Here’s your Sunday open line. In my in-box today is a note about an event at noon Sunday, June 4 at the Pinnacle Hills Cross Church in Rogers.
It’s announced by the Arkansas Nonviolence Alliance and described as a “Trump Protest for Peace, Planet and the Poor.” Explains the news release:
The reason we are protesting at Cross Church is because pastor Ronnie Floyd is Trump’s evangelical advisor. We want to ask Floyd to advise Trump to change course and become a blessed peacemaker for the planet and poor. One of the primary things Jesus preached was concern for the poor.
We will be protesting Trump’s recent budget, which includes massive cuts in services for the poor, increased funding for endless wars, and tax cuts to the richest few. Additionally, Trump has an agenda for accelerating environmental destruction.
Floyd and Trump claim to be pro-life and gain votes this way, but we think life must also matter after birth, including healthcare, education and food for the poor. Also, we feel the biggest issues of life are actually environmental and war, especially climate change and the threat of nuclear war, respectively. Each of these issues could abort the lives of billions of future generations.
As a private institution, the church need not open its grounds to all comers. Though as a beneficiary of tax exemption from the government, it understands the value of the 1st Amendment and Floyd himself hasn’t been shy about advancing political agendas from his pulpit.