Eureka Springs, Arkansas

 Diversity Weekend - 10/31/08 & 11/01/08

WARNING:  Some pictures in this newsletter and posted online are not appropriate for some viewers.

You can view the thumbnail of all pics at the end of this newsletter, but to see larger size pics, etc.,  click here. 

I was invited by the Jericho Riders to attend the Fall 2008 Diversity Weekend event in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  I have never gone to an event like this to street witness and open air preach.  Normally, we go to the street or to public events like parades, fairs, etc. to do our witnessing.  This particular event focuses on the homosexual community.

The pink hats you see in the pics are to show the homosexual pride. The "witches hats" you see goes to show how much into paganism the people are in. 

The Diversity Weekend in Eureka Springs is where homosexuals from all over come into town to celebrate their pride in being a homosexual.  They are proud and they flaunt this sin.  To read more about how the city began to be gay friendly, see the end of this newsletter. 

 

I would like to start off by saying that according to the Bible, homosexuality is only one of many sins that will send a person to hell.  The reason we went to Eureka Springs, AR. to this fall 2008 Diversity Weekend, is that the homosexual community is loud and proud about their sin.  We as Christians have a responsibility to stand up against sin and take a stand for Christ. 

 

Psalm 94:16 says, “Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?”

 

Psalm 26:5 says, “I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked.”

 

We started out with 12 Christians in prayer at the Basin Park on Halloween night, October 21^st.  We then split up and walked around town passing out gospel tracts and witnessing one to one with those who would talk.  Several of our group had good conversations with folks.  Some would not take our gospel tracts once they found out they had a gospel message on it. 

 

Approx. 9:00pm, we met up at the Tiki Torch.  They were going to have a Halloween costume contest and many of the homosexuals showed up to this.  Some of their costumes were vulgar.

 

We were video taping people walking up and down the public sidewalk that leads into and out of the club.  As I was taking video of the folks, a woman walked up to me, yelling, and shoved my video camera aside and held it back.  I asked her to take her hand off my camera.  After some cussing, she said we didn’t have a right to be filming them.  I let her know this was public property and we had every right to do so.  Jim with the Jericho Riders asked her if she was ashamed of being seen here.  She walked off yelling that it’s not right. 

 

A little later, Jim pointed out a gentleman nick-named “Sparky”, who just arrived at the club and was waiting in line.  Sparky is a big organizer of these Diversity Weekends.  Sparky runs some of the homosexual websites and message boards.  Sparky nick-named me “Bad Brad” on these boards.  I yelled out to him and introduced myself as “Bad Brad”.  He said hello and said he knew who I was.  He was very cordial.  I did like his outfit.  Very eye catching. 

 

I got to say hello to him the next day at the Basin Park as well.  Sparky is dressed in the arab costume.  

 

We had some good conversations with people on the sidewalk who were coming in and going out of the club.  The people running the Tiki Torch came out and told Jim that we needed to leave, but he told them we had a right to be there. 

 

I spoke to one young man named Jeremy.  He was drunk, but said that he is a Christian.  He told me that we are “doing it” all wrong.  He said it has been a couple thousand years since Jesus was here and that things have changed.  We needed to be inside the club, “infiltrating it”.  By that he means that we should be in the clubs, drinking, and then talking to people about Jesus – so we could be more like one of them.  He said that is what he does and that he has “won” 5 people to the Lord so far. 

I explained the Bible says in Malachi 3:6, "For I am the LORD, I do not change..." and John 15:19 says, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  The Bible also says In I John 2:4, "He who says I know him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Jeremy may be talking to people about Jesus, but he is living in sin.  He admitted to it and said he didn’t even know if he would go to heaven when he died.  Mike (who is another one of the Jericho Riders) and I challenged him to think and pray about what he is doing because it is not the life God wants for him.  He needs to repent of his sin and then be a witness for the Lord. 

 

We all met back up at Basin Park.  Three college students came up carrying a sign saying, “FREE PRAYER”.  They were from Springdale, Arkansas and drove up to pray for people and witness if God opened the door.  It is encouraging to see young people stepping out and being bold for Christ.  They prayed for us as well.  We went back to the hotel and discussed the night. 

 

We got up and around Saturday morning, November 1^st , and ate breakfast.  By this time we had a few more Christians show up.  During the day we had approx. 22 (or more) Christians who came out to make a stand for God. 

 

All who were there Saturday morning met up at the “Christ of the Ozarks” statue. Jim with the Jericho Riders asked if I would teach an evangelism class this morning before we started witnessing for the day.  It was such a blessing to do this.  I thank God for each one of the Christian’s who took the time out of their weekend to drive out to Eureka Springs and make a stand for the Lord, witness and share the truth.  A couple of the Jericho Riders drove straight through from Ohio.  We had other Christians who came in from the Joplin, MO area and the Springfield, MO area.  I’ll list some of them towards the end of this newsletter. 

 

Public Display of Affection (PDA) at the Basin Park

 

Before the PDA in the park began, Greg Marlin stood on his step stool at the front of the park to ask trivia questions and give away stuffed animals as prizes.  He then chose James Devito from the group of folks at the park to be his “Good person volunteer”.  As you can see from the video below, James admits he is gay.  Note:  James has very recently been elected into the Eureka Springs City Council.  This just goes to prove that the city is being taken over by the homosexuals to push their agenda, as listed below in this newsletter.   

