An open letter of opinion from David HB Drake: Use or dismiss as you see fit.
The Bay View Basher strikes again
In the wee hours of morning last Saturday January 26th, someone walked from Russell St to Nock St on Delaware Avenue in Bayview WI distributing a flier titled “What the Bible really says about Homosexuality” by one Pastor Ralph Ovadal of the Pilgrim Covenant Church of Monroe WI. A copy of the flier can be viewed at www.pccmonroe.org<http://www.pccmonroe.org/>under “Homosexuality” if you really want to check it out.
I consider it hate literature, but minimally it is litter.
I clean up after my dog’s dropping and in a fit of dyslexia, am now called to clean up after their “god”. Maybe it’s Divine Inspiration, but MY church doesn’t believe in fouling Mother Earth.
This has happened about every three months for a couple years now, always in the secret morning hours, placing this trash literature on the doors, fences, and porches of Bayviewers.
Last Saturday, however, was different.
A light snow had fallen, leaving the footprints of a man (or woman with really big feet) that trailed along Delaware Ave and seems to have begun and ended where a car had been parked, which implies the person is not from my neighborhood. Well, thank God for that at least! I did hope to get a license number but the car was gone.
This literature espouses to be a Christian statement of belief and from a Christian Church. I consider myself a Christian, but if these folks are, then I guess I’m not. They’ve already condemned me for being Catholic, so I have nothing to loose by calling them out. Their site states “While we love the souls of Roman Catholics, we hold to the historic Protestant position that the pope, every pope, is the Antichrist.”
Interesting- while I don’t agree with everything the Pope says or promotes, he’s not in favor of homosexuality or abortion either, which would put him in agreement with the position (but probably not the methods) of the writers of this pamphlet. I will have to check with my Protestant friends about the historic position they are said to believe.
|
|
Strangely, they don’t seem to use what Christ teaches as the basis for their writing.
They quote Leviticus from the third book of the Hebrew Bible<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanakh> , of the Old Testament<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testament> , and of the Torah<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah> -five books of Moses). Apparently they didn’t get the upgrade Bible 2.0 or as many call it, the New Testament. That’s the one that has the teaching of Jesus, among which are “Love thy Neighbor”.
Ironically, the sermon at Mass this past Sunday was St Matthew’s reporting of The Sermon on the Mount - about as close to a direct quote by an eyewitness as you can get of the words of Jesus. In answer to the vitriol expressed by these so-called Christians regarding homosexuals and pretty much everyone other than themselves, the teaching rang out “Blessed are you when people revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account”(Matthew 5.9)
I’m not gay, but I have gay friends and co-workers-
also Jewish folks, Catholics, Native Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, and all the other folks their website seems to dislike. I think it’s wrong to promote the exclusion of anyone from God’s / Allah’s / Jehovah’s / Buddah’s / Manidou’s / or any other diety you care to name that great mystery’s love.
What happened to that teaching about “Judge not lest you be judged”?
In the spirit of free speech, I let the litter lay on the streets and yards for several days. Then, when it was clearly litter that no one was going to pick up, let alone read, I picked it up. Made a fair-sized bag of trash (photo attached) too, which I will return to the perpetrator for proper disposal.
To promote true free speech, I would call on these people to stand up in the full light of day and publically declare and defend their belief. It’s a free county after all. Leaving hate mail anonomously in the predawn hours by it’s very nature shows that even they know this is shameful. I would call on them to perhaps take out a booth at the Bayview Bash to hand out their literature and stand up for their beliefs in person rather than being clandestine “Bayview Bashers”.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God”. (Matthew 5.11)
David HB Drake
Milwaukee
