Words are powerful, but just think if there were pictures to prove it! Here's to freedom of speech, religion, and the American Idol finalist performing at the Festival.

Just another commercial announcement from our advertisement department...

Those folks...Always making things up.

Yes, listening to Franklin Graham can be excruciating, but that's just plain mean.

I heard that Mike Ragsdale has finagled into the program -- to introduce Franklin, I suppose. Doubt he can sing. -- s.

So... does this sign mean they are giving Satan top billing?

One of the really nice things about coming to grips with reality is that religion no longer has the power to scare me with the supernatural nonexistant.

What a relief that was...and still is.

No chance Bush is coming to speak huh? I might have made the trip back to speak out against the war.

Obscure historical reference:

(link...)

The Franklin doesn't fall far from the William Graham when it comes to politics and public promotions.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson

This same logic that certain churches use is the same logic the Bush "dead enders" are buying:

Hell/Terror + Give me 10%/ Give me civil liberties = salvation.

Yeah, negative advertising... sort of like scaring the fecal matter out of folks with the most extreme worst case theoretical scenarios of global climate change. When promoting something, you do what gets attention. Cut the Jesus believers some slack on this one; it's a standard and effective advertising/publicity tool no matter what you're peddling.

I, as I have probably mentioned, was one of those arrested that night. I had not seen this article and am very grateful that you called my attention to it. Let me make a plea:
There was a great picture taken of Carrol Bible and myself being led across the field in handcuffs; my right hand cuffed to his left and our uncuffed fist raised in the power salute. Carrol had taken an old stripped matress cover and made a pretty nifty robe from it and bootlegged in a sign that said "Let My People Go". My copy was lost many years ago in a flood. If one is still around it would please me no end to get a copy. Great thanks for the article.

Here's an excerpt of something Dr. Newton wrote after the incident:

Unfortunately the political climate of this community is such that even nonviolent dissent results in irrational repression. Unfortunately those who desire peace are considered criminals and those who desire war are considered saviors. Unfortunately those who desire change are considered dangerous and those who support the status quo are considered safe leaders. Unfortunately those who do not want to blindly follow their leaders to total destruction are considered irrational while those who follow unquestionably are considered sane.

[..]

Those who seek to maintain "control" through the use of "law and order" have made statements indicating their concern for a communistic plot, sexual orgies, and "pollution of the academic environment." Those who disagree are accused of being unAmerican, disloyal to the University as well as dirty, unkempt, immoral, spoiled, lazy, and are frequently told if you don't love it you should leave it. Yet those who claim to be defenders of the country and of the University utilize tactics which can only destroy both the democratic process of the country and the educational endeavors of the University. Those who continue to believe that an education consists of textbooks and lectures can only be concerned with the building of things rather than the building of a people. The survival of our campus, of our country and indeed of the world demands the building of a people and even, perhaps, the devaluation of things.