"Religious" prayerfest in front of Toronto same-sex couple's home

[kevinbgoode]

dispersed by angry neighbors.

Apparently this lovely church in Toronto likes to choose a same-sex couple to do a prayer/preach fest outside their home, obviously without the couple's consent. This time, however, the neighbors apparently joined forces and gave the harassers the boot from the neighborhood.

According to reports at Towleroad, this church has been singling out gay couples for years for harassment, and one lesbian couple reportedly moved because of the preaching fest.

Makes me wonder - if you had a same-sex couple living in YOUR neighborhood, and a local group of self-described "Christians" decided to set up camp in front of their house to start a exorcism/prayerfest/gospel preaching about the sin of the couple, what would you do?

Here is the youtube clip posted - some major Canadian media are apparently doing a story, according to some of the comments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHpiXmPWPwk

http://www.towleroad.com/2010/08/toronto.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+towleroad%2Ffeed+%28Towleroad+Daily++%23gay+news%29


I have to admit I agree with one commenter - my garden hose would be ready. . .

[saltpoint]

1. There are certain times, ladies and gentlemen, when it

is necessary to rent a small plane, load it with thousands and thousands of dildoes of many shapes, sizes, and colors, and drop them over prayer groups in Toronto who have singled out same-sex couples' homes for their concentrated bigotry.

I would submit to you that this is one of those times.

[pepperbear]

6. OMG! Dildo bomb! too much fun!

[saltpoint]

10. Hi, pepperbear.

I did watch that clip and you know, the prayer group is ridiculously well-dressed and a few of them were aware that the camera was rolling, and they kind of withdrew a bit to the sidewalk.

The neighbors, I thought, were surprisingly civil.

I still favor the hail of dildoes from a passing plane...

[Tesha]

43. "As God is my witness, I thought they could fly!"

[Initech]

9. Bwahahaha!!! I love it!

[Clovis Sangrail]

2. k#ck@ss!!!

this video made my night... thank you!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I'd turn my garden hose on 'em.

What assholes!

[blaze]

4. "You are not welcome"

Last line in the clip!!

Thanks for posting!!!! :fistbump:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. My response:

Gather the following:
Many candles
Flour
Incense
A small bowl or pot (metal)
Sheets or cloaks.

Take the candles and mark out a pentagram, then light them. Make it big enough for two to sit inside.

Next, take bowl, add incense paper bits, and another candle, and place it in the center. Put on sheets, and begin chanting.

Make up nonsense words, and point at the miscreants often. Sit inside e pentagram and chant, point often at the cretins... Christians.

[DainBramaged]

11. Why not in front of THEIR house?

:shrug:

[dsc]

7. who in God's name do those people think they are?

I can't believe those people think they can behave that way. that poor couple must be both scared and upset. Heck even our religious nuts don't go this far.

[Terra Alta]

19. God would be ashamed.

Jesus taught his followers to LOVE their neighbor, not to harass them outside the comfort of their own homes. Honestly, some "Christians" give us decent Christ-followers a bad name.

[GReedDiamond]

23. I believe you are mis-underestimating "our" religious nuts...nt

[BlueJazz]

8. Heh, Heh, Heh, Heh, Heh, Heh, Heh, Heh, Heh, .....

[Terra Alta]

12. I pray for these Christians

who are so mindboggingly brainwashed by their religion that they would set camp outside the house of so-called "sinners" and harass them.

Good on the neighbors. I'm all for freedom of speech, but not when it threatens the peace of others in the comfort of their own homes.. they want to pray and preach about this "sin"? That's what church is for; you don't go disturbing the peace just to get your own bigoted point across.

[flvegan]

13. What would I do?

Even a garden hose can probably garner an assault and battery charge. Me? I'd go after the church's leadership and support. More specifically, secondary and tertiary targeting of them. It takes longer than a garden hose, but it's far more...permanent.

[Canuckistanian]

14. OMG, these people have a lot of fucking nerve

Damn right I'd be hauling our my garden hose if I EVER saw these freaks on my street. :grr:

[applegrove]

15. I hate the crap Canada imports from the USA. This is pure hate.

[Posteritatis]

22. Who says we imported it? Canada has a wide variety of homegrown assholes and bigots. (nt)

[applegrove]

44. At the Toronto airport for a decade at least there has been a christian

right wing religious cult. They hate gays. And they are run out of the Toronto AIRPORT because the leaders get flown in from the USA. I know of a few people who've had their lives destroyed by this group.... and not because they were gay but because they went christian nuts. One is still a nuts and wonders around her town hating gays and alienating herself from all the regular xtian churches she tries to join. Another person lost her daughter to cancer because they decided to pray to the lord and not seek treatment. This last lady's husband had to hire a cult expert from the USA to deprogram his wife. Not funny stuff. And yet the leaders of this church, who cause all this hell, can't be bothered to even spend the night in a hotel in Canada.

[Posteritatis]

48. Absolutely none of which makes me wrong

I have issues - nay, libraries - with American moralism all over the place, but it's ignorant in the extreme to say we haven't had our own equivalents for centuries. A couple of anecdotes about a cult aren't going to change that, and the tired reflexive blame of the US every time someone up here does something stupid, because we all know Canada's naught but a bastion of liberal pluralistic secular tolerance, gets old.

[applegrove]

50. When it comes to neocons and the religious right we did import that from the USA.

Sure we have assholes but assholes with a certain agenda on gays and taxes...well that we imported. Come on you are not saying "the Calgary School" is actually a separate home grown economic school of thought that just coincidentally is exactly like the "Chicago School"? LOL!

