[Peace-discuss] Pastor Smith's comments

[Randall Cotton]

John wrote:

: 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.

Just to clarify, no one ever suggested focusing on fundamentalists. I
would tend to agree that wouldn't be the most productive application
of our efforts 8-) The audiences would be more mainstream, I think.

R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
To: "Randall Cotton" <recotton at earthlink.net>;
<peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2005 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Pastor Smith's comments


: 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
: