God and Country organizers: Pentagon denied flyover

God and Country organizers: Pentagon denied flyover
Bryan Dooley
bdooley@idahopress.com

NAMPA - Organizers of the God and Country Family Festival say the Pentagon denied a military flyover, which the celebration has featured for 42 years, because of the event's emphasis on Christianity.

"Basically, we applied to have a military flyover," Director Patti Syme told the Idaho Press-Tribune Thursday. "We were given (Federal Aviation Administration) approval, and then had to apply through the Pentagon. When we applied they denied our request because, as the gentlemen stated, our Web site specifically stated that this is a Christian event."

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment submitted to its media office Thursday evening.

Organizers don't deny the explicitly Christian nature of the annual patriotic rally.

"Yes, it's about as Christian as you can get - we believe in promoting Christianity," Syme said. "And we have no plans to change that."

But Canyon County Commissioner David Ferdinand, the festival board's media contact, said that's not all there is to it.

"It's God and country, and that's the military and all of that," Ferdinand stressed. "You do the flyover to honor the military and the freedoms that they stand for. To me, we're honoring the military when we do that flyover, and that's why we do it. I think they made a bad decision."

Organizers will push to bring the flyover back next year, Ferdinand said.

"The military and the families who have sacrificed their loved ones for this country and for those freedoms deserve to have that flyover," he said.

Ferdinand said it was unclear why, after 42 years, the Pentagon did not approve the flyover this year.

"It's like the guy got on our Web site for a minute and just looked at that one thing," he said.

He said Syme told him the Pentagon representative she spoke with was very understanding and said the military would love to participate but could not do so because of the explicit endorsements of Christianity.

Syme's husband Scott Syme, a veteran of the U.S. Army Reserve who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, ran for U.S. Senate in 2008.

Christian activist Brandi Swindell sent a text message about the lack of the flyover from Wednesday night's event at the Idaho Center amphitheater. She followed up with another message Thursday.

"This is unbelievable and deeply troubling," Swindell wrote. "The Pentagon does not have the authority to discriminate against Christian groups or events. This type of religious bigotry is unconstitutional. How sad to see this lack of respect and level of blatant bias surrounding the 4th of July celebration."

Pam Baldwin, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Idaho, said there's no basis for the assertion that the denial amounted to federal government discrimination against Christians.

"Everything is not about whether folks are Jews or Christians or Muslims," she said. "If people are saying that, they're probably looking for media attention or looking to disparage other faiths."

Baldwin questioned whether a flyover of the event would have been a prudent use of public resources, especially in light of the deep recession.