House of Prayer joins KKK in Ten Commandments rally (Black church & Klan rally together!?)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 9.26.03 | Ernie Suggs

[mhking]

More than 200 people gathered in front of the Barrow County Courthouse this afternoon to support the county's decision not to remove the Ten Commandments from the government building.

The rally was organized by J.J. Harper, the self-proclaimed imperial wizard of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and members of the controversial African-American church, the House of Prayer.

The groups were protesting against the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed a lawsuit to force the removal of a framed poster of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse. Barrow County commissioners voted in June to fight the ACLU over the poster, and county officials have said there are no plans to take it down.

Both groups -- at least for one day -- seemed to disregard issues of race in favor of supporting what they viewed as an attack of Christianity.

"Did somebody say they were black?" Harper, of Cordele, asked rhetorically. "I thought they were Christians, who have done nothing more than study the word of God."

About 100 House of Prayer members, including 50 children, attended the rally. The Atlanta-based House of Prayer is led by the jailed Rev. Arthur Allen, who is serving a two-year prison sentence for violating probation on a child cruelty conviction.

"This is not a Ku Klux Klan, House of Prayer, black or white issue, but a human issue," said House of Prayer member Vickie Hightower.

After the speeches, children with the House of Prayer sang songs such as "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands" in support of the imprisoned Allen.

Barrow County Commission Chairman Eddie Elder, who strongly opposes taking down the Ten Commandments poster, apparently didn't mind that a Klan member was leading the rally.

County spokeswoman Lane Downs said, "He appreciates all the help he can get." Lane also said Elder doesn't mind the Klan rally as long as it stays peaceful.

Some protesters were more wary of the KlanÕs involvement.

"We started not to come," said Ten Commandments supporter Angela Woodall, who says she opposes the Klan but felt compelled to attend the Barrow rally for religious reasons.

Friday's rally is not the first -- or last -- public demonstration over Barrow County case.

Earlier this month, hundreds attended a rally led by Alan Keyes, a 2000 Republican presidential candidate and a former U.S. representative at the United Nations.

On Monday, the Christian Coalition of Georgia plans its own press conference and rally at the courthouse, the same day the Council for Secular Humanism and the Atlanta Freethought Society will protest against the religious display at the state capitol.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

I do not agree with his spanking in church thing, but from what I have seen, he loves the Lord.

[sweetliberty]

Gotta love the irony. Perhaps the liberals and their communist organizations are doing more to promote unity than they realize. LOL!

[ETERNAL WARMING]

LOL Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.

[Arpege92]

I guess we do have more in common with eachother than we ever thought! Whatever the reason, I'm just happy to see unity between these two groups of people!

[AnAmericanMother]

Those guys dressed up like ninjas sure don't look like KKKers.

They look like skinhead neo-Nazis who stole a Klan badge from somewhere.

Have they started dressing in black instead of bedsheets (maybe they couldn't find white ones at the KMart? guess they thought Bert and Ernie and Big Bird sorta detracted from the image?)

[honeygrl]

The House of Prayer was involved in a big scandal months ago involving child abuse. Some (or was it just one? not sure) of their members was jailed for it. The way I heard it, they used belts to spank their kids in front of the entire congregation when they got in trouble. I am not usually one to complain about people spaning their kids, but if it was as bad a beating as it was made out to be, then I think they went to far.

I don't think these two getting together at the protest can possibly be a good thing because most people around here can't stand the KKK or The House of Prayer so it only makes the protest something no one else wants to be a part of. It also gives the liberals the argument "SEE, the republicans are racist child beaters!"

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

honeygrl, when that House of Prayer scandel came out, my first thought was this. One of thie kids had gotten a spanking and went to school and showed the teacher the stripe he got and that started the whole thing. Several got arrested. I watched this story very close. It seemed out of character for Christians to spank in church as the media described. I have not seen a church in which that is done, so I thought it was media attack on Christianity or something. As the case progressed I felt compelled for some reason to try to call someone at the church and ask them what really happened. I was surprised to speak to a very kind woman on the other end of the phone. I was surprised at her gentle kindness and we had a nice talk. From what I understand, they believe in public disciplin, not to harm the child but to correct the child. There are some kids in the church who are doing a lot of things to go down a bad path, so perhaps when the church ( and they consider it the family) will address it, they hope to lead the child down the right path.
I do not agree with their methods, but I think the media hyped this up a lot too. I admire the stand they took not to give in to the judge who said HE WAS GOD IN THAT COURT ROOM.
If the KKK and the black community can stand together on such an important issue, then I think there is still hope for America yet. Both groups are very outspoken. We might need outspoken in order to stop what the aclu is trying to do to America.
My hubby always says that the government loves to see us fighting amongst ourselves, that way we are not paying attention to what they are getting away with. Wouldn't it be great if all Americans could push aside our disagreements and restore faith in America?
I love Georgia, and I think the aclu is going to have a very hard time trying to take away OUR bibles, 10 commandments and religious symbols. They will get more of a fight than anywhere eles I assure them.
Just my thoughts. Have a blessed day.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

I forgot to add this. The whole thing started with a public school teacher who saw the stripe on the young man's back. From this one child, I think it was like 40 kids who got removed from their homes, and they did not have a mark on them.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

Sorry, just one more thought. When that whole House of Prayer story came out I could not help but think, oh no here we go, another waco and the first African-American one at that. I suppose it was good that Rev. Allen or his flock did not have guns or they may all be dead right now.

