Probably a bunch of us rooting for the Saints next Sunday for various reasons. The perennial underdogs. The proximity to the Alabama Gulf Coast. The love for the Big Easy. Are we a part of the Who Dat Nation or what? Most of the talk this past week has been about the advertising. Probably nothing unique as a lot of folks watch the Super Bowl just for the entertaining ads.
However this years discussions seems to be focused (yes pun intended) on the ads a week out from the big enchilada.
As promised, I checked this morning to see if the Hoover Board of Education allows churchgoers to use its parking lot. There were no cars parked in the lot today. Good to know. You'll see why below. First, some background.
Yesterday, people from the community, including representatives from Equality Alabama, PFLAG Birmingham, Central Alabama Pride, and Covenant Community Church, gathered to protest Focus on the Family's last ever Love Won Out conference at Metropolitan Church of God (my coverage and photos here and here). We stood on public right of way in front of and across from the Hoover Board of Education building, which is located just outside the church entrance. I parked elsewhere, but some of our folks had left their cars in the otherwise empty Board of Ed lot. When I arrived just after 7:30 AM, there were several Jefferson County sheriff's deputies on hand to direct traffic. They had, as far as I know, raised no objections to the use of the parking lot.
Shortly after I got there, the Hoover Police Department showed up. The officers threatened to tow the cars of anyone parked in the lot. Some of us questioned that edict, pointing out that the lot was built and maintained with taxpayer dollars, not to mention the complete lack of No Parking signs. The officers replied that it wasn't their call and that the Board of Ed didn't want to "take sides" by allowing either conference-goers or protesters to use its lot. (In what I seriously doubt was a coincidence, around the same time someone from neighboring Lakeside Baptist came by to put orange cones across the entrances to both of its otherwise empty parking lots.)
Call me crazy, but I seriously doubt the Board of Ed member(s) who made this decision thought they'd be causing equal opportunity inconvenience. Metropolitan Church of God has acres of parking. I can't say it any better than Mooncat in comments below:
Memo to the Board of Ed.: I think you just did "take sides." The best way to not take sides was simply to stay out of it, not send the police department down to defend your empty parking spaces.
Bozos.
I wondered yesterday whether the Board of Ed would be so concerned about the neutrality of its parking lot on Sunday mornings, as it's a prime spot for overflow. This morning I took a drive to check it out. As I passed Lakeside Baptist, I noticed that neither of its lots was full for its 10:30 AM service. There was a JeffCo sheriff's car parked on the side of the road between Lakeside and the intersection that leads to Metro Church of God. I drove up to the Board of Ed and, happily, found its lot empty. Then I drove on through the gates of Metro to confirm the size of its parking lot, which is huge and was nowhere near full, even though the 10:15 service was underway. There was more than enough room to accommodate the 600 people who reportedly attended yesterday's conference.
I left and then decided to go back and take some pictures. They're below the fold. You'll see the empty Board of Ed lot and also the acres of parking available at Metro Church of God. In what I sincerely hope was a coincidence, a JeffCo sheriff's car followed me home, peeling off only when I turned into the entrance to my subdivision.
It looks like the Hoover Board of Ed is guilty of gay-cootie-phobia and really bad PR instincts but not the hypocrisy I feared, if only because the neighboring churches can't even fill their own parking lots.
IMPORTANT: We won't be demonstrating at 5 PM. The organizers made the decision that it wouldn't be effective in the dark.
Our midday demonstration went well. Lots of folks who came to the early morning session were back, and there were new faces as well. I got to spend some time chatting with actor Glenn Shadix, who gave a moving account of his experience with "reparative" therapy on Thursday night. Wayne Besen continued to document the event, and I expect we'll see footage soon on the Truth Wins Out website.
We smiled and waved as conference attendees left for lunch, and we got lots of smiles and waves in return -- so many, in fact, that we speculate they were coached to be nice. Not so nice was the guy inside a bus bearing the name Amnesty Baptist Church, with the tag line "The Last Baptist Church". He informed us over the bus loudspeaker that "God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't make a man queer." Yes, but what about the women? :)
One poor kid drove by us over and over, back and forth (we were on a public street, but it basically served as a long driveway for the church hosting the conference). He was hunched forward, gripping the steering wheel, looking terribly stressed. I thought he might persuade himself to stop and talk to us, but he never did.
Several of the local news stations sent reporters, so there should be some TV coverage this evening. I don't know if we changed any minds today, but if even one family thinks twice about trying to "pray away the gay", that will be a good thing. Thanks so much to everyone who gave their time to organize and participate!
***
The Jefferson County sheriff's deputies who directed traffic today couldn't have been any nicer. The Hoover police department, on the other hand, did not cover itself with glory coming out to clear a taxpayer-funded parking lot because the Hoover Board of Education didn't want to "take sides" by letting us park there. And someone apparently contacted Lakeside Baptist Church, located around the corner from conference host Metropolitan Church of God, because orange cones appeared sometime this morning across the entrances to both of its (otherwise empty) parking lots. Christian hospitality at its finest...
