Last night, a documentary was screened at the Coudersport Public Library. The documentary was about the struggles that a teen faced being gay in a small town.
Much ado was made over the documentary, most of it from the activist group that created, and is showing the movie “Out in the Silence”.
The activists behind this movie have claimed that death threats were made, and that the Potter County Tea Party, and a Methodist Church, were attacking the library for allowing the movie to be screened there.
In fact, it was all sensationalism meant to make the activists look like the victims.
From a news release issued to Solomon’s Words and written by Pastor Peter Tremblay of the Coudersport Free Methodist Church:
Coudersport, you have been played! You have been lied to. You have been victimized by a group who uses tactics of sensationalism in order to manipulate your feelings and to convince you they are victims. The true victims are the local people whose characters have been assassinated, the local Churches who have been vilified, and most importantly – THE TRUTH is a victim.
The true story is that a few local Pastors met on Monday evening the week of the movie’s showing to discuss how to respond in Christian love. While these Pastors – only about 5 of those in the community – disagreed strongly with the avowed objective of the activists (same-sex marriage); these few Pastor decided that they would keep any response low-keyed. First, they would watch the film privately. Second, they would address the issue in Christian love at a future date. Third, they would pray about the event and the issue in their local churches. Being one of the Pastors at that meeting I can attest to these facts.
There was no call for “large protests”.
Only one local Pastor (myself) asked church people to call the Library in Christian love and ask that the movie be shown elsewhere rather than a “tax-payer” supported venue. But nothing more was requested. We found out later that only 10 phone calls had been received by the library; 5 for and 5 against continuing the event. There was NO DEATH THREATS. Local Pastors DID NOT CALL IN ALL MORNING as the activist reported. They did not “scream” at the Library staff. In fact, local Pastors were largely silent on the matter.
One account is true and reported on the activist’s blog, “Wilson and Hamer have alerted the media, the state Human Relations Commission, and local law enforcement about the flap and threatened protests.”
On Wednesday, I received a call from the local Police asking about this supposed protest. My response to the officer was immediate laughter as I told him that no protest had been planned and that his officers had nothing to worry about. The officer is the one that informed me that only 10 telephone calls had been made to the Library; 5 for and 5 against and there were no death threats made.
A perfect example of the way that the activists distorted the truth is in their own blog.
In a scene reminiscent of the recent racist smear campaign against public servant Shirley Sherrod, the Potter County Tea Party in rural northern Pennsylvania has launched an attack on a local public library simply for being the site of a screening of the award-winning PBS documentary film OUT IN THE SILENCE, and is attempting to vilify a conservative Christian pastor who appears in the film.
The problem with the statement here is that no one was attacking the library. If you follow the link in the above paragraph, it takes you to a Coudy News story in which it is explained that the Potter County Tea Party and the Methodist Church were simply planning a peaceful phone-in protest.
Whatever your feelings on gay rights, whether for or against, lies, sensationalism, and twisting the truth to fit your own agenda are not right in any way. The activists have tried to make it seem like the Tea Party and the Coudersport Free Methodist Church are gay-hating bullies, which is not the case. They simply believe what they believe, and have a constitutional right to do so, just as the activists have a right to show their documentary.
A person or group is not “attacking” someone by simply stating that they do not agree with the venue of a movie.
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Also, please see my commentary on CoudyNews.com at http://coudynews.com/?p=5405, which details the manner in which Mr. Wilson treated those at the screening of the film who did not subscribe to his exact beliefs.
He also outright lied to me when I questioned him about printing the false reports of threats.
I also wanted to note that they stirred the issue themselves by commenting on the news articles and having others that support them commenting too.
They were not peaceful but we attacking others who did not have the same beliefs as them, stirring up more strife and division in the community.
I think comments should be turned off on both News Sites.
Well, I’m going to leave the comments up. If the comments get ridiculous, (attacks, swearing, etc) then they won’t be approved. Even though they did not offer free speech in a setting where they say they were encouraging tolerance, I still offer it at my site.