Time to follow up on Stephen Bennett’s plans to bring Bible gift bags to gay and lesbian families and their children in Provincetown Massachusetts this coming Saturday.
In May, we noted that Stephen Bennett Ministry’s (SBM’s) $50K fundraising target could have supported a ten-fold increase in participants (from 50 to 500) as well as in Bible gift bags (from 600 to 6,000) compared to a similar effort last year.
By early July, that the target had been halved, to $25K, and the outreach to be supported with the funds was beefed up:
According to SBM’s schedule, August is now “Massachusetts Month” and the Provincetown event on August 7 is a kick-off event for SBM’s “national evangelistic outreach” to the gay community, including “6 MAJOR evangelistic outreache[s] to the homosexual in the state of Massachusetts” which SBM says “we will be holding”.
We could find no corroborating information about any “major” outreach events at that time, though.
So, where do things stand now at T-minus 3 days?
- The fundraising page says “SBM’s Goal is $25,000 – we are only $2,000 away from our goal!! Your financial help is greatly needed and appreciated!”
- August 7th is now “SBM’s 2004 National Evangelistic One-Day Outreach,” and references to “Massachusetts Month” and the MAJOR evangelistic events no longer appear on the calendar.
There’s no word as to how many folks are planning to participate, whether the plans have materialized for “one of the state’s largest evangelistic outreaches in years” including “buses from all over New England … bringing Christians onto the Cape for a whirlwind one-day outreach.” With the funds supporting a single event instead of six, rough calculations would suggest the ministry has the capacity to bring 250 people and 3,000 Bible gift bags to P-Town.
Hopefully participants in this year’s event, remembering last year, will be cautious and respectful about any photo-taking.
I kinda wish I could be there. I’d ask as many of the evangelists as possible how they felt about hanging out among folks whose relationships were “a putrid stench in [God’s] nostrils.”
Surely some blogger who reads this site lives in P-town. Oh how my loins quiver in anticipation of Bennett’s over-dramatic first hand account of this weekend.
Hey – nice blog. I live in Boston and it’d be pretty easy (and tempting) for me to take a nice little Saturday trip to P-Town to observe/protest the SBM trip. But here’s what I’m wondering – what could I (and my troop of friends) possibly do that would be productive at such an absurd event? This kind of thing beckons me, but I never know what type of action could be effective on these people. Reading about last year’s activities, it’s clear that no matter what response they get from P-Town residents, they miss the point and remain completely ignorant.
Any suggestions?
Thanks and keep up the good blogging,
–Kath
Simple, bring a video camera and follow Stevo around the entire day.
He’ll be putting out a glowing report of his trip to P-town that will include stories of miracle drag queens who ripped off their tiarras and fell to their knees to beg Steven to help them get saved.
Document his trip and see if his letter to his contributers that will come out shortly after his trip matches what you have on film.
Hey Kath…
Perfect questions to be asking!
Just throwing out some possible options here:
You can be present as observers. Be as objective as possible in noting how many folks are taking part, what kinds of things are said, how glbt folks are approached, how folks in P-Town respond. (The videocam idea could be good, but I’d want to be careful not to be taking pics or video against people’s wishes like some of the evangelists apparently were last year.)
You could try reaching someone from the local churches — St. Mary of the Harbor, Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, Provincetown United Methodist Church, Shank Painter Road, 508-487-4925 — and ask if they’re familiar with the Bennett ministry, if folks from P-Town have responded previously, and if they have any suggestions. Anything to connect yourself with and involve people already in P-Town is good, it seems to me.
Challenging Mr. Bennett on the “putrid stench” comment is relevant and valid. He made it in mid-May, we pointed it out in early July, and he has not stepped back from it since then. (He has commented here in the past, so it’s a reasonable probability he continues to read us.) A couple of possible options:
Print up half-sheet fliers headlined in block letters “GLBT relationships — NOT A PUTRID STENCH” and include relevant paragraphs from (or the entirety of) the editorial in which those words were used. Photocopy a couple hundred of them, distribute to folks in P-Town either ahead of or just behind the Bennett folks.
Carry posters that say “Not A Putrid Stench” or “I am a Child of God, Not a Putrid Stench” or “I am a Beloved Daughter (spouse, mother, brother, etc.), Not a Putrid Stench”. Carry them silently, or walk with them and talk to folks around town ahead of and behind the evangelists.
For those with cool heads who are comfortable doing so, engage these folks with genuine questions: Do you understand how I might find it insincere to hear you are say that you bring a message of loving compassion, and yet you fight for the right to discriminate against me? Can you imagine what is it like to have your most precious commitment labeled a “putrid stench”? Can you see why parents object vehemently to you attempting to give gifts to their kids? Expect them to backpedal — “But, I didn’t say that… but Stephen didn’t intend to be cruel… that the words were unfortunate…” and respond, “Then I look forward to a seeing a retraction and an apology from Mr. Bennett on his website.”
Walk the town some distance after the ministry folks have passed through, talking with folks who have gift bags. Explain to them what the evangelists are doing there, let them know that you’re willing to return the gift bags to the ministry folks. Gather up as many as possible, return them to wherever the ministry’s home base is (last year they had a couple folks stationed there all day) and explain calmly that these were not wanted (or just return them in silence).
Contact the News desk of the Cape Cod Times (862-1147), let them know you’ll be there and available to be interviewed on Saturday.
Just tossing out ideas here… maybe other folks have better ones.
I think the key is to keep things simple, not confrontational, but clear that you are responding as people of deeply-held values and personal integrity who vigorously object to being treated as dark, sad, sinful, or putrid. To the extent that you can put basic info and tools in the hands of glbt folks in P-Town, you’re providing a worthwhile service. To the extent that you can peacefully engage the evangelists, you will limit their ability to disrupt the lives of others.
