Army, Air Force Back Away from Fundie Event

[kevinbgoode]

Well, it seems after written letters from Americans United and reports in the Washington Post, both the Air Force and the Army are backing away from what one evangelical group described as co-sponsorship of a christianizing rally to evangelize the troops scheduled for Stone Mountain, Georgia this weekend.

No High-Flying Evangelism: Air Force And Army Back Away From Christian Event
May 25th 2007
On the heels of an Americans United complaint, the U.S. Air Force and Army are distancing themselves from an evangelical Christian event to be held this Memorial Day weekend.

Promotional material about the three-day “Salute to the Troops” celebration strongly implied that it was co-sponsored by the U.S. Air Force and Army alongside several evangelical groups: Task Force Patriot USA (TFP), Lifeway Christian Stores and Holman Bible Outreach International.

Due to intervention by Americans United, the show will go on this weekend in Stone Mountain, Ga., but without the military’s stamp of approval, reports The Washington Post reports today.

Americans United became concerned with the armed forces’ involvement when we learned that the primary group sponsoring the event, Task Force Patriot USA, describes its mission as “sharing the fullness of life in Jesus Christ with all U.S. military, military veterans and families.” The group’s Web site says, “Christ is our Commander-in-Chief,” and its logo is a shield with the American and Christian flags bracketing a large Christian cross.

AU grew more concerned after seeing “Salute to the Troops” plugged as an official U.S. Air Force 60th anniversary celebration in TFP promotional materials and a military newspaper.

The complete story here:

http://blog.au.org/2007/05/25/no-highflying-evangelism-air-force-and-army-back-away-from-christian-event/


Also: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/24/AR2007052402164.html

[LongTomH]

1. "Hourly flyovers by B2 aircraft"

Anyone know what it costs to get one of these aircraft in the air, let alone keep it in the air long enough to do hourly flyovers? I don't; does anybody on DU know or even guess?

[enid602]

2. satire?

That article sounds like satire.

[kevinbgoode]

4. Um...no. . .check the Washington Post link. . .

I think what I posted was the direct press release from Americans United.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Ah, Stone Mountain, site of such meaningful history ...

Ku Klux Klan activities at Stone Mountain are deep-rooted, although the original conception of the memorial pre-dates the 1915 revival of the Klan. The revival of the Ku Klux Klan was emboldened by the release of D. W. Griffith's Klan-glorifying film The Birth of a Nation, and by the lynching of Leo Frank, who was accused of the murder of Mary Phagan. On November 25, 1915, a group of robed and hooded men met at Stone Mountain to create a new incarnation of the Klan, which had been dormant since it was suppressed by the federal government during Reconstruction. They were led by William J. Simmons, and they included a group calling itself the Knights of Mary Phagan. A cross was burned, and the oath was administered by Nathan Bedford Forrest II, the grandson of the original Imperial Grand Wizard, Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, and was witnessed by the owner of Stone Mountain, Samuel Venable. (In reaction to this history, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech includes the line "let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.")

Fundraising for the monument resumed in 1923, and in October of that year, Venable granted the Klan easement with perpetual right to hold celebrations as they desired. Because of their deep involvement with the early fund-raising and their increasing political clout in Georgia, the Klan, along with the United Daughters of the Confederacy, were able to influence the ideology of the carving, and they strongly supported an explicitly Confederate memorial. Gutzon Borglum was commissioned to do the carving, and he became a Klan member in the course of his association with the Stone Mountain project. Of the $250,000 raised, part came directly from the Ku Klux Klan but part came from the federal government, which in 1924 issued special fifty-cent coins with Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Mountain

Nice to see the Klan and the ***US GOV'T*** cooperating so comfortably. :sarcasm:

(ETA: To be clear, Stone Mountain is not just the name of the mountain, but of the surrounding municipality.)