Placerville: A Hate Free City!

"Move to Placerville, California Where No One Hates Anyone!"

Mayoral Breaches in California

When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized the issuance of marriage licenses in 2004 to sodomite couples (popularly known as "gay and lesbian couples") who spoke a word against this abomination?

One who did was Dick Otterstad, a pastor of a local church in El Dorado Hills and an organizer of GaymarriageNo. His group produced signs mounted on trucks for easy dissemination of the Biblical assessment of sodomy (not to mention civil recognition of the perversion as a "marriage" - "Yuck!" at the least!). The message was simple: it is a flagrant, disgusting, perversion; moreover, it is sin. But GaymarriageNo appears to have been quite diplomatically polite in its opposition to this abomination. According to Sacramento Bee report, these folks put it, actually, quite softly:

Using "truth trucks," pickups bearing signs declaring "Homosexuality is sin," and the universal "no" symbol superimposed on a photo of two men kissing, the group has passed out literature along city streets, in front of schools and at community events. Members also have displayed their message on banners from a Highway 50 overpass.

No call here for justice, viz., the proper civil (Biblically speaking) death penalty for sodomy; quite a moderate response, really. And what did Placerville do in response to these moderate actions of GaymarriageNo? Mayor Roberta Colvin and her City Council members countered this effort by issuing a proclamation declaring Placerville a "hate-free and discrimination-free city."

We must commend Dick Otterstad, his son Luke, Ron Brock and the faithful few for at least opening their mouths for truth. They successfully discriminated between good and evil, and that is much more than we can say for the other churches mentioned by the Bee.

As might be expected in this Age of Decadence, the message from GaymarriageNo was not well received by some of the citizenry. Mike Kobus, a Placerville business owner, told the City Council, "As representatives of the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce, this issue disturbs us." (Hmm. Something to do with the pocket book? What kind of clientele does the Chamber want?) Apparently, Kobus is of the notion that the city would not appear to be on the cutting edge of social evolution - or something - by tolerating opposition to perverse and lawless behavior. He said "Signs expressing hate of a specific lifestyle are not a way to greet people."

Remember. It all started with hate speech from the San Francisco mayor. He proclaimed hatred for God and His law and those who love it when he authorized sodomite marriages. So let us attempt to track this so far: 1) San Francisco Mayor attacks God, His Law, and all Christians who love God and His Law. 2) God's people in Placerville (a paltry handful) express their objection to the Mayor's attack upon God and His Law. 3) The Placerville Mayor and City Council respond to God's people by accusing them of committing "hate speech."

The tactic used by sodomites and their sympathizers across the country is to marginalize and degrade Christian spokesmen. Those who speak against these eruptions of hatred toward God and these assaults upon Christian civilization and various state codes (which still hold sodomy as a crime) are charged with being "intolerant" (or "bigoted") "haters."

And California, of all places - the land of openness and liberality toward every type of Godless expression - suddenly closes in on Christian expression suggesting economic stress as a reason to shut down the speech! (Wow! Are liberals money-driven like those nasty, greedy conservatives? Funny how those who boast of themselves openness to any form of expression of any Anti-Christian theme whether the Piss Christ "art" or blasphemous films such as the Da Vinci Code suddenly become speech monitors when the speech is not suitable to them and that they do so in the name of money! (Greedy Capitalists! Oh we could go on. Such hypocrisy!)

So "hatred" is the charge brought by sodomy sympathizers against the Christians and the justification for discouraging, if not outlawing their speech. And since that just isn't a good effectual and legal tool to stop the preaching of these Christians, another tactic is to accuse them of harming the business interests of community. That is the not-so-subtle accusation from Mr. Kobus and his comrades of the El Dorado Hills Chamber of Commerce.

The Expected Complicity of the "Liberal" Churches

It comes as no surprise to read about the betrayal of the liberal churches who joined with the sodomite side of the issue. The Bee reported on the praise of the city Council offered by residents and church leaders: "Bob Olmstead, a United Methodist pastor and newcomer to the city, said, 'I applaud the council in working to make this the community we thought it was when we so recently moved here.'"

The Bee also reported on the response of Steve Shortes, a deacon at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, who told the council, "I laud what you are doing. I wish you didn't have to do it."

But this is expected of the apostate churches which do not believe the Scriptures and are nothing but chaff blowing in the wind of the latest leftist fads.

The Treachery of Churches which Claim to Believe the Scriptures

The Bee also reported on the responses of other churches. None were named in support of Otterstad and GaymarriageNo. But one, Solid Rock Faith Center of Diamond Springs, represented by Pastor Don Pritchard, though sympathetic, was critical: "Although Pritchard does not dispute Otterstad's interpretation of the biblical view of homosexuality, he said he disagrees with GaymarriageNo's tactics."

Another local paper, The Village, reported on two other churches which offered criticism rather then support of the Otterstad church and its GaymarriageNo campaign. "Although he agreed that the Bible does not condone homosexuality, Sunhills Community Church Pastor Paul Thome strongly disagreed with GaymarriageNo's tactics." Thome said,

"We agree with the Bible in that homosexuality is not God's plan for human beings. But we would welcome people who are gay or homosexual into our church." Village reporter Crystal Vernazza interpreted Thome as follows: "There are countless sins, he said, and to alienate one particular group and attack them simply isn't following the word of God."

Pastor Thome did not seem to understand that recent nationwide gargantuan efforts to decriminalize sodomy (a crime in the West since the advent of Christendom in the fourth century ) merit a direct response from Christians, who are supposed to be the "salt" and "light" of society. Efforts to normalize that which is perverted ought to be confronted with the sincere enthusiasm displayed by GaymarriageNo. Instead, Pastor Thome has denigrated those who have been loyal to the truth saying, "I think what happens is Christians single out one particular sin and make it the sin of all sins." And not content with criticizing these faithful, he makes sure to keep them at a safe distance: "We just don't agree with their tactics and their methodology, they're not speaking for all of us."

Lakehills Covenant Church Pastor Ron Short's testimony also served to isolate the faithful: "As pastors here in this community, we're not going to stand for outsiders coming into our community and sending messages so inappropriately . . . That was not a graceful way of expressing any opinion; that reflects badly upon the church."

Well, such comments from the shepherds of Bible believing churches must have provided plenty of encouragement to those police authorities who might have been itching to make an arrest but for that doggone First Amendment. "The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department received numerous calls last week reporting the trucks, said Undersheriff Fred Kollar, but because they were not illegally parked, or committing any crime for that matter, there wasn't much for authorities to do."

Well, well. With Christian leaders like Revs. Short and Thome, Dick Otterstad doesn't need to quarrel with any fellow pastors over tactics. He has no co-laborers; no peers. He and his church stand alone, it seems, in both El Dorado Hills and Placerville.

There is no reason for a church which is doing nothing on a particular battle front to disparage in any way the work of another church which is. Posturing for the favor of public or the news media is cowardice at best. It smacks in this case of slavish sycophancy to the world and its emerging trends. We have, then, two breaches of trust. The first is the civil authorities - the Placerville Mayor and City Council have betrayed the citizens by 1) showing tolerance and favor toward sodomy and 2) desecrating the institution of marriage. The second breach has been committed by these three pastors. They have betrayed not only their fellow citizens, but the civil authorities and the church of God to whom they are especially obliged to feed the Truth.