Eye Recommend --- Local Clergy Hand Out Condoms at Aurora Hobby Lobby Store

LOCAL CLERGY HAND OUT CONDOMS AT AURORA HOBBY LOBBY STORE, by Jessica Cilella -- http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140702/news/140709544/

These are the kinds of Christians who should be in the headlines, not the ultra-conservative-we-hate-everyone-who-isn't-us kind.  (Any underlines are mine.)

"A small group of clergy and representatives from Planned Parenthood handed out condoms Wednesday evening in front of a Hobby Lobby store in Aurora in response to (the) U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving the company."

Reverend Mark Winters of the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Naperville first made a half-joking comment on his Facebook page.  The response was positive and immediate, so he decided to act on it.

"The group stood outside the store...and handed materials to people as they walked into the store.  The demonstrators did not approach anyone with children...

...(Rev. Winters) said he hoped people who happened upon the demonstration would walk away with an understanding that Christians have a wide variety of opinions regarding birth control.

In addition, he hoped it would get people to question whether the court ruling was fair to the religious freedom of Hobby Lobby employees who have beliefs differing from their employer.

'You can make the religious freedom argument, you can make the argument about contraception, but ultimately, for me, this is about power,' he said....

...'Jesus had a lot of issue with powerful people using power over the powerless.

The issue of power was also the primary reason Rev. Emmy Lou Belcher, a recently retired minister of the DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church in Naperville, agreed to attend the demonstration...'The health care law is meant to cover a diverse society...so people aren't excluded.  What this has done is exclude."

...(Rev. Winters added) "We believe in the freedom of individual conscience and support the rights of others to have their individual conscience respected,'...

Hobby Lobby officials referred inquiries about the demonstration to The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the company in court.  Becket Fund spokeswoman Emily Hardman said that the company has not released any statements regarding protests at its stores."

Does anyone else see the irony in the name The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty? Why is it that these conservative Christians think liberty is their exclusive moral right?

A church that chooses exclusion over inclusion and, as the Rev. White said, chooses to wield power over the powerless, is not following the teachings of the Jesus I learned about in Sunday School.   It is a cult of close-minded people, blind to their own fallacy and deaf to those who would point out their purposeful self-deception.