I wish this event had been better attended. I wish it had gotten better coverage on these pages -- entries by myself (a new diarist) and others (not so new) fell like rocks -- I wish it had gotten more coverage in the MSM.
Not surprisingly, the media coverage was all about JustUs Sunday, with our antidote event getting minimal coverage -- not even a sidebar, just an inaccurate mention in most instances. NPR's coverage was surprisingly unbalanced, and even our own public radio station, WPLN, failed to give an accurate description of what went on or who attended the Community of Faith and Unity Gathering.
So, here for the benefit of all of you DKers who were not aware of the event, or heard little about it, allow me to share this diary. I encourage others who were there to chime in -- I did not attend with the idea of writing about it afterwards, so did not keep notes (and I'm pretty sure there was not live blog-cast of it, as they did across the river at 2 Rivers Baptist!).
I was appalled that media coverage (even locally) almost entirely ignored the event, held at Cathedral of Praise church. It was attended by hundreds of people of faith -- of all religious affiliations -- and was addressed by speakers of faith known both locally and nationally. Here is the list of speakers:
Bishop Jerry L. Maynard - pastor of the host church, Cathedral of Praise
Rev. Riga Brock -- founder, Faith Voices
Pastor Tim Alexander (a conservative Evangelical minister) -- Smith Springs Church of Christ
Rev. Barry Lynn -- Ex. Dir.. Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Bishop Joseph Warren Walker III -- Mt. Zion Baptist Church
Rev. Becca Stephens -- St. Augustine's Chapel, and founder of Magdalene House
Patrick Mrotek -- President, Christian Alliance for Progress
Rev. Emilee Whitehurst -- Director, Austin Area Interreligious Ministries
Rabbi Cliff Fiedler -- Bnai Isreal Congregation
Rev. Gail Seavey -- First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville.
The NPR story chose to give voice, in a VERY small way, only to Barry Lynn -- the only speaker who appeared NOT to be affiliated with any denomination (he is, in fact, an ordained minister).
The many hundreds of attendees cut as wide a faith swath as the speakers. What united us all was the fact that we were all people of strong faith who believe that attempting to take over the all 3 branches of government, legislate "Christian" morality, and thereby have Christians rule America, is in defiance not only of our democracy, but is in definance of our faith.
Here are just a couple of the ideas shared by the speakers:
Nowhere in the bible are there stories of Christ trying to overturn the government of his time, or stories of his calling on followers to overturn the government, or lessons to us to overturn our government and make it over in his image.
If we try to legislate Christianity into our government, the 200+ years of this glorious experiment we call "democracy" will fail. Our government is a democracy, but we are headed, by the design of some and the apathy of others toward a theocracy. Right now, we are all free to practice the faith of our choice; in the theocracy imagined by those right-wing extremist Christians, we will be free to practice only the faith of THEIR choice.
Please check out the Drive Democracy site for more posts about this wonderful event.
Special thanks to all the organizers and to Glenn Smith for all their hard work.
Stay strong!