[honeygrl]

Sorry but going by what mhking described, what they did to kids was completely horribly wrong and there is no good side to beating the crap out of a kid like that. Apparently, mhking's wife worked directly with the case so he should know the facts. I trust his word. All you got was the word of someone who went there, who would have every reason to make light of the situation.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

Well I think the child got a whipping no doubt, hence the single stripe on his back. I don't think it would justify the 39 other kids being removed from their different homes. No evidence. I do not know the house of Prayer folks from Adam, but if any person spanked their child with a belt or a switch or anything and left a mark on them, I suppose anyone associated with that person would then be labeled the same way those kids from the house of prayer were. Many families suffered due to this, not just one. Then, some of the kids who were placed in "foster homes" were hurt even more. Gotta love them government nannies.

[honeygrl]

Did you read mhking's post that told what they actually did to the children? It seriously sounds like the person you spoke with was making light of the whole thing to make it sound like it was no big deal. I think you were mislead.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

Most people heard about this only from the news. I talked to one of the church ladies personally. I like to hear both sides of an issue. Since spanking is such an issue in this country and kids are using "you can't punish me, I'll call the cops on ya mom and dad" defense, I found this a compelling story.
Please don't think I condon harse beating because I do not. I think I may have only given my child one or two spankings in his whole life, and he is nearly grown. He gets madder if you take his computer or stereo as punishment. Thankfully he is a good child and it is not an issue in our home.
But, what if you have a child who is doing criminal acts of behavior over and over again at a young age and you want to correct it before he/she is grown. How would you get through to him? Harsh words? Restriction? Who knows. When I was younger I should have gotten my hind-end whooped more, I was a bit of a rebel.
The point is, from what I saw on TV, that child had a stripe on his back and that is not good I admit. But...once again I ask, how did they justify taking all those other kids from their homes just because they attended church there? I don't get it. If someone in my church did that, or in yours, would you deserve to have your kids removed too? If more situations in America occur like that, how long before all Christians are labled "child abusers"? Oh wait, there are some liberals who already claim that.

[Wilhelm Tell]

The Klan's Reign of Terror

In some places, the Klan held real power up until WWII and even after, though the height of their power was in the first two decades of the 20th Century. And it wasn't just in the South that the Klan was powerful. They were also active in places like Indiana and Oregon.

Americans should not forget that the Klan was a terrorist organization that controlled many local governments and it basically had a license to kill -- and it wasn't reluctant to use it.

My mother grew up in Texas in the 20's and 30's, and she was told that if she ever saw a group of people gathering, she was to run away (a group of people gathering could mean there is a lynching).

Some people do not realize that the Klan attacked white people in addition to blacks (blacks were of course their main target). The Klan hid behind "patrioism" to attack "foreigners." During and immediately after WWI, Americans who spoke German were suspect, and later, during the "Red Scare," Jews and people from Eastern Europe were suspect. So the Klan also terrorized people who had perfectly good "white" credentials.

I have seen newspaper clippings of the period about lynchings. It is absolutely chilling the attitude some people had at the time. I remember one article in particular, that went on something like: "Old Negro Joe was finally lynched yesterday. A good time was had by all." You would think the article was describing a football game rather than a murder. The article had a sense of glibness and also inevitability -- kind of like it was saying of course the guy got lynched -- his blackness just caught up with him and the crowd had every right to kill him (as if to say, what else do you do with black folks except kill them). There was a photograph of people (including children) standing around the corpse -- some of the people were smiling like they had just seen a circus act or something. Other people had a vacant, blank look on their faces.

After reading that article, I finally understood. There was more to the lynchings than the random acts of thugs. No, lynching was a ritual of human sacrifice that all "good" whites were supposed to participate in or at least support. It was sort of a civic religion to scapegoat blacks, and the ultimate expression of this religion was the lynching ritual. After engaging in this ritual, people were to just wash the blood off their hands and feel good about themselves.

I am not saying that most whites committed lynchings or even approved of them. I am saying that there was a powerful cult of death that set the moral tone in many communities. I think I now understand more about how the Nazis were able to get away with so much. Once a cult of death is in power, it only takes a few sociopaths to keep it going. Most of the "good" people are too busy and scared to do anything but mind their own business and let the sociopaths have free reign. The people with a conscience know that they have compromised by going along with the system, so no one feels morally confident enough to challenge it.

Of course, the "hate America" crowd loves to cite the worst aspects of our history (while ignoring what happened in communist countries). That should not keep us from acknowledging that many Americans lived in an essentially totalitarian system where Jim Crow was powerful.

[honeygrl]

If you will look at the previous posts to and from mhking, his wife worked directly with the case. That makes what he said more reliable in my view than what someone from the church (who has EVERY reason to lie) said. His info isn't from the news.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

She was nice honeygrl. I only talked one time to her. I think it was Rev. Allen's wife or maybe one of the deacons I'm not sure. She did not make light of it, but she did tell me much more than the news had said. I offered her prayer that God would have His hand in it. I really felt sorry for the whole church. It could have been anybody I think.
One thing she kept talking about was how the judge in the case told them God could not come into the courtroom, and as long as they were in his courtroom, HE WAS GOD. That really made an impact on them. That could have a lot to do with how it turned out.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

I just realized something, maybe that is why the house of prayer and the kkk are working together. To stop liberal judges from removing God from our places of law.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

Well I don't know mhking from Adam either. Were they the prosecuters? If so, then I would say that would be onesided too. Every story has two sides.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Life continues to get more interesting.

[LowOiL]

A lot of us looked at this case Honeygrl. It in some way (IMHO) showed crossing the line in both parties. I too also believe they (government) had NO right removing the children from their parents.

If memory serves me, the beating they gave one child was for having sex in the church. I think I would beat my child too if I caught them doing the same. Sorry if that offends you, but I personally don't care if it does or not. I will raise my children as I see fit.