And, if the most that is accomplished is some objective reporting about what plays out that day, that’s very good stuff, too. We’ll be happy to publish your observations here.
Anybody else have ideas?
I think flyers that briefly outline Bennett’s hypocrisy and true beliefs would be most effective. Perhaps at the bottom the reader would be urged to return the gift bags.
OK – here’s a frontline report. A great guy named Paul who lives on Cape Cod and is active in an online community called Gay Christian Network (GCN) ventured out to P’Town on Saturday. He posted a first-hand account this morning and gave me permission to share it here. So…. here’s one perspective on the SB evangelistic event in P’Town: (The SB website mentioned there would be clowns distributing gift bags to children in gay families, thus the reference in Paul’s letter to clowns.)
Moderator’s note: Many thanks to Rick and Paul for passing along the news.
Do you have the photo of Bennett? I wouldn’t mind seeing his legs. Maybe it will save me from a life of sin and depravity.
Fantastic and funny recap. I’m glad that everyone had such a good time.
I was in P-town that day the “visitors” came. James is in a total spin zone. There were a lot more than 15 of them. They were real nice, confident, and friendly. They didn’t argue or act nasty. I think James got his facts from la-la land.
I also was in P Town on Saturday, 8/7 and came upon the Bennet group at the town hall.. I was not sure who they were at first since their T shirts had a mixture of Christian writing, Rainbow Colors, the Pink Triangel and aCross.I thought at first they were a Christian/Gay group and I was happy that they were there. However, as I talled with a woman she asked if I was a Christian and I said yes, she told me they were with agroup whose founder had ‘ ccome out of homosexuality” so I knew then they were NOT what I had thought. I watched and walked thru the streets to see how and what they said to people. I think what made me the most dissapointed was that they “used” the rainbow, the pink triangle and the cross to almost “lure” unsuspecting glbt folks into listening to them. I believe they did more to inhibit God’s GLBT children in coming to a relationship with God than they did in advancing their agenda. I prayed that people wouldc realize the error of their message and thetruth of God’s love for everyone.
Stephen Bennett posted this on his site:
“Many of the anti-Christian, “gay” activist websites – as we warned you – were planning and discussing mischief prior to the event. There was a lot of “chatter” on the internet. Sadly, many did what they planned and some of the websites were immediately “happily” reporting that the day for SBM was “a failure” — making up stories and lies about SBM – including false incidents and comments.”
I’ve done several searches and have not found any references to the Provincetown blitz on any websites except Ex-Gay Watch (apart from one blog.) Is it possible he’s talking about THIS site and the commentary offered by Paul? If anyone knows of sites or organizations where that kind of advance plotting was going on, I’d like to know about it.
Hmmm… still no success in finding the sites SB writes of in his P’Town report. Perhaphs Ex-Gay Watch is it – or at least among them. Here are some more reflections from Paul of GCN:
“I read the SB Ministries “report” on P’Town and can’t imagine we were even in the same town. I will say for the record that, contrary to what was reported by SB, I saw no signs of angered response by either side; it was really quite peaceful. (I cannot testify, however, that there were no one-on-one exchanges that could have been nasty, but if so they weren’t publicly noticeable and I was watching for any signs of this.) SB also reports gangs of anti-SB gays running around town grabbing the gift bags from folks and dumping them in the trash. Well, I did not witness this and I myself accepted a gift bag and carried it around all day and no one said a word about it. (I did give the SB lady back the Bible, though, telling her that since I had many Bibles I didn’t think it right to take it as someone who didn’t have one would make better use of that one than I. I also told her that I thought it wonderful they were putting Bibles into the hands of folks, even though I didn’t agree with the other material enclosed in the bag. She smiled and said she thought that was “very nice” of me to support Bible distribution.) The SB report also blasts one kid who was wearing a boa as though this kid were some kind of monster. How cruel. Yeah, he was wearing a multi-colored feather boa and having a ball with it. So what? A nicer, more neatly dressed and respectful kid than many I’ve seen in some straight families.
I stand by my account with one exception: I said the kids were doing “face painting” but that was a misstatement. What they were doing is giving out small stickers (gay friendly ones) that kids were using to decorate their faces and clothes. Almost the same thing but just to set the record straight. I have pics of that, though I’ve been advised that it might be a privacy violation to post them here. I will send them by e-mail, though, to whoever wants to verify crowd size, the appearance of both groups in peaceful conversation, and the “boa-monster” kid as he really appeared, etc., etc.
*sigh* I can only surmise that since SB Ministries depends on stirring up the Right in order to raise $$$, they can’t very well be truthful and tell their contributors what a non-event this really was. Where would the cash come from for the next one, eh?”
and
“I’m not at all troubled by whatever SB says, myself, as I know what I witnessed, but it does disturb me that he maligns those kids especially. These were decent kids standing up for love of their parents and doing so in a very decent way and they don’t deserve to be used to further the case against their folks by SB’s misrepresentations. (And, for that matter, the HRC folks I met and observed there were also slammed by SB as some kind of wild-eyed gay thugs or something and THAT’S not a fair assessment, either.)
What’s really sad is that SB’s own people were also pretty darned decent in their demeanor, relaxed and friendly in a way that even I didn’t expect, but to read SB’s report you’d think they had to fight tooth and nail to defend themselves from the angry gay activists. Are you kidding me? We were hugging and laughing together about what a bizarro Fred Phelps was and how glad we all were that the day wasn’t like one of that maniac’s travesties!”