On Saturday afternoon at Comic Con San Diego, I ran into a modest protest of self-proclaimed “Jesus Freaks” at the beginning of Fifth Street just across from the San Diego Convention Center. The San Diego Police were guarding a 15-by-four-foot area, within which the Jesus Freaks were holding signs and yelling through bull-horns at the passers by.
When I arrived a few of the passers by had stopped and formed their own counter-protest, but without the police protection. What they were counter-protesting was the Jesus Freak’s assertion that all things at Comic Con were bad – including Star Trek.
(Considering Star Trek’s assertion that God exists, it’s obvious they either never watched it, or forgot the episodes.)
Pastor Christian La Fleur Hold’s Court
If you’re wondering who the African American man at the center of all of all of the yelling was, his name is Pastor Christian La Fleur. If you watched the video, you saw that I asked for his card. Well, he provided it.
Someone in the video, dressed (it seemed) like Deadpool, ignorantly remarked that “Now, he’s got the black card. We can’t say anything.”
As you can see, I sought out Deadpool and informed him that what he said was racist. Just because someone’s black doesn’t mean you can’t disagree with them. But just as he was wrong, Pastor La Fleur took his berating of people too far – especially in the case of one woman who he called a number of names.
A real Jesus Freak would not conduct themselves in the way Pastor Christian La Fleur had done. His behavior was just plain horrible and abusive, especially toward women.
But given that he was in the public square, and in an area specifically protected by the San Diego Police and with the expressed intent of defending his First Amendment rights, Pastor La Fleur could let fly with whatever creative insult came to mind, and that’s pretty much what he did if you watch the video in-depth.
Is any of this Comic Con’s fault? Technically, no. Comic Con International did not ask the Jesus Freaks to come, but then they do set the climate for cosplay and other actions that upset people like Pastor Christian La Fleur.
I’m not defending what Pastor Christian La Fleur did. I’m only point out that, as nutty as his objections are, he has the right to express them. I just don’t like his personal verbal attacks, especially on women. That’s just wrong.
Stay tuned. http://ift.tt/1llrOY9
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.