They’re Coming to Your Town

November 19, 2008 By Guest Contributor 31 Comments

The (Christian) American Family Association is selling a DVD of an apparently frightening movie:

Residents of the small Arkansas town of Eureka Springs noticed the black community was growing. But they felt no threat. They went about their business as usual. Then, one day, they woke up to discover that their beloved Eureka Springs, a community which was known far and wide as a center for Christian entertainment — had changed. The City Council had been taken over by a small group of black activists.

The Eureka Springs they knew is gone. It is now a national hub for blacks. Eureka Springs is becoming the Harlem of Arkansas. The story of how this happened is told in the new AFA DVD “They’re Coming To Your Town.”

…

AFA’s “They’re Coming To Your Town” documents the story of how and why this happened. And how black activists plan to do the same in other towns.

…

Order a copy of “They’re Coming To Your Town.” Watch it. Then take the 28-minute DVD and share it with your Sunday School class and local church. This is a story the liberal media will never tell, but one you need to know.

Anyone else disturbed by that…?

…

Ok. I’ll admit: I changed a few of the words in the description above.

But I don’t see any difference.

(via Sandwalk)

Filed Under: General 31 Comments
  • Rachel

    Brilliant,
    I totally agree with what you’re trying to show here which to me is self evident, which is why I don’t get why generally speaking minorities support Prop 8, it makes absolutely no sense.
    I’m not sure if history is being taught properly or if religious dogma simply overrides any empathy for one tradionally persecuted minority for another.
    Although I’m white, Irish descent, I remember reading a historical article published in new york basically calling for measures against Irish hooliganism and essentially the same sentiment that the horrible Irish are infesting the place, and thinking wow, do we ever learn from history?
    We were all probably from some group that was maligned at some point in history.
    Again, is this a case of the bullied group becoming the bully or religion trumping any sense of comradarie, empathy with being the minority and having a true appreciation of equality? I don’t know. If so another reason to abolish religion.

  • http://merelyadequate.net MonolithTMA

    I’d be disturbed with either set of words. I wish these “family” groups would realize that they are only hate groups in poor disguises.

  • lamb

    Funny – I blogged about that just the other day and was going to send you links to the vast number of goodies you can find there. Don’t forget the Hate Crimes DVD (https://store.afa.net/p-10000048-hate-crimes-dvd.aspx) and the illuminated cross (https://store.afa.net/pc-10000310-11-christmas-cross.aspx).

    That said, I found the original text “the San Francisco of Arkansas” to be hilarious. I think that makes it the one town in Arkansas that I would ever consider visiting.

  • http://arkonbey.blogspot.com arkonbey

    “This is a story the liberal media will never tell”

    Probably because the it’s not really a story? Ooo! Scary black people moving into our formery ‘safe’ city, ooo! All they want is to live and be part of a community and have control over their children’s destiny just like the white folks, ooooo!

    I didn’t intend this comment to have a mocking tone, but I just couldn’t help it given the absurdity of the CAFA’s comments.

    Seriously, though. Don’t you have to get voted onto a city council?They make it sound like a small group of activists went in with their nines and threatened the council and has been holding them hostage until the next fiscal year.

  • http://starseyer.blogspot.com Mikayla

    I thought the original word was going to be ‘atheists’. LOL

  • http://darwinsdagger.blogspot.com Darwin’s Dagger

    I’ve been to Eureka Springs. They have the second largest statue of Jesus in the Western Hemisphere. The first is in Rio. Apparently giant Jesus statues are a big attraction to the gays. Who knew?

  • Tao Jones

    Apparently giant Jesus statues are a big attraction to the gays

    Well, Jesus is hot.

  • http://thehappyhuman.wordpress.com John

    I thought the original word was going to be ‘atheists’. LOL

    I thought the original word was going to be “pantsless, maple-syrup-loving, parcheesi players”. Maybe I should read a newspaper.

  • Ape Toast

    They sell the video, at a discount, by the five pack. I’m guessing a six pack would be too homo-erotic – Ahhem . . . I mean Afro-erotic?

  • http://www.otmatheist.com hoverFrog

    You didn’t need to change any words, it was disgusting enough before.

    From the original:

    City Council member Joyce Zeller said the city will now be promoted, not as a Christian resort, but a city “selling peace, relaxation, history and sex.”

    Fantastic. I like peace, relaxation, history and sex and I’m not too keen on stopping that so people can pray to some guy who was tortured to death thousands of years ago.

