Well, I read something truly disturbing in the Fayetteville Observer a couple of weeks ago in reference to this issue. On July 19, 2008, in an article titled “Festival reverses church policy” it was announced that the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival caved in to the demands of the local cult leaders and will henceforth allow these fuckers to have informational booths at future Festivals. What's of greater interest to me is Manna's Pastor Micheal Fletcher's quote, “And we’ll follow whatever rules they give us,... Hopefully, everyone obeys them.” BULLSHIT! His church/cult was the source of the turmoil. His church was the one that took 1,000 cult followers to the City Council to bitch and moan. His church was the one that couldn't leave it alone and essentially strong armed the Festival's board of directors into reversing the policy by creating a perceived public outcry and pressure on them. Michael Fletcher, you're an asshole! Just look at this photograph from the Fayetteville Observer:
Can the bastard look any more smug and arrogant? The article mentions that Fletcher said “I had really hoped that they would decide this way. And I’m gratified that they have.” Yeah, I'll bet you are. Now you can recruit more people for your cult. I sincerely hope that if any church truly fucks up and breaks whatever rules the Festival lays down for the use of informational booths, that these are the first assholes to do it so we can be rid of them.2 Rev. Brian Thompson of Simon Temple AME Zion Church said in that he was very interested in finding out what those rules are going to be. So am I, and my fiancée and I have some ideas (OK, they're mainly hers, but she doesn't blog, so I'm putting them down here).
Carlisle and His Fiancée's Ideas for the Dogwood Festival Non-Profit Informational Booths (read 'em and pay attention!)
1) Since AIT was kind enough to allow political and church groups to use their parking lot at the last Festival (for double the fee amount, I might add) outside of the Festival's parameters, why not seek their permission to use their parking lot again as a “Community Corner” for all non-profit groups. Anyone with a non-profit organization that wants to hand out information about their organization and therefore anyone who actually wants said information can be in this area where they aren't in the way or disturbing those who aren't interested in this bullshit.
2) Five Foot Rule – regardless of where information booths are placed, there will be a Five Foot Rule for those working the booth. In other words, you have to wait for people to come to you, you can't run around forcing people to take your crap.
3) Lottery – Space will be limited to a certain number of informational booths. PERIOD. Your application will be put into a lottery drawing (provided it is filled out completely and correctly). If yours is one of the lucky ones chosen, you will be notified and will have a set amount of time to pay the fee for the booth. If you miss the deadline, the Festival should draw to see who gets offered your spot.
4) NO FOOD/DRINKS – this was the issue that started all this bullshit, because Manna wanted to hand out free food and drinks to people along with their pamphlets and materials. (Can you say bribery?). Informational booths are just that; information only! If you want to SELL food/drinks, then pay for a vendor booth and leave your tracts and cult literature at home!
These are just a few ideas mind you. Hopefully the Festival's governing body will see to it that the churches that wish to participate peacefully and respectfully may do so while those religious zealots and nutters out there can be kept from disturbing festival goers. I'll concede Fletcher's comment “And churches are a part of this community” as being true. We are, after all, in the “Bible Belt” here. My issue is that there are to many churches that don't respect the beliefs of others or the desire of others to be left alone and try to force their particular brand of Christianity on others. And that is exactly why I don't want them to be allowed to have booths at the Dogwood Festival; that's not what the Dogwood Festival is about or for. The Festival is about celebrating the Arts, and having some cult asshole try to talk to you about Jesus has nothing to do with the Arts. Neither, however, does having a bunch of environmentalist wackos and Al Gore worshipers around either. So let's keep that in mind as well, eh there Festival board? I realized they're trying to be more inclusive, but if they let to many freaks have booths and they don't make those freaks stay in their booths and isolate them, then they'll have smaller crowds of people willing to go downtown for the event. Just food for thought.
Until next week,
~ Carlisle
Footnotes:
1. “Why Can't Churches Live and Let Live” (April 20, 2008) and “Dogwood Manna Emails/Final Comments” (April 23, 2008)
2. If you want to know the source of my venomous comments and apparent anger with Manna Church, make sure you read the comments for the the original two posts and especially the second one in which I have the emailed commentary of one of the church's pastors and how they've managed to lie through their teeth the entire time. I have inside sources at the Festival, so I know what's going on and who's telling what lies to whom.
Next week's topic (unless I change my mind at the last moment) - “A Graves Point of View (Askew)”
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4 comments:
Oh good grief.
First of all, that was a terrible camera angle for Michael. Would you want your character to be described and impugned based on a bad photo? Sheesh.
Second, I was born and raised in this town. So was Michael Fletcher. We have just as much of a right to participate in that Dogwood festival as any other member of this community.
