Because of our encounter last month with Ray Comfort, BASS got two more mentions in the news, one from secularist news and one from Christian news.
First, we were mentioned in the Secular Student Alliance online newsletter. It’s just a reposting of articles that have appeared on this website.
Second, we were mentioned by World, in the cover story of their upcoming issue. The cover story is about the “Daniel of the Year”, which is some sort of yearly award. The recipient of the 2009 Daniel of the Year is not Ray Comfort, but Stephen Meyer, the director of the Discovery Institute. It appears that Ray Comfort got an honorable mention. I am quoted as saying that we would never burn Ray Comfort’s books.
I do not feel I was misrepresented, and I understand that there are space constraints, but I still find it disappointing that that’s all I got in. I am also disappointed in the article itself, since I think by all rights Ray Comfort should be considered an embarrassment to Christians. I would certainly find him embarrassing if he were on my side. In any case, here is the full statement I sent to World magazine.
The change in date was not surprising, since Ray Comfort is not exactly known for his honesty. What was more surprising was that Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron made personal appearances at UCLA. Ray Comfort made quite a spectacle where he would yell questions at people as his own crowd would cheer him on. He was clearly most interested in evangelizing, and any arguments about science or facts were secondary to him.
I would not say that we organized a “protest”. We were simply going to hand out counter-flyers made by the NCSE (National Center for Science Education) along with a few pro-evolution materials, including free t-shirts. Kirk Cameron had a silly fear of book burnings, but we would never do anything of the sort. The change of date did not greatly affect our plans, though due to logistical problems, it meant that Ray Comfort would not get a free t-shirt.
At one point, Ray Comfort asked one of our group members to heckle him. She replied, “You only want hecklers for the show.” He proved her right by saying, “No, it’s for the documentary.” It seems that Ray Comfort really does want the attention, which makes his change in date puzzling. Perhaps he only wanted it to appear as if he needed to take drastic measures to avoid imaginary protests.
Last 5 posts by Tristan Miller
- While I was away... - July 14th, 2011
- Quantum Mechanics for skeptics - May 24th, 2010
- I Sold My Soul on eBay - April 18th, 2010
- Presentation: Separation of Church and State - March 6th, 2010
- BASS protests the Westboro Baptist Church - January 17th, 2010
On second glance, I think this post makes me sound ungrateful. It is in fact really awesome that I’ve been mentioned by name. Now I can say that I’ve publicly opposed book burnings in a major media outlet.