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<p class=MsoPlainText>Hi Paul & Visionaries:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><sigh> It's a good question, but I sometimes
feel like people haven't been paying attention over the last few years.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>I'm a Christian, and I absolutely do *not* agree with the
Kirk's . . . theology. I don't believe in forced salvation (if they can't
win us over by conversion, then they want the teeth of the law to force the
rest of us to act/behave as they think we ought to behave), and it really
disturbs me the way God's word has been perverted by Kirk hierarchy. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>However, IMHO, of larger concern is the Kirk hierarchy’s
refusal to follow the "secular" rules and laws the rest of us are
expected to follow. The rules are for others, not for them. Lying
under oath -- no problem. Lying to government officials -- again, no problem.
Thumbing their noses at planning and zoning regulations -- absolutely no
problem. Failing to live up to the very limited requirements of tax
exemption – they excel at that. Parking where they have no right --
no problem. Withholding information vital to the safety of our community’s
children – absolutely no problem. And on and on and on the list
goes. In essence, while there are wonderful individual Kirk members,
Christ Church itself has proven time and again that it is the quintessential
Bad Neighbor.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>My dear friend Rose Huskey blogged on this very topic
recently -- you might want to read what she had to say:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><a href="http://cleaning-house.org/?p=591">http://cleaning-house.org/?p=591</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>I'm sure she won't mind if I repost here:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>"Nests of Pests<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Temperatures in Moscow hover in the 90’s during the
dog days of August but that’s not why many community members are boiling.
For the past three years we have endured the civic embarrassment generated by
the pseudo-Ceilidh, pseudo-Calvinistic jamboree known as the Trinity Fest.
Members of the Confederation of Reformed Evangelicals aka CREC, view Moscow as
their Rome, Jerusalem, Mecca, and Ganges River. They gather in August to sit at
the knee of Massa Doug Wilson, (the brains behind the beards) greedily
ingesting the racist, sexist, homophobic preaching disgorged from his pie hole.
It has been my habit to refrain from going to town during the week that Doug
attempts to claim Moscow as his papal seat. However, this year I will join with
friends to acquaint (or reacquaint as the case may be) CREC visitors and Kirk
members with long-standing community values. Flyers have been posted throughout
downtown Moscow and in the windows of supportive businesses asking folks to:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'>[T]ake a stand for traditional
American values of tolerance and diversity as we gather to voice our collective
community opposition to the racist, sexist, homophobic agenda of Christ Church,
New St. Andrews College, The Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches and
the Association of Classical and Christian Schools.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Uninformed readers might (mistakenly) believe that it is,
at best, ironic to take a stand for tolerance and diversity while
simultaneously opposing a “religious” celebration. The following
analogy might help to clarify my position. Suppose you wake up one fine morning
and notice - in a dark corner of your closet - a sweet little nest of spiders.
On the whole you like spiders (Charlotte’s Web was your favorite childhood
book), so you adopt a live and let live attitude toward the little critters.
Five or six days later you have an opportunity to take a closer look at mama
spider. She is a glossy black color, and son of a gun, has a red hour glass on
her belly. This is not what you had in mind when you believed your closet was
big enough for you and the spiders, was it? An apathetic reaction is not in
your best interest. Silently acquiescing to bigotry is as risky and stupid as
deliberately sharing your closet with black widow spiders. And while the
Brotherhood of the Kirk always exacts a price from their critics the cost of
going along to get along is much too high for me.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Rose”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>HTH,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Saundra Lund<br>
Moscow, ID<br>
<br>
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.<br>
- Edmund Burke<br>
<br>
***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2007 through life plus 70
years, Saundra Lund. Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside
the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the
author.*****<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>-----Original Message-----<br>
From: vision2020-bounces@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com] On
Behalf Of Paul Rumelhart<br>
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 7:19 PM<br>
To: Bill London<br>
Cc: v2020<br>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Trinity Festival protest<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Doesn't freedom of religion trump simple dislike for the
church or some of it's members? If there are irregularities with how they
were granted permits or something, then that should be looked into. But
why disturb their festival? What is their political and economic agendas
that these activists are protesting? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Granted, people have a right to protest as long as they
keep it civil and follow the law. It's just that I have never understood
why people are so opposed to them. Most of the objections I've heard have
to do with zoning laws and permits for the NSA school. That sounds like a
problem with the authorities and not Christ Church. There are lots of
comments about their theology (Southern slavery, odd ideas about how they think
a "biblical" society would work, etc), but so what? They have
every right to believe as they wish, whether or not I think the lot of them
have been standing too long in the hot sun with no hat.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>I don't agree theologically with them at all. But
who am I to try to tell them they can't expand themselves?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>I have great respect for you all as community leaders, I
just think you going too far sometimes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Paul<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Bill London wrote: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText> Protest
Planned for Christ Church Trinity Festival<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText> A
group of local activists invite the community to join their demonstration of
opposition to the political and economic agenda of Moscow's Christ Church and
the church's Trinity Festival, announced spokesperson Selena Rosewater. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText> The
group will meet in Friendship Square in downtown Moscow at 7:30pm on Friday,
August 3, and then march to the Trinity Festival event at the Kenworthy
Performing Arts Center.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
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