-emphasizes-controversial-song-in-lineup\/","title":{"rendered":"Army Atheist Concert Emphasizes Controversial Song in Lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rock Beyond Belief, the atheist event billed as a counter<\/a> to the previous Christian Rock the Fort<\/a>, has clearly announced\u00a0a previously controversial song will be featured\u00a0in its lineup.<\/p>\n

In January, FoxNews carried<\/a> the story of Aiden’s Hysteria<\/em><\/a>, whose music video showed burning churches while the lyrics said religion “distorts the truth” and called for its “death.”<\/p>\n

At the time, the lead organizer of the event, Justin Griffith, was quoted in\u00a0the FoxNews article<\/a> saying this was a faux controversy — though the public reaction, and Fort Bragg’s, seemed to differ.\u00a0 While the FoxNews piece focused on ‘images of burning churches,’ the issue has always been Aiden’s lyrics that criticized religion.\u00a0 Now, Griffith makes a point of stating Aiden will perform <\/a>Hysteria<\/a> <\/em>[emphasis original]:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

They will <\/em>be playing this song.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be clear, neither FoxNews nor this site ever claimed they needed to drop <\/em>the song.\u00a0 The question was only\u00a0whether it met the military requirements for performance at Fort Bragg — which included the stipulation that performers not make “statements that are critical of other religions.”\u00a0 They could theoretically change the lyrics, of course,\u00a0though the song might end up being an instrumental — since the vast majority of the song is critical of religion.\u00a0 That’s its point, after all:<\/p>\n

Love how they [redacted<\/em>]
\nLove how they [redacted<\/em>]
\nFilling [redacted<\/em>]
\nFilling [redacted<\/em>]
\nFaith holding [redacted<\/em>]
\nThis is just the world we live in
\nCan you justify the pain
\nThe death of [redacted<\/em>]
\n\u00a0
\nHysteria
\nWe live We die
\nI wont give up
\nIn a world worth saving goodbye
\nI don’t have anything to fear
\nI live, I live hysteria
\n\u00a0
\nWait supporting [redacted<\/em>]
\nHate [redacted<\/em>]
\nA message to your herd
\nOur voices will be heard
\nNow faith is a question you can choose
\nFaith whether Christian, Muslim, Jew
\nStill you all [redacted<\/em>]
\nThe death of [redacted<\/em>]
\n\u00a0
\nSearching for the answers are
\nyou asking all the questions
\nWill the evidence suffice your fear
\nHuman evolution is the only real solution
\nAll the truth you gotta hear
\nWould you stand and fight<\/p>\n

Actually, if they don’t mind humming a few bars and repeating the chorus a lot, they might be able to do it.\u00a0 On the other hand, when he defended the song, Griffith actually validated <\/em>the complaints of those who have questioned the lyrics, saying of lead singer William Control:<\/p>\n

He’s\u00a0being sardonic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Sardonic” means\u00a0“grimly mocking or cynical.”\u00a0 Griffith\u00a0admits the event’s “atheist anthem” mocks religion, in violation of the military’s guidance on other similar (religious)\u00a0events<\/a>.\u00a0 Remember, they’re supposed to make no “statements that are critical of other religions.”<\/p>\n

In the same defensive blog, Griffith continues the persecuted-atheist mantra by referencing the chaplain previously cited here<\/a>, saying [emphasis original]:<\/p>\n

Now an evangelical chaplain is demanding that Fort Bragg cancels<\/strong> [sic<\/em>] our event, in an open letter to the commanders <\/strong>[sic<\/em>].<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Griffith links to the letter<\/a> — which says no such thing.\u00a0 As with prior melodramatic claims of\u00a0atheist martyrdom<\/a>, the accusations are factually incorrect.\u00a0 In fact, US Army Chaplain (Capt) Chuck Williams — formerly of Fort Bragg, and currently deployed to Afghanistan — specifically said the opposite [emphasis added]:<\/p>\n

I share no objection <\/em><\/strong>with the Fort Bragg community permitting the \u2018Rock Beyond Belief\u2019 event <\/em><\/strong>itself, billed to promote atheism and secular humanism, as long as it is held civility and respectfully.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As previously noted<\/a>, Chaplain Williams does <\/em>take issue, as many have, with the critical tone toward religion upon which the Rock Beyond Belief\u00a0performers rely, asking not that the event be cancelled, as Griffith claims, but that it be held to the same standards as Rock the Fort:<\/p>\n

I humbly request and appeal for your staff to strongly advise the promoters and participants of this event that no such display of wanton disrespect, as well as the promoting of violence towards those who believe in God through verbal and visual means will be tolerated in the Fort Bragg community.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chaplain Williams does say those who promote disrespect and violence should not be given the Fort Bragg venue — but unless that’s how Griffith is characterizing his own event, it is clear the chaplain did not<\/em> call for Fort Bragg to “cancel[]” the event.<\/p>\n

The chaplain accurately notes the feeling of much of the religious community:\u00a0 Griffith and his fellow atheists should be free\u00a0“to promote atheism and secular humanism.”\u00a0 They simply need to “celebrate reason,” rather than “denigrate religion” — which, at every turn, seems to be what they really want to do.\u00a0 (This may be due, in part, to atheism’s status as an asterisk on Christianity; atheism has no ideology independent of religion.)<\/p>\n

Rock Beyond Belief organizers, and Griffith himself, are likely understandably frustrated.\u00a0 They should take comfort, though, in knowing they’re getting exactly what they asked for<\/em>:\u00a0 Rock the Fort, too, endured scrutiny (arguably, more than Rock Beyond Belief).\u00a0 In fact, more than one group called Rock the Fort unconstitutional and demanded it be cancelled<\/a> — while no mainstream organization has done the same for the atheist “counter” to the Christian event.<\/p>\n

All Rock Beyond Belief has to do is follow the same rules as every other event.\u00a0 They’ve claimed they’re going to be “family friendly.”\u00a0 The Army has said they will be held to the same standards as other events, which included not being “critical” of other religions.<\/p>\n

If they wanted to end some of the public concern, Rock Beyond Belief could announce that Aiden’s songs would be filtered of critical statements of religion, and Richard Dawkins, Michael Weinstein, and other speakers had been instructed not to make critical statements.<\/p>\n

(If they have questions, though, they probably shouldn’t ask the MRFF’s Chris Rodda.\u00a0 She seems confused<\/a> about what would be permissible.)<\/p>\n

If they can follow the same rules as everyone else, they’ll be just fine.\u00a0 They only have reason to be concerned if they can’t<\/em> do that.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, they seem concerned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rock Beyond Belief, the atheist event billed as a counter to the previous Christian Rock the Fort, has clearly announced\u00a0a previously controversial song will be featured\u00a0in its lineup. In January, FoxNews carried the story of Aiden’s Hysteria, whose music video showed burning churches while the lyrics said religion “distorts the truth” and called for its “death.” At the time, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[58,2802,88,20,5284,175,96,3013,82,1023,3042,44,39,1055,3043,85,2,5218,7,10,171,1126,1056,3044],"class_list":["post-16748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-afghanistan","tag-aiden","tag-army","tag-atheism","tag-chaplain","tag-chris-rodda","tag-christian","tag-chuck-williams","tag-constitution","tag-fort-bragg","tag-hysteria","tag-islam","tag-jewish","tag-justin-griffith","tag-lyrics","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-rock-beyond-belief","tag-rock-the-fort","tag-william-control"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}