This must be a joke, please tell me it is.  I had plans for my birthday in June too. 

 

I hate doing the pity thing for people, but the lady in that picture, I can't help but feel bad for someone brainwashed to that kind of a level.  It is just sad. Plain sad.  I hope she doesn't have any children to pollute.

Fight “Don’t Pray? Don’t Say!” – Support All Troops Equally

By Justin Griffith, on March 13th, 2011

This week was exceptionally busy for us at Rock Beyond Belief. We are still dealing with the fallout from the cancellation of the festival. We don’t know exactly what lies ahead for the festival, but April 2nd is a definite ‘No-Go‘.

“Don’t Pray? – Don’t Say!”

We find ourselves in the curious position of being on the front line of two types of war. One is tangible and you see it on the news every day, the other is the subterranean ideological battle that unfolds as the evangelical Christian groups work against the separation of church and state.

We are not going away. We are at a cross roads here. More and more people are coming forward, sticking their necks out just to say “I am not religious. Respect me equally.” I’m optimistic for the future, despite how rocky the situation is now.

Though much of what we are doing is very much behind the scenes, I’d like to bring you up to speed on the things we are visibly working on. We’ve already compiled a list of ways you can help non-religious soldiers demand equal treatment.

SCA Action Alert

The Secular Coalition for America (SCA) has put out an Action Alert on our behalf. They are perhaps the strongest lobbying effort to preserve the separation of church and state. Based in Washington DC, they represent a body of member organizations. They’ve sent out quite an effective alert, because we’ve been receiving notices that some officials seem to have changed their email addresses! [note: Rock Beyond Belief did not supply those email addresses, they were dug up independently.]

Sign the Petition

It takes 30 seconds.

MAKE A DIFFERENCEPetitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »Get Widget|Start a Petition »

I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Kevin J. from Asheville for setting up this petition from 

change.org

This online petition site already claims 100 victories. Please don’t just dismiss it. We will never know the behind-the-scenes effects of all of our efforts, unfortunately. But this only takes 30 seconds, so please sign it and pass it on to your friends.

Freethought Radio

In addition to their own widely seen Action Alert, the Freedom From Religion Foundation‘s radio show interviewed me for Saturday’s show. Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor are Co-Presidents of FFRF, and co-hosts of Freethought Radio. What a thrill to talk to my heroes! And just to let you know, FFRF has been right there fighting this fight with us from the beginning. They have been instrumental in battling the controversial Rock the Fort evangelical Christian membership drives, often in a behind the scenes fashion that you will never know about.

Freethought Radio airs live on Saturdays, so you missed it! But archived podcasts of the show hit every Monday. You can expect this week’s episode here very soon.

Also worth reminding people about: God Discussion has announced an upcoming 24 hour rapture telethon on May 21st with Rock Beyond Belief as the benefactor. We have a target goal of $5000, and on the first podcast mentioning it, we raised $300 in a single hour.

And as always, Tom and Wendy over at Frostcall beat everyone to the punch. They interviewed me for 10 minutes right as we were announcing the bad news about the festival. This up-and-coming podcast is one to take note of, as they even have Nate Phelps fson of Fred Phelps (God Hates Fags / Westboro Baptist Church) as a guest tonight. Just click the Frost call logo on the side bar to pop out a player, so you can continue to browse while you listen.

YouTube Channel launch

We launched a YouTube channel, For the first video(s) we set the conservative talk radio show that interviewed me to relevant documents and pictures. We’ve got some pretty sweet videos already in the works. Additionally, Rock Beyond Belief is now on StumbleUpon, for all you stumblers out there.

Side note: For a while now we’ve had the pretty active Facebook page for the festival, but a few people have been asking to connect with me personally. Click here for that.

Soldiers: Update your MAAF membership details

There is only one non-theist military organization, the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF). Membership is completely free for everyone. You don’t even have to be a military member yourself. In fact, we need civilians just as badly to help anchor our community meetup groups. If you already a member, please re-join anyway because we really need an accurate database right now.

I’ve mentioned these before, the Military Atheists & Secular Humanists (M*A*S*H) groups are the upcoming implementation of the MAAF network. We are launching them all over the globe over the next few months, with a few brave groups already popping up while we are still in ‘beta’. Please join or start a MASH group in your military community. If you live anywhere near a military base, please support these groups as they spring up!

And finally… I’ll leave you with a comment from one of our supporters that I found to be extremely well put.

In 1588, Catholic King Philip of Spain sent his huge naval fleet to destroy the Protestant Queen Elizabeth’s navy. Picture the sailors and country men from Spain and England each praying to their God for victory that summer. God had nothing to do with the outcome. Weather, military strategy and the best trained sailors on ships with guns determined the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Why does the military still cling to these ancient concepts? Modern soldiers and sailors know better. Isn’t it time to acknowledge this? Give our military men and women the best equipment, generals, protective gear and detailed intelligence and let them decide for themselves which religion or no religion they will follow. It’s their personal choice to make. Good luck to Rock Beyond Belief. -Edward B.

More from Rock Beyond Belief:

Quote:

24 Hour Rapture Telethon on May 21st – Save the Date!

By Justin Griffith, on March 11th, 2011

Attention: May 21st, 2011 is the Last chance to dance! (Ever.)

The world is ending, and the rapture is going to be screwing up your Christmas. Didn’t you hear?

