Now I think Kansas has a lot going for it, the Board of Education and the Phelps posse not withstanding, but here is another flap in Kansas that needs to be publicized. Seems a bed and breakfast owner in Meade Kansas is getting all kinds of grief for quite innocently displaying a rainbow flag. Those fundamentalists who have nothing better to do but imagine some sort of gay agenda hidden in every children's toy or television show have taken offense at this and are threatening the bed and breakfast owner and making wild statements and comparing flying a rainbow flag to flying a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood.
As noted by an area television station, the Bed and Breakfast owner, J.R. Knight
...Says the radio station has called him threatening to remove the restaurant'’s commercials if he does not remove the flag. A local pastor stopped by said it was equivalent to hanging women‚Â’s panties on a flag pole. When Knight jokingly said he might consider that the preacher said he would have him arrested.
Thanks to Pam's House Blend for exposing this shameful episode.
Now, some might say that of course theforce is going to be sympathetic as a Liberal commie pinko (ummm lavender?) evolutionist, but isn't that beside the point? The model of society that America holds before the world is one of non-sectarian tolerance. It is well and good to discuss values. Quite frankly that needs to be done more. But when these discussions grade into threats and boycotts and attempts to drive people whom you don't agree with out of business over their beliefs and exercise of fundamental American rights that is going too far.
Somehow the whole thing reminds me of that old story I heard growing up about these two ministers talking. One boasted that he had saved thousands of souls and had this huge church (here's an example) and he asked the other minister how many souls have YOU saved? The other minister answered simply "one".
Update: Clearly there is enough bad behavior going on all over the place, so hop on over to this more recent post from my home state.
The Meade Kansas Story is updated here.
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1 comment:
Last night I received an anonymous comment that made some unsubstantiated claims about what's really going on in Meade and in the interest of fairness I am posting the first part of the comment:
"JR Knight has used this flag issue to cause attention to be diverted from his real agenda. One minister out of nine made the remark. I would suppose that this intolerance would be statistically representative of almost any community in the country. This minister is not representative of the whole community. I, and everyone I have talked with, do not care at all that Knights fly their flag, nor do we have any anti-homosexual feelings."
So in fairness to the people of Meade, there may be several levels to this controversy. In the part of the post I did not publish, he poster makes more specific charges involving local government which probably best handled there.
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