    What does Eureka Springs offer in terms of history anyway?

    It’s past time America sold itself on the virtues of peace anyway? Other than having a progressive and open minded city council. That sounds like an historical achievement.

  • http://www.skepchick.org writerdd

    They’re already in your town, your family, your church, and maybe even your own Sunday school class. Boo!!!!

  • http://blargen.com/blog/ postsimian

    I see what you did there.

  • http://noodleguy.wordpress.com noodleguy

    they have the second largest statue of Jesus in the Western Hemisphere.

    I did not know that. Somehow I feel like my brain is not any better off for the new knowledge though -__-

    And woohoo, now I actually have a picture of pasta instead of, well, a pencil. And I have the website linked to my new blog. I feel like a real person now. A real internet person.

  • JJGorndt

    Strange. The site lists $15 or so as the “suggested donation,” but in order to get the DVD, you need to pay that amount. I’ve only been speaking English for all 25 years I’ve been around, but I’ve always been under the impression that, if you have to pay a certain amount in order to get something, that’s called a “price.”

    Funny how I could have been so wrong for so long.

  • http://mcdevzone.com/ Mike Hussein Cohen

    Argh! I really hate those people.

  • Larry Huffman

    Wow…to contrast christianity with race??? That is quite amazing and revealing.

    The assumption one would initially make from this is that they are being invaded by godless black people…since they seem to see the influx of black people as a threat to their religious standing.

    I think we can sum these people up with one word: Bigots.

    I would actually love to watch this video…although I am sure that before the intro is done I would be fuming. And I certainly would not want my watching this movie to in any way financially benefit the makers, even if is just a few dollars.

    (I wonder if they got Ben Stein to host this?)

  • Krista

    I just had to go and look this up. When I searched for Eureka Springs by itself I got these websites that had no indication of it being a place for us homos to flock to …
    http://www.eurekasprings.org/
    http://www.eurekaspringschamber.com/

    Then I searched “eureka springs gay” and came up with this (http://www.eurekapride.com/welcome/) which made me smile. Especially the part, “Yes, even in Eureka we have a handful who prefer to live in the dark ages – not many, but every town needs a bigot or two and because we welcome diversity, we welcome them too. It’s a Southern thing to be nice, so if you run into one of these unfortunate souls, just smile and say “Poor thing, bless your heart.”"

  • Brooks

    Is it sad that when I read this blog entry before reading what the original wording was, I wasn’t at all surprised that AFA could be racist, too?

  • http://reasonableatheist.blogspot.com Bart Dorsey

    Check out this photo of the Eureka Springs McDonalds.

    I live in Arkansas and IMHO Eureka springs has been pretty gay for a while now :)

    http://flickr.com/photos/orion_eclipsed/2328259666/

    It’s also jesusy, and has a giant jesus statue and a thing called “The great passion play”.

    It’s a very interesting little town.

    JESUS!
    http://flickr.com/photos/fallsroad/25991398/

  • http://noodleguy.wordpress.com noodleguy

    http://flickr.com/photos/fallsroad/25991398/

    Someone referred to that statue as “Gumby Jesus.” Need I say more?

  • MKB

    Eureka Springs has for many, many years been both a hippie town and a Christian resort. Growing up in the area I always thought of it as a hippie town and was amused to see that the Passion Play people were there as well.

  • https://www.google.com/reader/shared/03285257443185929989 Scotty B

    Funny how in the AFA store, everything is listed with a “suggested donation” price, yet there is no way to adjust the amount of the “donation” (unless you want to contribute additional funds, of course).

  • JS

    This is absolutely terrifying, and exactly the kind of thing that makes me feel incredibly angry. But also a little helpless and frustrated. I’m just not sure what I can do to help end religious bigotry, other than announce proudly that I am an atheist.

  • http://www.myspace.com/jenigray2000 Jennifer Gray

    The problem is that fundies don’t see homosexuality like they see race. They see homosexuality as a sin and a choice. I grew up in a fundie community in Kentucky, and although I moved to a more progressive city in Ohio with my family years ago, they still hold this same view. To them, being gay is just like lying, stealing, fornication, adultry, doing drugs, etc. Replace “homosexual” with “thieves” or “drug dealers” instead of “black” and you’ll see why they’re afraid. Until that view changes, we will continue to see stuff like this from fundie groups like the AFA.