Third, all he did is what every citizen of this great nation has a right to do-appealed to the proper authorities for chance. He wasn't rude, he wasn't acting the fool, he did NOT call for a boycott. In fact I personally got a little upset with him because he postponed a prayer meeting in order to make sure families could go down to the Dogwood Festival this year and have a good time.
I have a son in the Air Force and a son-in-law in the Navy who are serving in order to protect the freedoms of this nation's citizens. Guess what? I'm a citizen. Michael is a citizen. My fellow church members are citizens. We have rights given to us not only by the Almighty but by this great nation of ours. We'd be fools not to take advantage of them.
I know Michael personally. I know Delane personally. I have known them both for years. I trust them both as men of integrity-integrity I have observed, not just assumed.
And I know they are sticklers for dotting every i and crossing every t. If they tell me the blueberries are ripe, I bring the bucket. I don't know what your girlfriend is telling you, but our whole church knows what the Dogwood festival folks told us. Now maybe someone had a bad day and misspoke to my church. It happens. But if you dare call Michael Fletcher or Delane Hulen liars, you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.
Because I know better!
Thanks for your comments... and because I believe in free speech, it'll remain on the blog for as long as Google keeps their servers updated and the data backed up.
Now, I assume you've read all the previous posts, so I won't go into a bunch of details here except to reiterate what I've stated before and will continue to state as many time as it takes for people to get it through their, evidently thick, heads -- THIS IS NOT NOT NOT A 1ST AMENDMENT ISSUE!!! The Festival, as a PRIVATE non-profit group has the right to make and enforce whatever rules they see fit. Taking this before the City Council was absolutely inappropriate, as it put the Council in a potential position to violate the 1st Amendment.
No one is saying you can't peddle your beliefs. It is, in fact, an integral part of your beliefs to share them. I get that. I even used to share them. But again, I firmly hate it when I feel like someone is forcing their beliefs on others or myself. And frankly, that's how every Christian who has ever tried to hand me a tract or other literature has made me feel, like they weren't taking "no" for an answer.
Perhaps it was a bad camera angle for Rev. Fletcher, but he still looks awfully smug for a minister to me. I watched on television on the night he, and others, spoke to the Council. I also read his op-ed piece in the newspaper several days (weeks?) later. His entire argument was smug and arrogant.
Yes, you are a citizen. In this case, appealing to the "proper authorities" was not what was done. He wanted the government to strong arm the Festival into allowing churches to participate.
As far as what Festival staff did or didn't say, from what I'm told, there were no less than five different people that were points of contact for Manna (none of whom were the Senior Pastor). Now, how do you suppose information is supposed to be accurately communicated that way? In an email from Delane Hulen, he basically called the Festival staff liars when he stated "someone is not telling the truth." Perhaps it's the church staff not communicating information correctly with each other. There should have been one point of contact at the church, not five, to ensure accuracy. And we won't even discuss the fact that the church felt the need to continuously badger the Festival staff even after they were told No.
In essence, if the church would've just left the situation alone, no one's feelings would've been hurt; the Festival wouldn't have received emailed threats of burning in hell; and Michael Fletcher's reputation wouldn't be that of an ass.
Believe what thou wilt... just leave me and mine the frak alone! Keep it in your church and you people like me wouldn't feel the need to vent by exercising our 1st amendment rights to write a blog.
~ JC
Post Script to my previous comment.
Ms Reagan stated:
"I don't know what your girlfriend is telling you, but our whole church knows what the Dogwood festival folks told us. Now maybe someone had a bad day and misspoke to my church. It happens. But if you dare call Michael Fletcher or Delane Hulen liars, you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.
Because I know better!"
The whole church knows? So, the whole church was on a big speaker phone listening? Or are you referring to the alleged voice mail message, which would constitute a single statement most likely taken out of the context of multiple other conversations.
I'm not ashamed of anything, Ms. Reagan. My grandfather served 25 years in the Army through WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I'm a citizen too, and I have the right to my opinion the same as you. If you don't like my opinion, then don't read my blog. Oh, and be assured, my finacee (not girlfriend if you had been paying attention) will be believed way before I believe a slick tongued preacher.
Despite the fact that several other state and local festivals DO NOT allow political or religious groups for the same reasons as the Dogwood Festival did (complaints the result of badgering and not adhering to the rules by these groups), the Dogwood Festival now has to allow these groups again. So, I agree the Dogwood Festival should set aside an area - a "Community Corner," so to speak - most probably in the AIT parking lot they offered their parking lots to these groups during this 2008 Dogwood Festival. Just as an amendment to what James stated, I would also say that having a lottery system might be the fairest way to deal with this (only so many spots - so many designated for churches, political, and non-profit groups - numbers to be determined by those in charge), but it should also include the clause of if a political/religious wins the lottery one year, they cannot reapply for 3-5 years (the number can be decided by those in charge). If for nothing else, to ensure the spots are spread around the community groups.
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