You didn’t think I forgot, did you? It has now been two months since Pastor Jay Dennis, R-First Baptist Church at the Mall, led the fight to protect the institution of marriage from marauding homosexual monogamy, committment, and fashion sense. I continue to wait breathlessly for him to take up once again the burden/ego [...]
"Of all the many subjects in the Bible, Jay Dennis chose to get politically involved in homosexuality. It says much more about him than it does about the people whose love and commitment he considers meaningless. Divorce will continue to ravage his congregation and everyone else’s, and he’ll manage to take no political action on that. I’m going to point this out, once a month, for as long as I write. Call it the Jay Dennis Marriage Protection Divorce Amendment Time Tracker. It’s now been about 12 hours since Dennis helped protect marriage from gays. How long will it take him to protect it from heterosexual divorce?" I wrote the above the day after the election. So, as promised, I would like to point out that Rev. Jay Dennis, R-First Baptist Church at the Mall, key organizer of amendment 2, has now gone one month without recommending or taking any political action to protect the institution of marriage from heterosexual divorce. Not surprising, of course. If you are immoral, but there are lots and lots and lots of you, don't expect a challenge from your religious leaders. They only pick on small minorities. It's good to be the pastor of a church that inhabits a mall, after all. As always, Pastor Dennis is welcome to respond, explain, or otherwise point out I'm a doofus. Hasn't been willing to bite - I've sent him links - on that yet. In the meantime, I want to reprint something I wrote in an off-blog email exchange with an amendment 2 supporter:
I was walking around Lake Morton with my wife, daughter, and little boy Wednesday evening when we came across a new political yard sign: "Yes on 2: One man, one woman," it read. It's in a very prominent location, and you can't miss it. (In fact, since I first saw it, someone has defaced the sign. I want to make it clear that nothing I write here endorses that type of behavior. It's important that we respect other people's rights and dignity even if they seek to deny rights and dignity to others.)
Bio: Billy Townsend was a longtime government, political and general assignment reporter in Polk County and the wider I-4 corridor. He wrote extensively about Polk's unique regional identity and the issues shaping it, including USF Polytechnic, the Heartland Parkway and the CSX rail deal. Billy recently left professional reporting to take a corporate writing job, but he keeps close tabs on news of all stripes (especially political news) and the changes in modern journalism. Billy's wife is Julie Townsend, executive director of the Downtown Lakeland Partnership.They live with their three children in the Lake Morton area. His work at Lakeland Local is his first as an amateur hyperlocal writer.