This town needs more atheists

Granted, the hubbub over those harmless monuments with Bible quotes carved on them that are parked on various courthouse lawns is a little bit overwrought. We've watched those battles play out in recent years. And it's a monumental waste of money to try to force some municipality to remove them in the name of separation of church and state.

But it's another thing to hand over city property or taxpayer money to churches and religious groups. Our fair city of Midland, Texas, has done its share of church donations lately with the closing of two streets at the request of the Catholic Church, and more recently, the drastic reconfiguring of a neighborhood for the benefit of Midland Christian School.

The neighbors wished the city council could just say "no." They raised holy hell and got quite a bit of sympathy from some citizens. Others were probably thinking, "First they came for the Christian School neighbors, and I did nothing …"  But the council didn't budge.

So in perusing the city budget for 2010-2011 a line item jumps out at us like a hillbilly at a Sunday social. It's $50,000 going to Rock the Desert, the money grossing religious rock concert that takes place annually at the edge of town.

There's never an angry atheist around when you need one.

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P.S. Some of us were arguing against a hotel/motel tax when it was first proposed. Taxes are often characterized as highway robbery, and the hotel/motel tax lives up to that characterization quite nicely as it hits travelers who have no vote. The lack of sensible uses for the money demonstrates a compelling reason to repeal the tax.

There's room at the inn. But it's gonna cost ya.

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Welcome visitors from the Friendly Atheist. I'm so glad you're friendly. I was trying to make a joke with the crack about "angry atheist" rather than foment angry activism. But friendly activism? Awright!

Comments

[Andy]

Looks like you or someone else got "The Friendly Atheist" interested, George.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2011/07/14/why-is-midland-texas-using-50000-of-taxpayer-money-to-pay-for-a-christian-concert/

[Sharon]

There is a group of Atheists in Midland, and we are Not happy about this at all. Our group is passing this info along, I had no idea the City was paying for it. (X_X)
Thanks for the Info!!

[Bee]

Ick. I'm a Midland atheist and PISSED.

[twas meo]

Thanx for info,I contacted the ACLU on this matter.

http://www.facebook.com/ACLUofTexas

[Muledungandash.blogspot.com]

A Foat Wuth freethinker follows you, and I follow Friendly Atheist as well.

[Danny]

Howdy! I ended up here from www.reddit.com/r/texas . I'm not much of a blog person, but an athiest from Midland who's a fan of the Austrian school of economics might just change my mind on that.

I will say I had mixed feelings on this until I saw they took $10k out of MCT's budget!

[Tubby]

Tickets are $20 a person over 5, $25 at the gate (kids under 5 enter free). For simplicity's sake, let's assume that everyone buys the tickets online at the $20 price. Attendance of 2,500 would bring in $50k, right? Now you may be saying, "thedude37, it's not that simple! A lot of that money is going to the event planners, acts, etc." which is true. Well, check this out:

"The first RTD drew over 4,000 to the parking lot at Holy Trinity. In 2001, the event was moved to Beal Park by the RTD Planning Committee as an interdenominational event. The concert was headlined by Newsboys and expanded to include bands as well as skateboarding, extreme games a campout and the addition of a Jumbotron screen. The attendance grew to over 32,000.

"In 2003, the event drew over 100,000 which touted a seperate skateboard park and concert venue. The concert was headlined by Chris Tomlin, and Toby Mac. The worship service on Sunday morning continued to grow and provide a unique setting for Sunday morning worship with music provided by Watermark." (source - http://www.rockthedesert.com/generic/encampment.php)

Let's just say that an even 90k attend. That's $1,800,000... just from the ticket sales. This isn't even factoring in the positive effect on the city's economy by having an extra 90,000 warm bodies will provide. Something like this could be huge for this community...

... but the author of this article (and the "pissed off" commenters) is so STUCK UP HIS OWN ASS that he can't see how his city will benefit.

[UrbanDryad]

@ Tubby

I have a genuine question. If the event is so lucrative, why does it need 50k worth of tax payer money?

[Tubby]

who says it needs the money?

[Aqua Regia]

The town should not be involved in a religious festival whether it makes or loses money.

[Tubby]

So aqua, are you saying that economic prosperity is less important than offending the few non-Christians in the community?

[Andy]

I sent some info to the FFRF and they sent an open records request to the mayor. The Friendly Atheist updated their post and attached a pdf of the records request.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2011/07/14/why-is-midland-texas-using-50000-of-taxpayer-money-to-pay-for-a-christian-concert/

I see others took action, too. Didn't mean to step on toes.

Andy

[Geo]

Thanks, Andy. Hopefully they or someone else will post the results of that open records request online.

[Daniel]

They're giving away $50,000 to a Christian rock concert, when that money could pay for the annual wages of at least two teachers in that town, or it could go towards building roads, or maybe helping the sick and homeless. But no, they would rather give it to some fundies so that they can preach about god and Jesus all night.

[George Drug Addict AWOL Bush]

@Tubby

100,000 attended in 2003? Where did you get those numbers? And in your entire rant you never discussed the heart of the article, Midland spending tax dollars to support a concert (of any kind).

[George Drug Addict AWOL Bush]

@Tubby. I forgot to mention that your link doesn't work.