[proteus_lives]

28. This again?

Do you blame the US if the roast if undercooked as well?

:eyes:

[Winterblues]

41. Damn right don't you?

Why else would the roast ever get under cooked?

[applegrove]

46. See responce #22.

[applegrove]

45. See responce #22.

[Mariana]

31. Oh, they'd probably tell you they're doing this out of love.

They'd probably mean it, too. If you love someone, wouldn't you do anything you can to prevent them going to hell? Frightening people, embarrassing them, bothering the neighbors, and so on is perfectly justified when the cause is this noble. If they hated them, why, wouldn't they just do nothing and let them be tortured for eternity?

[DBoon]

16. I have a pitbull that enjoys walks in the neighborhood

and my pit bull believes strongly in GLBT rights

[niyad]

17. my malmute likes to pee on people he doesn't like. . and he doesn't like bigots

I would have to get out my robes and staff and censer, loaded with some delightfully aromatic herbs. . .

[haele]

18. I think there's been a law or two broken with their "prayer-in" that the city could have pursued -

Neither the sidewalk or the street seemed very wide - most locations have laws against group activities blocking public easements and streets without a permit...
And if they gathering on private property, the owner would have legal recourse against them.
As for waiting seven years? If they were in my neighborhood, I would have called the cops on them as soon as it was obvious they were being a nuisance and intentionally harassing someone.
That sort of activity is like burning a cross on someone's front yard. It takes a lot of passive-aggressive hate, fear, and self-delusional denial to get any group of people like that together to reach out and target someone outside of their associations "for the good of their soul".
If someone feels they must pray for me, let them do so in their own church or on their own property, not on mine or in my face when I obviously have no interest in welcoming their chastisement of something that is none of their business - that is personal to me and another consenting adult.

Haele

[Radical Activist]

20. That church needs a Sunday morning pride parade.

That would be so much fun it makes me wish I lived in Toronto.

[jberryhill]

21. Win

If these folks are so hung up on what others do in bed, then it would be worth providing demonstrations during their church services.

[Radical Activist]

26. hell yeah.

Or, just go to the services and sit one Sunday. But make it a contest to see who can wear the most outrageous/offensive outfit. There's nothing illegal about going to church. :)

[Fleshdancer]

24. I would do whatever I could to support my gay neighbors

I would not tolerate bigotry in my neighborhood.

[Anakin Skywalker]

25. Where the Hell Do They Find the Time?

Seriously. Do these preachy types not have jobs to attend to?

Or do they only do this on weekends?

Is Canada in an economic recession too?

Somebody please answer.

[slampoet]

27. Nothing stops these people like 17 protesters Testifying at Sunday Mass.

Just one after the other one by one dragging it out.

[Bluebear]

29. Let us prey.

http://torontoist.com/2010/08/let_us_prey.php

[earth mom]

30. So the fundie nut jobs have infested Canada now?

Please say it isn't so!

:yoiks:

[Warren DeMontague]

32. Time to have sex with the windows open.

Ooops!

[grantcart]

33. Someone purporting to be one of the same sex spouses posted on the thread

that they weren't being targeted but that the Church had been doing street services in the same spot for years.

If true it was a generous post.


Just for clarification. We have never been targeted by this church and we just want to put this misunderstanding to rest. Yes they hold outrearch sermons on our street in the summer and have for 10 -15 years before we moved here in the same spot.......

PCBCMCTO 5 hours ago 2

[MineralMan]

34. Set up a grill out in front of the house, call all your friends, and

have a fancy dress cookout party. Invite the protesters up for a burger and some beverages.

[Heywood J]

35. Assuming you can't turn the hose on them: stinkbombs.

On your own lawn, it's not illegal to concoct something that reeks. Just let the stink rip in a bucket on the edge of your lawn closest to the fundies or carry it around them until they turn green. When you're done, neutralize the pail, cap it, and either toss or flush it. With luck, you'll find something that stinks badly enough that they'll smell it on their clothes days later.

[FightingBobsghost]

37. Lawn care

Time to fertilize the law and work on your compost pile.
If it happens to be right in front of the "Xtians" it's hardly your fault.

Or why not do what that strip club did to the fundy church that protested on the publice street by the club. Protest the church. Have a kiss in. Get a blow horn and start preaching about the love and tolerence of the great FSM (but only if you dress like pirates).

[TexasObserver]

36. Play Van Halen's "Running with the Devil" on huge speakers when they do.

Running with the Devil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl4dEAtxo0M

Have some Judas Priest ready to follow that. I recommend "You Got Another Thing Coming."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cmefZ8aeZ8&feature=related

[Initech]

38. I'd add Funkadelic's song Standing On The Verge Of Gettin It On

[TexasObserver]

42. Sounds good. Crank up the tunes and make them suffer.

Just override whatever they're saying or doing with ass kicking rock and roll.

Hip Hop could be used for younger couples. That tune by Usher is infectious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiXbRBS5Z58

[lightningandsnow]

39. I live in Toronto, and this city isn't as accepting and liberal as many would like to think.

We have a bigot freeper (Rob Ford) in first place in the mayoral race, fundies of all stripes, and plenty of intolerance to go around.

[LiberalAndProud]

40. "God willing we'll be back next year"

Did I only imagine I heard that?

[TheKentuckian]

47. Some times I like to hang out in the yard with the AK and light off some stinkbombs while I enjoy

some soothing Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, and NWA REALLY FUCKING LOUD as I sip on my favorite fifth of bourbon.

That might be one of those days.

[NMMNG]

49. This guy has an idea

It worked with WBC, so it probably would work with other loonies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT7xQJrqUQ8