September (Web-only) 2003

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The Laramie Westlake Project
If Laramie, Wyoming, is now faced with a longtime reputation as the place where homosexual student Matthew Shepard was killed, the Cleveland suburb of Westlake is possibly gaining a reputation as America's worst place to be if you're an orthodox pastor.

As earlier noted by Weblog, a janitor at the nondenominational Church on the Rise was beaten in mid-August by three men, apparently in retaliation for the church pastor's sermon comments opposing homosexual clergy.

Friday, less than three miles away, a man called St Paul Lutheran School with a bomb threat. "The specific threat was that if the pastor did not come on TV and say that he supported gay marriage, that the entire school would be blown up," Westlake Police Captain Guy Turner said, according to 365Gay.com.

No bomb was found after the school's 270 students were evacuated.

(Weblog can't find any mention of the incident in the mainstream press, or much comment, apart from one at Ex-Gay Watch. E-mail Weblog here.)

Texas church arson: Not gay terrorism?
In more positive news, in case you missed it, Pastor Scott Wooten is no longer sure that the incidents of arson and vandalism at his Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Graham, Texas, were related to his stance against gay bishop Gene Robinson.

"Wooten said [Aug. 22] that he misunderstood the original chalk scrawl, that he was mistaken at a 'very emotional time' and that conservatives should 'stop the speculation' about whether the fires were anti-conservative hate crimes," reports Ft. Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy.

Apparently that message left by the vandals doesn't clearly say "God and Jesus Love Homosexuals" after all. According to one church member, the only clearly readable words ...