Rinky-Dink Minister Count Upped to Five!

What is the measure of a cleric?

Cool website? Number of people in worship? Annual tithes and offerings? Spectacular worship space?

I disagree with your metrics for assessment of clergy. There are many good clerics without websites, many who have storefront churches, many who have street ministries.  

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Claim to fame: Posted first PHB diary to be demoted

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by: cindik @ Thu May 28, 2009 at 09:24:45 AM CDT

their ability to push petitions.

my point is that none of the ministers the Larry Stickney features on his list represent more than a handful of congregants, with the minor exception of Hutcherson, who is no longer a leader outside his own small-to-modest congregation.  None of these people have an authoritative religious voice in Washington state that appeals to people not already in their churches.  

Stickney, like any good agent of bigotry, tries to use a religious argument to bolster his actions.  Then he tries to list religious "leaders" to show that he's got it right.  Except he doesn't, because there is not one important Washington religious leader on that list.  Important in terms of the sway they hold in helping assemble the vast number of people it would require to get the needed signatures in the incredibly reduced time Larry Stickney has left himself (he initiated a legal process Tuesday that will probably cost him 2.4 weeks of signature gathering time that he couldn't spare).

I should have mentioned up top that my evaluation of these ministers has nothing to do with their potential value as community members.  For all I know they are saving lives in single bounds.  But being as they're willing to sign on to Stickney's hateful money-grab scheme, somehow I doubt it.

Lurleen on Twitter

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by: Lurleen @ Thu May 28, 2009 at 10:33:41 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I know R-71 is led by nut cases and scoundrels but...

Gary+Larry could very well be doing a money grab.  Maybe they're trying to conceal money from the public disclosure commission.  Maybe the referendum is just a PR campaign designed to get a head start on fundraising for a more serious initiative campaign in 2010, at which more "respected" right-wingers will be invited to join in.  Or maybe they have potential donors line up ready to drop a couple hundred grand into a signature gathering frenzy.  We don't know but we have to assume, and prepare for the worst. Assume they are a serious threat and go after them accordingly, using all means necessary, legal, and available.  Throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at them.

When it's all over, I would much rather say, with embarrassment, that I overestimated the opposition and did too much than to admit, with shame, that I underestimated them and did too little.

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by: Erick in Seattle @ Thu May 28, 2009 at 12:04:11 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Too easy

$$$$$$$$$$$.....

"It goes on one at a time, it starts when you care to act, it starts when you do it again after they said no, it starts when you say We and know who you mean, and each day you mean one more."

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by: Louise @ Thu May 28, 2009 at 12:20:07 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

That's okay Lurleen...WE GOT RID of these 41!

(Fresno, California) National leaders of the Episcopal Church have ousted 61 clergy who aligned with a former bishop in California when he broke with the national church in a dispute over the Bible and homosexuality..

Former Bishop John-David Schofield led the Diocese of San Joaquin to become the first full diocese to secede from the U.S. denomination in 2007. Four years earlier, Episcopalians consecrated their first openly gay bishop, setting off a wide-ranging debate within the church and upsetting conservative congregations.

Schofield ultimately was removed as head of the diocese and barred from performing any religious rites. He maintains he is an Anglican bishop under the worldwide church.

Episcopal leaders said Wednesday they were deposing all clergy who severed their ties and joined Schofield in affiliating with an Anglican archdiocese in Argentina..

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Thu May 28, 2009 at 13:49:01 PM CDT