Report on Project Strait Gate:
Sunday, December 1, 2002, the Project Strait Gate Pilot Teams, consisting of advisory board members, office volunteers, plus yours truly, visited a pro-war Church in Phoenix, the enormous North Phoenix Baptist Church. This is the team?s third demonstration, and we were pleased with the exposure and response. We proved to ourselves that a very small team can make itself felt to a very large congregation. Numbers are not important in this Project, in fact, small may be better in some important respects.
During the course of the morning the team averaged only seven persons in front of a church that is situated on about 40 acres of land with four entrances. We believe every person in attendance who was not comatose knew we were there and most knew what our message was before they went home. This is our objective. At least 25 persons stopped and talked and asked for information. A very few argued, denounced volunteers, or would not accept our information. The reception of passersby on the busy streets appeared more favorable than inside the church lot, but they are not the objective.
This raised an important point. The purpose of the mission is to reach all those entering the church, not the passersby. We already know the general public is far less pro-war than evangelicals. The object is to get the whole church talking about the picket, and because they have never before been challenged, this happens immediately. It is accomplished by being there earlier than the first event of the day. How late one stays is far less important.
The signs should be trained directly in the path of the arriving or departing members, not at the streets, and it should be made clear that ours is not a function of the church, but a challenge of the church. The signs should be firm but not inflammatory and should not denounce the church?let the shoe fit.
Because this idea is so novel you will be noticed immediately, even if every effort is made to ignore you. To make it official, a formal, typed letter should be delivered to the pastor, addressed to him, before the first event of the day. You will find that letter on our site. He should also receive an envelope with one of each piece of literature that is being offered. This puts him on notice that he will need an answer to his flock, and it eliminates you being shrugged off.
Several who stop asked the most important question: ?Why are you picketing a church, isn?t this church against the war?? The answer is, ?sadly it is not.? This is backed up with “The Source of Our War Problem: Why Judeo-Christians Do Not Demand Peace,” a must for this question. This is the question we want to hear, for it is this small percentage that can change the churches policies and public image as a Warmaker. Other questions we were asked and the answers will soon be covered in a ?Project Strait Gate Manual.?
One person called from inside a large Sunday school class and left this message: ?we are talking about you in our class and wonder why you have come to our church with an anti-war demonstration.? We recommend you carry a cell phone, show a sign with your organization name or Project Strait Gate, with your phone number and our website. Always offer to come in and make a presentation to the class. Don?t worry you will probably not be accepted, and if you are just pass out our literature and read it to them.
It is not an insult to a church to call it the ?pastor?s cloister.? People go to church to be led and fed, and this is appropriate. The question of lending moral support to a war is being decided, not at the congregation level, but at a superior, administrative level in this church, and as far as the world knows every Southern Baptist agrees with bombing Iraq and the expulsion of Palestinians at the President?s pleasure. Many members of the congregation do not clearly understand this position, and is rarely discussed, with no dissenting point of view presented in the vast majority of cases. The congregation simply gets the mushroom treatment. (Raised in the dark and fed war manure)
Our guess is about one of four cars leaving the parking lot gave us a smile or a friendly wave, acknowledging to some degree our position. The more direct the sign, the less the response. About 50% of the Baptists appeared to make a deliberate effort not to look at our very obvious and unmistakable signs. A very few were openly hostile, such as one woman who rolled down her window and argued with a female volunteer stating words to the effect ?I am for Israel regardless and you should be too.? She was given literature it was thrown on the ground. The interesting point here is that nothing on any sign mentions or even alludes to Israel, some people simply sense the war conflict is really about Israel. She is right. America is going to war for Ariel Sharon?s policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and she does not shrink from the genocides. Our next report will explain this.
Large elements within the so-called Evangelical Christian Right favor both wars, (Palestine and Iraq) as shown on several recent TV programs by all the major networks. Many local churches? congregations are the target audience for Project Strait Gate?s educational visit. The Southern Baptist Convention heads the list. We are not convinced it is a uniquely simple project that can change the face of America for the better. Please visit our updated site for the future reports (www.whtt.org/straitgate).
But after making three demonstrations at churches that teach to over 12,000 on a weekly basis we can draw the following conclusions:
* Project Strait Gate requires a minimum of organization and salesmanship. A small group is better than a large one because it is easier to sustain. You and one friend are enough for a start. Three people is a team, even two will work.
* Project Strait Gate does not require great knowledge. You will not be embarrassed for lack of knowledge, so long as you are committed to peace and saving lives. Jesus was! The literature will speak for you.
* Project Strait Gate does not require unusual speaking ability because all the information you need is either already printed by us, or available for you to copy for ten cents a copy at a copy shop. Your role is to hold up a sign, answer questions by handing out one of three or four pieces of literature you should have with you. You will find all this and photos of the signs on the Website.
It is fun, not for everyone the first time, but it is always an interesting experience. We hope we can count on your help. We are looking for volunteers to carry out a systematic ongoing picket of Jerry Falwell?s Thomas Road Baptist Church, 701 Thomas Road, Lynchburg, VA 24502. (http://www.trbc.org). We ask anyone within driving distance of Lynchburg to let us know of your willingness to organize this ?dream project?, and you may count on me to be there to kick it off!
It is time to again move ahead. The first step is to do our part to head off the planned war on the people of Iraq, which will be a bloodbath for them. Moreover, the bombing of Iraq will also cover for the Israeli planned annihilation (by starvation) and expulsion of the three million Palestinians. We simply will not get the news from Palestine while CBS is covering Iraq. We must not let that happen.
T. Marshall