Luckily, we at Rock Beyond Belief have an early present for you. Deborah at God Discussion, will be hosting a star studded interactive 24 hour telethon. The funds being raised are going to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation‘s defense of Rock Beyond Belief in any upcoming litigation. Any leftover funds will certainly be put to good use standing up for the separation of church and state in the military. The target goal is $5,000

You can participate with your webcam too! There will be a rotating cast of characters making the case for people to contribute what they can. Save the date!

You can hear all about it on this week’s episode of the God Discussion Radio Show. We spent over an hour talking about the recent developments at Fort Bragg with Rock Beyond Belief, as well as the mandatory Spiritual Fitness testing and training scandal that I broke late last year. By the end of the episode, our announcement of the fundraising campaign was successful enough to rake in $300. Right on! The discussion was lively, and it’s a good place to start for people wondering “What’s next for Rock Beyond Belief?” You’ll have to tune in to find out.

Listen to internet radio with God Discussion on Blog Talk Radio

Oh well. When May 21 comes and goes, this will serve to further demonstrate to the world just how much of a lie Christianity is. And if anyone was dumb enough to donate to these con artists, then they deserve to be taken advantage of.

Richard Dawkins issues Statement of Intent to Fort Bragg

By Justin Griffith, on March 17th, 2011

I’ve been approached by a number of reporters asking a peculiar question. About half the time they only ask about our headliner, Richard Dawkins.

“Fort Bragg says that the people in your lineup didn’t issue a Statement of Intent to them, a letter saying that they were actually coming. Why not?”

Well, they never asked for one. In fact I had never even heard of one until a reporter asked me that question. And I had been assured that our submitted packet had all the pertinent information by early January. I remained in close / constant contact with my contacts at Fort Bragg, and still never received any request of this sort.

Likewise, a close inspection of the FOIA documents regarding the evangelical Christian membership drive known as Rock the Fort – the event that we were promised equal treatment for – shows that such a request was never made to them.

Anyways, I’m sick of answering the same question at length. So to dispel this once and for all, every single Rock Beyond Belief performer has now issued a Statement of Intent.

Have a look at a few.

Richard Dawkins

I wish to put clearly on record my strong intention to attend, and speak at, the Rock Beyond Belief festival at Fort Bragg, now sadly cancelled because of (blatantly discriminatory) lack of support from the officer commanding Fort Bragg. ‘Statement of intent’ is putting it mildly. I was hugely looking forward to it, and it was, indeed, my main reason for travelling all the way from England, at my own expense. I also announced my intention to accept no honorarium, so keen was I to support the festival. The suggestion that the festival could not have filled a large hall is absurd. Even when talking on my own, I regularly draw enthusiastic crowds by the thousands, especially in the so-called ‘bible belt’ where beleaguered non-believers flock to hear somebody articulate what they have long thought privately but never felt able to speak.

Professor Richard Dawkins FRS, DSc.,
University of Oxford

Baba Brinkman

 

Fort Bragg
Subject: Statement Of Intent

It has recently come to my attention that questions are being raised as to the seriousness of my compact with SGT Justin Griffith to perform at a concert event he was organizing at Fort Bragg for April 2nd called “Rock Beyond Belief”. Please allow me to clear up any confusion by saying that I did confirm this gig with SGT Griffith, in writing, and although my usual fee to perform is around $2,000 I had also agreed in writing to waive my honorarium for the event, because the cause (equal treatment of those with divergent religious beliefs, including atheists) is one I believe in strongly. My written confirmation was sent to SGT Griffith via email on February 6th, and on February 13th I wrote a blog announcing the event to my fans online, which you can read here: http://babasword.blogspot.com/2011/02/shows-tours-vids.html. I also followed up with a newsletter that went out to my personal email list of more than 7,000 individuals, and I received many encouraging responses and expressions of interest from fans around the world. If you have any doubt about this I would be happy to show you the messages and/or send out a follow-up newsletter asking everyone on my mailing list to individually write to you via email in support of SGT Griffith and in protest of Fort Bragg’s discrimination against his event on religious grounds, in clear violation of the US constitution. I was very disappointed to hear that the event was cancelled, but under the circumstances I think SGT Griffith made the right choice. [*RBB's note: we didn't really have much choice, we couldn't afford the hotel and meals after the last minute restrictions were imposed.*]

I should also add, in case anyone is foolish enough to quibble over the “official” status of email confirmation as a form of written compact or “Statement of Intent”, that I currently perform more than 100 gigs per year and the majority of those events are confirmed via email with no formal contract, and never once have I canceled a gig for anything other than grave illness. Once an event has been confirmed via email and announced online and one’s name has been added to the poster, it would be career suicide to treat such commitments frivolously. The music industry, like many other professions, is mostly governed by a code of honour enforced by peers with a strong interest in each others’ reputation for integrity, something that is worth more than a signed contract in many spheres. I am proud to say SGT Griffith took me at my (written) word that I would be there, just like he seems to have (mistakenly) taken the word of Fort Bragg’s administrators that he would receive “equal support” for his event.

At any rate, I sincerely hope SGT Griffith is able to resurrect Rock Beyond Belief at a future date, and please be assured that I will do everything in my power to attend and perform. As we say in the hip-hop world: “word is bond”.

Signed,
Baba Brinkman
The Rap Guide to Evolution
http://www.bababrinkman.com
Twitter.com/bababrinkman