Home blog Nat’l Organization for Marriage to bring anti-gay message to anti-Islam church

Nat’l Organization for Marriage to bring anti-gay message to anti-Islam church

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The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) will bring its anti-gay marriage campaign to Granite City Baptist Church, a church whose pastor took out an anti-Islam ad in the St. Cloud Times in April. NOM will host a rally at the St. Cloud church on July 29 as part of its Summer Tour for Marriage, a 17 state tour rallying opponents of same-sex marriage.

The NOM tour will be in St. Paul on July 28, in St. Cloud on July 29, and in Rochester on July 30.

“Fear mongering only furthers the anti-Muslim hysteria we are seeing in St. Cloud and nationwide,” said Lori Saroya, president of CAIR-MN. Saroya told the Minnesota Independent that her group first heard of Campbell’s ad when Christian groups called her office saying they were appalled by it.

The ad said, in part, “Moslems seek to influence a nation by immigration, reproduction, education, the government, illegal drugs and by supporting the gay agenda.”

“What happens when Moslems take over a nation?” asked Campbell in the ad. “They will destroy the constitution and force the Moslem religion on the society, take freedom of religion away, and they will persecute all other religions.”

Phil Duran of Outfront Minnesota responded to NOM’s appearance at the church in an interview with the Independent. “It would not seem particularly astute of NOM to ally itself with an institution currently infamous for targeting Muslims, but I do seem to recall that it is said that those who openly espouse one form of bigotry often espouse various others,” he said. “It speaks volumes about the agenda that motivates NOM and its supporters.”

“Today, that agenda openly targets GLBT people,” he added. “But who will it be tomorrow?”

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Andy Birkey has written for a number of Minnesota and national publications. He founded Eleventh Avenue South which ran from 2002-2011, wrote for the Minnesota Independent from 2006-2011, the American Independent from 2010-2013. His writing has appeared in The Advocate, The Star Tribune, The Huffington Post, Salon, Cagle News Service, Twin Cities Daily Planet, TheUptake, Vita.mn and much more. His writing on LGBT issues, the religious right and social justice has won awards including Best Beat Reporting by the Online News Association, Best Series by the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and an honorable mention by the Sex-Positive Journalism awards.

1 COMMENT

  1. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) will be coming to St. Cloud on Thursday, July 29, 2010 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm at the Granite City Baptist Church. For those of you who do not know about this organization or the church that is hosting them, they promote messages of fear, ignorance, and campaign for legislation that would deter marriage rights from GLBT communities across the country. Minnesota is one of their biggest t…argets on the agenda… NOM is spending $200,000 in televised advertisement campaigns alone.

    As members of a society who support human rights and equality, we have decided to March against such a primitive message and promote freedom, equality, and love.

    The march will begin near SCSU campus assembling at Barden Park at 12:00pm on Thursday, July 29. From here we will march, skip, swash-buckle, swing, waddle, swagger, dance, (whichever suits) to Highway 15 and back again.

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