Came across this item from the KAIT8 ABC affiliate out of Jonesboro, AR (not insignificantly self-designated as "Your Good Neighbor Station":
BATESVILLE, AR-- A Region 8 town prepares for a controversial weekend. Batesville will be hosting the first annual Pagan Pride Day Festival on Saturday. The event is scheduled to be held at Kennedy Park on White River. And while the event is only days away, the controversy is already brewing.
Well, Arkansas isn't exactly known for being a bastion of paganinity, so I can imagine this would be a big deal. Maybe some of the local churches are planning protests! Maybe the organizers' homes have been vandalized! Maybe the local paper's "Letters to the Editor" page is crammed with hate-filled screeds about the baby-eating demon-worshippers taking over the town! So let's see how vicious this controversy is:
Pastor David Insell of the Believer's Community Church said, “As far as the church, we haven't taken an officials [sic] stance on it. We've talked about it in our worship service. I made the congregation aware that it was happening and invited them to pray about.”
...and by "pray about" you mean "invoke the wrath of God complete with rains of frogs, fiery eruptions from the bowels of the earth, and the return of New Coke, ala Pat Robertson", right? Surely you are not going to suffer these witches to live!
Pastor Insell may not agree with pagan beliefs, but he does believe in the freedom speech and freedom of religion.
“As citizens of America we all have a right to worship as we choose to worship. If we say they can't have it then maybe we can't have it,” said Insell.
Whoah! Oh no you di'int! You did NOT just invoke the "Christians are a persecuted minority" bidness!
...oh. Actually, no, you didn't. For real.
OK, well, since you're determined to be such a limp dick about it, let's go to the local government. This must be a hot story about the town council's determination to cling to their narrow-minded beliefs, like the town of Great Falls in South Carolina did with Darla Wynne. Oh yeah-- bring it!
While the small town of Batesville is preparing for the weekend, city officials are treating the day like any other.
“I do not expect any controversy. I don't look at it as a big deal. It’s one event in our park. We treat it no different then anything else,” said Batesville Parks Director Randy Palmer.
Oh! Oh! He called it "not a big deal"! He is being SO ignorant and discriminatory, acting like this is just some little non-event. Clearly he doesn't respect Paganism enough to think its celebrations are worth noticing!
OK, maybe not-- but surely the cops are a bunch of donutheaded rednecks looking for any excuse to persecute a minority religion. They've gotta be polishing up the riot gear, getting ready to go in and arrest the hemp bracelet merchants for drug possession:
The city doesn't plan to have any additional security at the park. The pagan group is holding the holding the event as a fundraiser for rescued horses.
And, and, ok, but, sure, so this must've raised the hackles of, um, people who like to bet on horse races? Rodeo clowns? People who like horseradish? The local glue factory? Come ON, people, I tuned in for controversy here! Give me something to get pissed off about! Something, some evidence of intolerance or oppression, maybe even just an obnoxious sound bite I can highlight in boldface?
“Just in the Christian community itself there's such a diversity of beliefs and I think as Americans we have to be tolerant of everybody's beliefs,” said Insell.
*sigh* This is what passes for controversy with you people? I swear to gods, don't you know ANYTHING about creating a media shitstorm? You'd think that people in Batesville were actually mature enough to be undisturbed by, even accepting of, an alternative religion festival in their midst, or something.
Progress is just Nielsen death, I swear.
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