HUFFINGTON POST: CHRIS RODDA – An $88,000 Piano for an Army Chapel? What Military Cutbacks?

Selected Article Excerpt:

Apparently, military cutbacks don’t apply to church music.

Sebastian Sprenger at Inside Defense reports that the Department of Defense has just spent $88,000 for a Steinway piano for a chapel at Fort Riley, Kansas, writing: “That’s some church piano. What might have gone into the Army’s decision to spend almost $90,000 on a concert-pianist grade instrument for a chapel in Ft. Riley, KS, when the service is facing for some serious cuts — not to mention government programs writ large?”

According to Sprenger, a spokesman for Ft. Riley, Kan. said the piano will be used during religious services inside a new chapel being built there.

(Inside Defense is a paid subscription site, so here are the links on the freely accessible Federal Business Opportunities website to what Sprenger found — the original solicitation, the contract award.)

I can’t say that I was surprised to hear about this example of outrageously extravagant spending on a military chapel when someone emailed me about it this morning. Back in 2011, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the organization I work for, did a bit of investigation into just how much the military spends on religious programs. That 2011 investigation was sparked by two things — the complaints received by MRFF from soldiers who were being forced to attend events like Christian concerts, which led to the discovery of the outrageous amounts of money being spent on these religious events, and the excessive spending on military base “chapels” like the $30,000,000 mega-church at Fort Hood.

All of this leads me to something that I just can’t figure out.

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