[Peace-discuss] Pastor Smith's comments

[John W.]

At 01:40 PM 11/5/2005, Randall Cotton wrote:

>I'm not sure how this effort began to be described as a "picket". To
>my knowledge it has always been a demonstration like the one at Main
>and Neil. In fact, I originally proposed this as a substitute for the
>evening "Main Event" demonstration we'd been holding on the 3rd
>Saturday of the month. At the meeting this past Tuesday, where we made
>a lot of progress on planning, the intention was clearly to make this
>just another demonstration, this time with a different audience -
>church congregations - with different signs and flyers tailored for
>that audience.
>
>It's my opinion (and others at the Tuesday meeting seemed to agree)
>that it wouldn't be productive or for us to try to address church
>leadership or demonstrate against a church (since we are not part of
>the congregation). That is absolutely not the nature of the event as I
>understand it.
>
>The intent is to connect with churchgoers themselves, as they arrive
>for or leave services, just in the same way we connect with passersby
>at our other demonstrations, showing thought-provoking signs, handing
>out flyers, engaging in conversation, urging them to join us and so
>on.
>
>R
>
>PS: It seems to me that if the local Church leadership is explicitly
>on record in opposing the war, they may actually *welcome* the
>expression of anti-war sentiment. But at the same time I would say
>it's not likely we would demonstrate at such churches anyway. The
>point is to connect with a group of people who are much more likely to
>be *for* the war than our usual audience at Main and Neil.


And it'll prove to be even less effective.  You must not be out there 
trying to discuss politics with fundamentalist Christians, as I have been 
on and off for the past 35 years.

John




>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Bob Illyes" <illyes at uiuc.edu>
>To: <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 11:26 AM
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] Pastor Smith's comments
>
>
>: It may be great fun to picket church-goers, but if it is
>: seen as self-righteous, as Pastor Smith suggests, we make
>: things better rather than worse with our fun. I think we
>: need to be pretty careful in picking our churches, making
>: sure that their local leadership is on record for war. I know
>: several pastors who are very explicitly on record in
>: opposing the Iraq disaster, and it would be hubris to picket
>: their churches.
>:
>: Bob