Tag Archives: rock beyond belief

The Atheist Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone

The atheist Rock Beyond Belief festival has received a fair amount of press recently, though it has mostly come through a variety of outlets repeating a single story originally written by the Religion News Service.

Kimberly Winston of RNS wrote “Military atheists get ready to ‘rock beyond belief,’” which, while a noble effort, still largely came across as a press release for the atheists.  (By contrast, the ChristianPost had a somewhat more thorough article.  In full disclosure, the ChristianPost article does cite ChristianFighterPilot.com extensively.)

What Winston failed to disclose in her original story is Read more

Military Atheist Festival Claims Right to Denigrate Religion

In keeping with the theme that atheists cannot fellowship together without the ability to denigrate religion, organizers of the atheist “Rock Beyond Belief” to be held at Fort Bragg have secured the explicit “guarantee” of the US Army that they can criticize religion — and people who are religious.

According to their announcement, Garrison Commander Col Stephen Sicinski has said he respects

that the speakers may criticize organized religion or its practitioners…

Because this event is now “cleared” to criticize religion, while the Billy Graham Evangelical Association’s Rock the Fort was not, the MRFF’s Chris Rodda claims this is a coup.

She doesn’t realize the joke is on her.  Read more

Army Atheist Concert Emphasizes Controversial Song in Lineup

Rock Beyond Belief, the atheist event billed as a counter to the previous Christian Rock the Fort, has clearly announced a previously controversial song will be featured in 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 lead organizer of the event, Justin Griffith, was quoted in the FoxNews article saying this was a faux controversy — though the public reaction, and Fort Bragg’s, seemed to differ.  While the FoxNews piece focused on ‘images of burning churches,’ the issue has always been Aiden’s lyrics that criticized religion.  Now, Griffith makes a point of stating Aiden will perform Hysteria [emphasis original]:  Read more

NPR, Richard Dawkins, Negative Atheism, and Rock Beyond Belief

NPR’s Barbara King has an interesting article on Richard Dawkins and the upcoming Reason Rally, wondering out loud if Dawkins might actually undermine the stated purpose of the event:

According to a press release, the rally is to be a celebration, and its chief mission is to “combat negative stereotypes about nonreligious Americans.”

Why question Dawkins?  He’s known to be critical, “hurtful and harsh” — “an especially scathing critic” — in other words, he embodies the negative stereotype of the scornful atheist the rally says it is trying to dispel.

If NPR questions Dawkins’ negative stereotype in his role at the Reason Rally — where the only risk is alienating some willing listeners — is there any wonder there are questions about Dawkins’ role a week later at Rock Beyond Belief?  There, he’ll step foot on the US Army’s Fort Bragg, where Dawkins will be required to avoid the acerbic criticism King — a self-described Dawkins admirer — seems to think is unavoidable Read more

Atheist Soldier Ordered to Attend Billy Graham Event, Detained

The National Atheist Party (seriously) recently announced its association with the atheist Rock Beyond Belief occurring at Fort Bragg at the end of March.

In their short write-up, the atheists said this [emphasis added]:

While serving under an active duty enlistment, Mr. Griffith was ordered to attend a Christian festival hosted by Billy Graham, and subsequently detained for his refusal.

Now, what’s more shocking: that Rock Beyond Belief event organizer and American Atheist “military director” Justin Griffith was detained after he refused an order to attend the BGEA’s Rock the Fort, or that in the past 18 months this spectacular storyline has never been mentioned?

Wouldn’t this make a perfect military atheist persecution story?  The atheist party seemed to think so.

For anyone who has followed the story, there’s a simple explanation:

The atheist story isn’t true.

No one was forced to attend, and no one was “detained” over Rock the Fort.  Apparently, what really happened Read more

Christians Rocked Beyond Belief, in 1990

In 2010 some reacted with consternation after reports Christians had been to the circle claimed by pagans at the US Air Force Academy.  As noted at the time, they failed to acknowledge the area known as the “LZ” had been used for Christian gatherings of one sort or another for some years before the pagans laid claim to the clearing.

It turns out Rock Beyond Belief — the name of the atheist counter-Christian event being held at Fort Bragg — has a Christian history, as well.  The Christian music group Petra, named after the Greek word for “rock,” was one of the pioneering groups in the Christian music genre.

In 1990 they produced an album called Petra: Beyond Belief. As if predicting an association with the military, the album cover was graced by a photograph of an Air National Guard C-130.

The title track, Beyond Belief, is a call to Christians to do more than just “believe.”

Watch the video and see lyrics below the fold.

With credit to Barb for the point out.

Read more

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