[Vision2020] On Tolerance and Vandalism

[Andreas Schou]

> Melynda and Rose and Vision People,
> 
> I'll leave it to Steve Wilkins to describe the sin of racism on 
> Wed evening, 
> but I will comment on your so sincere questions.  Much has been 
> said about 
> climate on this forum, and it should be noted what the results of 
> the 
> current sitch have been in Moscow.  You say you are for equality 
> and 
> dialogue and against racism, but it is multi racial businesses of 
> Christ 
> Church members that have been boycotted.  The door of Zume has 
> been spit 
> upon, the Ball and Cross Book sign broken, and the NSA building 
> vandalized. 

Oh, good Lord. This again.

(1) There is no organized boycott of Kirker-owned businesses, not that there would be any problem if there were: there is, as far as I know, no moral obligation to purchase coffee and donuts. Note, also, Gary Greenfield's previous ideological boycotts of local supermarkets.

(2) New Saint Andrews is, if you haven't noticed, a block away from the Garden, two blocks away from John's Alley, and three blocks away from CJ's. Drunk people pass within feet of NSA's attractive, shiny lights every few minutes between the hours of 9:00 PM and 2:00 AM. While I cannot be certain of the political motivations of those that pulled down their lights (if, indeed, their lights were pulled down), it would perhaps be a tad more rational to implicate the Demon Rum than Bad Libruls. 

(3) The door of Zume has been spit upon. I don't know what to say to this. It took you, what, ten seconds to clean it off?      

(4) Of more concern is the Ball and Cross sign. That obiviously oughtn't've been broken, and it might've been people with political motivations. Or it might just have broken. What can I do but condemn this -- volunteer my hours to come fix it?
 
> You should consider the result of your vitriol.  I've invited the 
> public to 
> come hear and interact with Wilkins.  I suppose if you want to 
> call him 
> names, this might be place since you have all ears.  But it isn't 
> your 
> friends of racial minority who are getting the abuse.

The glass of your businesses may, indeed, be receiving more than its fair share of spittle. For this I apologize, though I haven't been involved in it. We, on the other hand, are getting death threats. 

George Grant and Greg Dickison, for instance, threaten me not simply with political disenfranchisement, but with my actual, physical death. By stoning. This is not a metaphor, or an exagerration, or the same sort of scare quote liberals drag out about rational Christian conservatives. This is not an unclear or ambiguous matter: Christ Church calls, specifically, for the executions of myself and everyone I love. They intend to carry as many such executions as possible if (and this is a distant "if") they come into power.

Kirkers may be the backwater Taliban, but still: I have no choice but to take this seriously. 

You have the temerity to accuse /us/ of intolerance; to accuse /us/ of violating moral codes that (I might remind you) you don't even believe non-Christians have. Tolerance demands that competing viewpoints be allowed; even welcomed. Tolerance does not demand that I fail to disagree. Tolerance /especially/ does not demand that I fail to defend myself against people who are threatening my life.

I have tried to be polite -- to open a dialog. I realize, now, that no such dialog is possible unless the people with whom I'm speaking admit the most basic principle of human rights: my very right to exist. Until then, protest will remain my last, and only, option. 

We'll see you Thursday. We'll be the people out in front of the SUB.

Andreas C. Schou