About 50 people gathered outside the gates of Metropolitan Church of God this morning to protest Focus on the Family's Love Won Out "ex-gay" conference. We stood in front of the Hoover Board of Education building (on the right of way) to express our support for the families who are victimized by organizations like Love Won Out, conned into believing their LGBT children can be "changed". We want to show them that there is another way -- they can accept their children and love them as they are.
We'll be back at 11 AM and at 5 PM. Join us if you can at 2800 Metropolitan Way (directions here).
Don't plan on parking in the taxpayer-built-and-maintained school board parking lot, however. The Hoover police showed up this morning and threatened to tow any cars parked in the otherwise empty lot because the Board of Education had decided it didn't want to "take sides". There aren't any "No Parking" signs posted anywhere in the lot, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the church uses the lot for overflow parking on Sunday mornings. I'm curious to know just who brought the school board into the discussion. Perhaps a conference attendee called. Any attorneys out there who can advise me about the legality of this?
We were a peaceful, happy group this morning, especially after the coffee and doughnuts arrived. Pictures below -- I'll post more later.
I began my convention week in Colorado Springs, home of the US Air Force Academy, Cheyenne Mountain (remember War Games?), Focus on the Family, and Ted Haggard's "New Life" megachurch.
Couldn't resist a quick stop to meet those nice folks at Focus on the Family to see how their rain prayers were coming along, but alas, the place was locked up tighter than Ted Haggard's medicine cabinet. It was Sunday after all. Still, the grounds are beautiful and the lone security guard gave me a stern glance, but didn't bother me as I scurried about.
From the bookstore to the various, huge buildings, the place was eerily quiet and even a bit creepy. Fortunately, the friendly driver I saw a the very first light on my way back to the Interstate delivered the antidote:
If you can't see it clearly, the sticker on the right says:
"Focus on your OWN damn family!"
Headed off to a swanky party tonight sponsored by the Poarch Creek Indians in honor of the Alabama delegation.
ALABAMA'S LAW against cockfighting is so weak it might as well not exist. So Attorney General Troy King should be commended for wanting to get tougher with folks who promote the cruel entertainment.
Mr. King is right to ask the Legislature to approve prison time and higher fines for promoters.
WriteChic Press tells the so called "Family Values" crowd to Focus on their own Family. The Field Negro follows with Dear God.
WriteChic:
Focus on the Family caught hell for their solicitation of rain prayers aimed at ruining Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Committee Convention. The radical, so-called Christian group says the video they made was just a little joke. Nothing like trivializing the sacred.
Field Negro:
Dear God, could you please send buckets and buckets of rain---kind of like you did back in the days of Noah-- to rain down on this uppity Negro, Osama. Dear God, we think he could be the Anti-christ here on earth; or worse, a communist. So we really need you to show him and all of his followers who is the boss. Dear God, they are talking about 75,000 lost souls in that huge house that Elway built, so there will be a nice large audience for you to display your powers.
Booman Tribune has a partial list of things that are no longer crimes.
It sickens me to think that Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood were disqualified as choices for Attorney General because of nanny taxes and yet we get Attorneys General who believed in stomping on the Constitution (Ashcroft), approve of voter suppression and torture as well as lie to Congress and reporters (Gonzales) and who think torture is only torture if it is done to him, won’t prosecute or investigate crimes committed by the Executive Branch and now thinks that not all violations of the law are crimes (Mukasey).
Truthout ask if the Georgia war is a Neocon Weapon of Mass Deception.
Is it possible that this time the October surprise was tried in August, and that the garbage issue of brave little Georgia struggling for its survival from the grasp of the Russian bear was stoked to influence the U.S. presidential election?
Before you dismiss that possibility, consider the role of one Randy Scheunemann, for four years a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government who ended his official lobbying connection only in March, months after he became Republican presidential candidate John McCain's senior foreign policy adviser
Buzzflash.com ask if the National Enquirer is right about Bush the way they were right about John Edwards.
Most of the time, the tabloids focus on Britney and Paris (now also of John McCain ad fame), but when they go after a political figure, we have found that some of them have about a 50% chance of being onto something. For instance, The National Enquirer had such specific details of the Edwards trip to the hotel in Beverly Hills that he could have sued them for libel if it weren't true. And as sleazy as these publications are, The Enquirer was credited with being one of the more accurate sources on the Lewinsky scandal.
The main reason that the mainstream press looks down on them on political stories is that they pay for information if they need to, not to mention that "real" reporters look down on their tabloid brethren.
T.H.E. Social Work Agency Adoption home studies & care management services in the North Alabama area.
Licensed, certified, caring social workers. blog advertising is good for you