 

 

Right after Greg finished his open air preaching the “Public Display of Affection” (PDA) was about to begin.  I stepped up on the stool and began another session open air preaching, as well as reading a lot of verses about how God not only is a God a love, but He is a God of wrath.  I also read Bible verses that prove that homosexuality is a sin. 

 

Since I was open air preaching at the time and we had something like 22-25 Christians in the Basin Park passing out gospel tracts and witnessing, the gay folks didn’t take their PDA photo in the Basin Park, they took it on the steps leading out of the park into the street. 

 

I did have a gentleman who came up to me and was attempting to distract and disrupt the open air preaching.  Even though he was attempting to disrupt, he was never vulgar or verbally abusive. 

 

After the open air preaching was finished and the PDA photo was taken, the majority of the homosexuals left the park area.  For those who stayed in the park, (primarily gay supporters that wanted to debate us) our group was walking around having witnessing conversations with them.  We had some good conversations, some intense debates, etc. 

 

However, we were showing the love of Christ as well as taking a stand for God.  Here is a picture of Jim Carroll of the Jericho Riders and James Devito towards the end of one of their conversations. 

 

 

 

 

How Did Eureka Springs Turn Into A Gay Friendly Town?

I've typed out information about how the homosexual agenda has been pushed in the City of Eureka Springs that I've taken from the DVD titled, "They're Coming To Your Town", put out by the American Family Association (AFA). 

Excerpts from "They're Coming To Your Town" DVD

For four decades, it has been known as a family destination and a Christian oasis.  That began to change in November 2006, with the election of a pro-homosexual mayor and a new slate of gay friendly city council members. 

 

They have come out of the closet and have taken over a lot of the operations of the city.  The city council, the city clerk, and the building inspector. 

 

The homosexuals get a special delight in the thought of taking over a place that has been known for its Christianity. 

 

Dani Wilson (female), mayor – campaigned to bring the city together and work with all local tourist attractions to improve the sagging economy.  But shortly after taking office, Mayor Wilson,  the city council members, and the homosexual activists that helped to elect them quickly began working on the first Domestic Partnership Registry (D.P.R.) in the state of Arkansas. 

 

The Domestic Partnership Registry is really about homosexuality.  They denied it’s a same sex registry, but for all people. 

 

Gay couples began being registered the day the registry was launched. 

 

Two of the homosexual activists who were pushing hard for the same sex registry were some of the first to sign up for it when it launched. 

 

Homosexual activists, an owner of a local homosexual website and the promoter of the so called “Diversity Weekend” in Eureka Springs came up with the idea of Domestic Partnership Registry.  They looked online to see how other towns had done it and thought that with Eureka Springs being a tourist town it would help our economy if people came here to sign up, spend the night and spend some money.  They made some sample certificates, put together a package of talking points, like what do you say when they say, “It’s against God”, put it all in an envelope and gave it to the mayor in March of 2007. 

 

The general public and the Christian community was blindsided when the mayor suggested the D.P.R. at the March 26, 2007 city council meeting.  It quickly became obvious she was uninterested in hearing from those who feared the homosexual agenda could kill the economy of the tourist town she was elected to lead.  They had already decided what they were going to do when they came to the meeting.  They only allowed 2 minutes of talking per person for a statement. 

 

In the meeting on May 14, 2007, there was little mention of the overwhelming opposition to the proposal by the Christian citizens of Eureka Springs, most who were not allowed to speak at this meeting.  The Domestic Partnership Registry became law on June 22, 2007.  After it was passed, the mayor went out to celebrate with all the gays who were outside.

 

The Christian opposition didn’t know they were facing professional homosexual activists who were experienced in multiple statewide campaigns.  They had no idea the Human Rights Campaign and the ACLU were helping the registry supporters.  Even the mayor’s involvement in the scheme came as a surprise.

 

Once homosexual activists get into power, they are not too tolerant towards other people.  They have recast traditional moral beliefs about homosexuality into bigotry, and against bigotry you can launch the full apparatus of civil rights laws and you can make life miserable for anyone who espouses traditional values.

 

They branded the outspoken Christians as fundamentalists, as Christian hate bigots, and any negativity against the D.P.R. was considered as hate.

 

After it was passed, a pastor began a petition drive in an attempt to bring the registry to a public vote.  Officials used technicalities to reject two separate petitions, both of which had sufficient signatures to force a vote. 

 

The homosexual activists were working against these petitions for the vote.

 

Using the passage of the D.P.R., they began to promote Eureka Springs as the gay sex tourism destination. 

 

City Council member, Joyce Zeller, who is also serving as director of the city’s advertising and promotion, angered many residents when she announced during a press conference that officials intended to recast the image of the town.  “Bringing you together in a distinctly different way” is the ad slogan, “…What we’re selling is peace, relaxation, history and sex.” July 2007

 

It’s hurting the economy of the city.  The mayor and city council are marketing Eureka Springs as a gay friendly destination, which is hurting the town’s tourism.  Tourism is down 23% this year.  Other destinations in Arkansas are up 17%. 

 

They have made many comments that they would like for the Christian tourists, if they don’t like the homosexuals, to just leave. 

 

Brad's Comments:  So, as you can see, the mayor, city council, and other positions within city government, if not actually gay, they are homosexual activists who are pushing their agenda in a very forceful way, completely against any cares of the citizens or Christians in the community.  Not only that, they have or are in the process of recasting the image of the city to make it “Bringing you together in a distinctly different way” and “What we’re selling is peace, relaxation, history and sex”.  They are actively marketing Eureka Springs as “the gay sex tourism destination”. 

If you are interested in coming to this event with us, please contact me.