Church pastor fails to see the glory of dog
A dog park next to a church? Heaven forbid!
The leaders of New Hope Baptist Church say a dog park that has been proposed across the street would disrupt their services and pose a safety hazard to parishioners.
“It upsets the dignity of our worship services,” the Rev. Rodrick Green told the Ann Arbor Park Advisory Commission last month. “It’s going to be a noise problem because we’re conducting our services at the time when people are going to be bringing their dogs, and dogs make noise. You can’t control dog noise.”
Green and church trustee Thomas Miree have both spoken out against the city’s proposal to establish a small off-leash dog park at the Chapin Street entrance to West Park, directly across the street from the church.
The city council will take the matter up at its next meeting, on Jan. 22, according to AnnArbor.com.
The park commission is recommending approval of the dog park — it would become the third in the city — under the condition that it be reviewed one year after it opens.
City park officials said the proposed dog park is a response to public demand that one be located close to downtown. Ann Arbor’s existing dog parks are located at Swift Run in the southeast part of the city, and at Olson Park in the northeast part of the city.
But church leaders at New Hope Baptist are still hoping the city will rethink the location.
“We have a situation where children, who are sometimes afraid of dogs, are put at risk, and maybe now they have a disincentive to use the park because of the dogs,” Rev. Green said. “There are so many reasons for them not to do it, and only a couple of reasons in favor of it.”
City Council Member Christopher Taylor says the dog park would be fenced, with a double-gated entry system.
“As for the noise and so forth … dog parks … are not particularly disruptive — certainly less disruptive than unsupervised dog play,” Taylor said.
Green says the church would have no complaints if the dog park would be located farther back on the piece of property.
“West Park is a large park,” he said. “There’s no reason why it has to be placed in an area that’s going to be offensive to us as a people and as a church, and right now it’s offensive.”
(Photos: New Hope Baptist Church and the proposed location of a dog park, across the street; by Ryan J. Stanton / AnnArbor.com)
Posted by jwoestendiek January 15th, 2013 under Muttsblog.
Tags: animals, ann arbor, church, city council, dog, dog park, dogs, michigan, new hope baptist church, objections, parks, parks advisory commission, pastor, pets, proposal, proposed, reverend, West Park
Comments
Comment from Sue at Talking Dogs
Time January 15, 2013 at 1:27 pm
Upsets their dignity?! This “pastor” could learn a lot from dogs….
Comment from KateH
Time January 16, 2013 at 5:02 pm
Whaa, whaa! ‘Godly people’ my ass.
Comment from RubyB
Time January 19, 2013 at 6:48 pm
Baptists seem to have it out for dogs:
This is the first time an animal killed his chickens, but it’s not the first time this guy shot a dog to death. “Pastor” Rea shot a dog to death for crossing the corner of his property a few months earlier. The dog was just trotting by and crossed briefly over the corner of his property. This is in a semi-rural area. Lots of kids around. Real safe to be shooting.
This guy, “Pastor” Rea is the same kind of nut that made me leave the Baptist church. They were a lot of vicious, abusive people. Like Mike Huckaby, the former governor of Alabama, one-time presidential hopeful and former head of the Baptist convention for his state–his son, while at boy scout camp killed a stray dog by slitting its throat and stoning it to death. The story was suppressed, since daddy WAS governor, and the state police commissioner resigned rather than suppress the story. I remember reading the gruesome details about the way the poor dog was killed, and then, when Mike Huckaby was running for president, I saw a bunch of denials. So, I went looking around on the net. I found the story here:
http://www.correntewire.com/so_how_exactly_did_mike_huckabees_son_david_…
The details are exactly how I remembered reading them about a decade earlier.
Also, Baptists do not believe in equal rights for women, which is necessary for a democracy. The head of the Southern Baptist Convention a few years ago said that the husband had the final say. His wife was asked what she did when she and her husband disagreed. She said that she just went out and bought a new hat. Sort of like Bush telling us all to go shopping after the economic collapse. Don’t worry your pretty head! Your pretty little head just does not have the brain power to deal with all these tough issues. (Like is it okay to keep killing your neighbor’s dogs. I mean, really, if he grabbed it and slit its throat, it was obviously not that excited–if it was in “blood lust” it would have bit him! No one grabs an animal that’s in “blood lust.” He was able to hold the dog still enough to slit its throat with a small knife. Doesn’t sound like the dog was the crazed one in that chicken pen. And he could have shot it–he shot a dog a few months before. He obviously had a gun.)
This guy was just mad about another loose dog and he likes to kill things. Some people do have chickens as pets, but not this guy. If they were pets, he would have said so. Nope, he had a knife in that pen because he slits chickens throats. Not the nicest way for a chicken to die, either.
Did anyone ever see any dead chickens? I’d want to see photos of the chickens, taken soon after by someone other than this “pastor.” Without that picture, we only have this “pastor’s” word for it.
Baptists are an authoritarian type of church. Like the Catholic church. Women are second class citizens. Children are to be seen and not heard. Might makes right. Like Catholics, Baptists seem to abuse children a lot. Not surprising when one considers their authoritarian principles.
http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm
And look at this page from Landover Baptist Church where they complain about California prosecuting adoptive parents for corporeal punishment. No matter that it resulted in the death of one of those children because the Bible says it’s okay to kill disobedient children!
http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=37633
Quoting from the Landover Baptist blog: “The Bible also clearly states that disobedient children who fail to mend their ways should be put to death (Deut. 21:18-21, KJV).”
Do the researching on your own. Google Baptist and “child abuse” or “corporal punishment” and you’ll find lots of reports, often by Baptists themselves, about their Godly form of child abuse. Are you still surprised that a Baptist minister cut the throat of a dog, or worse, shot a dog to death just for touching one corner of his suburban lot?
Not that Baptists are the only right wing church doing this. It’s just I grew up Baptist, so I know them the best.
Remember, no fascist movement anywhere in the world has taken control of a country without the backing of an authoritarian church. Hitler’s first successful campaign slogan was about the religiously prescribed role of women: “Kinder, Kirchen, Kuchen.”
Comment from Lynn (in Louisiana)
Time January 15, 2013 at 11:37 am
Wow. Unbelievable.