Posted on 10/20/2005 11:09:48 AM PDT by Millee
An Ellettsville family whose home is decorated for Halloween contacted police after someone placed on its porch a flier that suggests Halloween praises the devil.
Dalene Gully told Indianapolis television station WRTV that she took offense to the flier, which was placed outside her home by the House of Prayer Church of Bloomington.
"I started reading it, and I was very, very upset by it. I found it very accusatory and very threatening," Gully said.
The church's pastor, Larry Mitchell, said the people who left the flier would have preferred to talk with Gully, but she wasn't there.
Mitchell said the church didn't intend to upset the Gully family, but rather tell people that Halloween isn't harmless fun.
"Halloween is not fantasy," Mitchell said. "We're training up our children, and obviously this lady was trained up in this. Halloween seems like it is taking just as much prominence as Christmas."
The Gully family filed a complaint with the Ellettsville Police Department. The incident also prompted the family to install an alarm system at the home, the station reported.
"This is my home, and I like Halloween. If I want to decorate my home, I have every right to decorate my home," Gully said.
Well said. Sounds like both of them were looking for something to get upset about.
"Trained up?"
Yeah, they're learnin' em good.
Hard to comment on this without knowing the exact comments of the flier. Anything without that essential knowledge is pure speculation.
I don't think it warrents legal action either. But it was obnoxious and ridiculous. And it gives fuel to the anti-christians.
I too didn't care for local churches leaving pamphlets on my door. And waking me up to offer prayers.
But did I cry and run to mommy like a spoiled little brat?
No. I handled the problem myself < gasp! > through the ingenious use of a new-fangled thingamajig called a "No Tresspassing/No Solicitation" sign.
Just imagine, you too can solve even some of your own problems without making a court case out of it! Go on, drop your mommy's apron strings and do something yourself. I know it's hard, but you can do it! Once you experience the satisfaction of doing for yourself, you may be surprised to learn all the other things you can do... like turn the channel when you see something you don't like on TV.
"The incident also prompted the family to install an alarm system at the home, the station reported."
The flier was left on the porch not the kitchen table.
The origin of halloween is brutal and inhumane. Do you know where the jack-o-lantern originated? I'll tell you. It was originally a hollowed out pumpkin that was fueled with fat from humans(sacrificed one of course). Nasty.
Okay, I don't feel threatened by a bunch of kids dressed as Superman going door to door trading jokes for candy. But, I do think it is appropriate for a God fearing church to say to it's parishoners that celebrating a Satanic/Pagan holiday might be unwise and disfavorable. Said churches are hardly "sorely deluded"-they are being responsible.
1) I'm not familiar with the news source, IBS. For now I'll assume it's credible.
2) This doesn't appear to be an excerpt, so why didn't the reporter print any part of the flyer? Using the word "suggests" is lazy and if the reporter couldn't see the original flyer to confirm it, the article should have said so.
3) If the reporter DID have the flyer in question, any quotes that made Christians look ridiculous would have been used (ahem) liberally throughout the article. As it stands, it was worded to make Christians look as bad as possible without any concrete evidence.
Why?
[/cowbell]
How anyone can decide if it was threatening or not without the text of the letter is beyond me.
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. -- Proverbs 22:6
I'd be po'ed if someone came on my porch to leave a flyer of ANY kind. That's trespassing. But I wouldn't go to the cops about it. I did yell at the guy coming to my door selling meat, though. Now that's odd.
Was there anything -- other than this lady's say-so --- which indicates that the flyer was in fact threatening?
Agreed,
what they did was wrong.
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