{"id":7513,"date":"2010-10-04T00:30:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T06:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=7513"},"modified":"2010-10-03T23:59:13","modified_gmt":"2010-10-04T05:59:13","slug":"atheists-to-take-up-ft-bragg-generals-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/04\/atheists-to-take-up-ft-bragg-generals-offer\/","title":{"rendered":"Atheists to Take up Ft. Bragg General’s Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small but building group of atheists has decided to take LtGen Frank Helmick at his word, when in his defense of Rock the Fort<\/a> at Fort Bragg he said he would<\/p>\n

provide similar support to comparable events sponsored by similar non-Federal entities that address the needs of Soldiers on this Installation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The group, apparently led by US Army Specialist Justin Griffith, are beginning coordination to hold an atheist “Freedom Festival” next year at Fort Bragg (complete with website<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Our goal is to organize and promote an event to be held at Ft. Bragg with the support of MWR, just like the “Rock the Fort” evangelical Christian event held on 9\/25\/10.<\/p>\n

…Please join this group and help us plan an event for Skeptics, Free-Thinkers, Agnostics, Atheists, and those who just want to enjoy a day FREE from religion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good on’em.\u00a0 While the group may be ideologically at odds with most military members (a majority reportedly hold a religious faith), they are still permitted to seek support equivalent to what other ideologies receive. If they meet the requirements\u00a0(including being a non-Federal entity addressing Soldiers’ needs) as Rock the Fort reportedly did, then they should absolutely expect the same support.\u00a0 (Ironically, the event would likely still be held under the auspices of the Chaplaincy.)\u00a0 Should the event succeed, it will counter the long-running canard that the military might<\/em> prohibit a non-Christian event if<\/em> such a group ever bothered to ask.<\/p>\n

There may be some internal challenges to overcome.\u00a0 The organizers will likely have to tread carefully near\u00a0what some have called the “new atheism,” which is more “anti-religion” than “pro-reason.”\u00a0\u00a0While the military would likely support a group espousing the latter, it may be averse to support the former, as it may be perceived as\u00a0demeaning or denigrating religion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, in the internet comments thus far,\u00a0there remains\u00a0an underlying current of antipathy toward Rock the Fort.\u00a0 While the atheist group is willing to have the military support their<\/em> event, some are still unwilling to acknowledge the “right” of Christians to have theirs<\/em>.\u00a0 By contrast, while some non-atheists may disagree with their ideology, they support the right of atheist Soldiers to gather in an equivalent “Freedom Festival” if they so choose.\u00a0\u00a0Some in the atheist group may be missing the point of\u00a0true<\/em> freedom.<\/p>\n

Of course, one of the oft-repeated issues with Rock the Fort\u00a0was\u00a0its evangelical bent.\u00a0 That said, it will be interesting to see if the atheist event makes an intentional effort to avoid<\/em> persuading\u00a0others\u00a0to their viewpoint.\u00a0 After all, if people join their cause (or are even just invited to\u00a0do so), their “Freedom Festival” might\u00a0be open to the\u00a0same charge of “proselytizing” that religious events often receive.<\/p>\n

Within the constraints of the mission, logistical limitations, and reason, the US military generally does an admirable job of supporting the spiritual (or aspiritual) needs of its members.\u00a0 Such protection of religious freedom is routinely a topic on this site, from the military’s support of religious events like Ramadan<\/a> to military Chaplains starting “skeptic” groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After all the ‘bad\u00a0press’ about religion and the military, some are surprised to learn the military is not only officially accommodating, it is also accommodating in practice.\u00a0 Perhaps someday people may realize the negative noise they hear often isn’t true.<\/p>\n

“Religious freedom” is\u00a0a firmly protected liberty in the military — for everyone<\/em>, even those who are areligious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A small but building group of atheists has decided to take LtGen Frank Helmick at his word, when in his defense of Rock the Fort at Fort Bragg he said he would provide similar support to comparable events sponsored by similar non-Federal entities that address the needs of Soldiers on this Installation. The group, apparently led by US Army Specialist […]<\/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":[88,20,4,1023,1025,1055,2,17,10,171,1056],"class_list":["post-7513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-army","tag-atheism","tag-churchandstate","tag-fort-bragg","tag-frank-helmick","tag-justin-griffith","tag-military","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-rock-the-fort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7513","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=7513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}