  • Richard Wade

    Yet another sub species of Christianity becoming extremely specialized by focusing on one issue to the exclusion of their original precepts. They should call themselves the “First Church of the Holy Gay Haters of Arkansas.”

    In biology, specialization precedes extinction.

  • http://sanguinity.livejournal.com Sanguinity

    Rachel:

    I don’t get why generally speaking minorities support Prop 8, it makes absolutely no sense.

    Well, one of the issues are the abundant, facile equivalencies proposed by white queers (which I know, Hemant, you are neither) between GLBT discrimination and racial discrimination. The two are actually kinda different, and even if they weren’t different, those analogies are appropriative.

    Slit does a nice job expanding on what the problem with those analogies are in An Open Letter to White Activists. So does Nojojo in If A=B and B=C but C is not equal to A, then… WTF?

    I’m not sure if history is being taught properly…

    On average, members of racial minorities have a better knowledge of the history of discrimination in the U.S. than white people do, even better than whites who are reasonably well educated. The ugly fact is that the mainstream culture, including the schools, just don’t tend to provide very good education on racial discrimination or history.

    So, if you’re white and confused about the actions of members of a racial minority, “Don’t they understand history?” isn’t usually a good first question. “Is there some relevant bit of history that I don’t know yet?” is probably a better one.

  • Brooks

    If we really want to get silly with changing the words around, how about we do this? “Residents of the small Arkansas town of Eureka Springs noticed the fundamentalist Christian community was growing. But they felt no threat. They went about their business as usual. Then, one day, they woke up to discover that their beloved Eureka Springs, a community which was known far and wide as a center for the wide variety of entertainment — had changed. The City Council had been taken over by a small group of fundamentalist Christian activists.

    The Eureka Springs they knew is gone. It is now a national hub for fundamentalist Christians. Eureka Springs is becoming the Bible Belt of Arkansas. The story of how this happened is told in the new AFA DVD “They’re Coming To Your Town.”

    …

    AFA’s “They’re Coming To Your Town” documents the story of how and why this happened. And how fundamentalist Christian activists plan to do the same in other towns.”

    I think this is much more accurate.

  • http://sanguinity.livejournal.com Sanguinity

    Brooks: I like! :-)

  • http://noodleguy.wordpress.com noodleguy

    I don’t get why generally speaking minorities support Prop 8

    It’s actually a very simple question, despite the complex responses that people offer to explain it.

    1) 75% of Christians support Prop 8, and only 10% of those with no religious affiliation were against it
    2) 90% of blacks are Christian
    3) 70% of blacks support Prop 8.

    Those statistics actually add up to 68%, not 70%, but it is very close, and besides there is margin of error. Maybe by some small percentage blacks are against gay marriages more often, but not NEARLY enough that it could have changed the election.
    Think, if 2% of blacks were against gay marriage just because of some inherent hatred for gays in the black community (!?) that would not even be close to changing the tide of the election.

    It has nothing to do with their being minorities, it has to do with their being Christians. Frankly the whole “Blacks hate gays” myth is absurd, it should be “Christians hate gays” thank you very much. Correlation does not equal causation.

    @Brooks: You’re awesome :P

  • justin jm

    1) 75% of Christians support Prop 8, and only 10% of those with no religious affiliation were against it

    You mean that only 10% of Christians were against it, right? IIRC, about 85% of those with no church attendance voted against Prop 8.

  • http://sanguinity.livejournal.com Sanguinity

    Noodleguy:

    1. Dude. You’ve got the correlation =/= causation problem going on there yourself. Just because the numbers match doesn’t mean you’ve explained the causation of anything.

    2. That 70% figure was based on a sample size of 10 people. Which, when combined with the “clumpiness” of exit polling, means that you have no idea what the real incidence of Yes votes among African-Americans was. And if you don’t know what that number actually was, then you can’t meaningfully assert that your calculations equal it.

    3. You’re assuming that “Christianity” is a uniform property that behaves the same way in all communities. We’ve got no evidence for that; in fact, given how segregated Christian churches tend to be (and, also, how some denominations are extremely unlikely to cross color lines), that’s a very risky hypothesis to make.

    In short, I don’t think you’ve demonstrated anything.

    Generally speaking, I prefer to get my information about why communities of color vote on LGBT issues as they do from queers of color and allies of color — people who are actually members of those communities; who have actually been on the ground, having the conversations and doing the work.