Two Days Late, Protesters to Finally Show

These people seems like the usual pacifists. Still no sign of the rowdy, violent groups the Hutton Hotel was so afraid of they felt forced to cancel the conference. Even when Wilders was here, the protests never amounted to more than a dozen people holding signs. I spoke to them a couple of times and took them some iced tea once as it was a very hot day. Everybody maintained an atmosphere of cordial disagreement and there was never any threat of violence, not in the least. Are these the people Hutton was afraid of? The Tennessean reports:

A Colorado-based ministries group is planning to hold a vigil outside Cornerstone Church in Madison during morning services today in response to the Constitution or Sharia conference held there Friday.

In a letter to Cornerstone pastor Maury Davis dated Nov. 5, Charles E. Carlson of Project Strait Gate urged the church to cancel the conference.

“The lead speakers are inflammatory, anti-islamic racists, who engender, if not openly advocate, war in Iran,” Carlson wrote. “This program is not about ‘Shariah’ law or ‘Jihad,’ as is its pretext, it is about war. … One or more hotels have canceled the event with good reason, and you have picked it up out of the gutter.”

The letter also encouraged Cornerstone members to meet with the group outside the church. Promises of a large sign reading, “WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?” being displayed at the vigil also were made.

According to its website, Strait Gate is an action program started by We Hold These Truths, a volunteer-led organization formed in 1996. The purpose of both groups, according to the site, is to reach out to “lost sheep” within the church who don’t know they’re “lost.”

Project Strait Gate also focuses on war and its causes. It has confronted more than 50 megachurches, the site says.

About 500 people attended the Shariah law conference Friday.