Parking question

[BenL]

My husband's employer currently provides parking to employees for a fee. Construction will begin soon on the campus that will eliminate 200 slots. The organization plans to rent parking spaces from an Assembly of God church a couple of miles from campus and run shuttle buses to and from it for employees. The incentive is that off-campus parking would be free.

Besides the inconvenience, my husband is trying to communicate to the administration that the AofG denomination discriminates against LGBT people and that he does not want his employer to support them by renting parking spaces. He's not making any headway. Everyone thinks he's totally unreasonable. Even the head of the LGBT employee organization sees it as a simple business transaction that in no way implies support for the Assembly of God agenda. (Thought I'd turn tables and use the A-word. ;)) But the money will go into the church's budget, and that will support its mission. It all appears to be a done deal.

Asked for documentation, he used information gleaned from the Soulforce pages. So far he hasn't gotten anywhere. He can refuse to participate, but that would only leave him without a place to park the car.

Is he being unreasonable in this form of activism, or are we as a couple missing something here? Even the gay community on campus doesn't see a problem.

[Zerbie]

Oh gee. I see both sides of this, and hover in the middle. Protesting, since it is a done deal (or effectively so), will, as you note, only leave him with no place to park for work. Someone else would pay for the parking spot then, right, so the AoG would still receive the $? No good done for him or for the cause.

We have the same sort of situation where I am. I buy a parking pass from a church in town and walk .5 mile or so to the building every day. Now and then I wonder if my fee money is supporting an affirming or a condemning church. I haven't tried to find out. If it is condemning, then I would have to feel badly about doing something I cannot avoid doing if I'm ever to get my degree. So I prefer not to know. If I turn down a parking pass, someone else from the wait list will pay for it. Charley's (that is his name right?) situation sounds the same to me.

[paul]

Hi Ben,

Weird deal. I know you are a "Christian" who defines Christianity very differently than AoG does. So, I thought a bit about WWJD, trying to come up with an answer. All I can come up with is "render unto Ceasar that which is due Ceasar, and unto God that which is due God." Ironically, AoG becomes Ceasar in this scenario. The message here being temporal vs. eternal, as I see it. Okay...that's my semi-spiritual response.

My radical response is to have Charley fly a very large rainbow flag from his car that he hoists before leaving it parked in the AoG parking lot each day. Then he can send AoG a letter thanking them for their acceptance and affirmation of TLGB people expressed by their allowing such to use 'holy ground' to park on :D.

[BenL]

Thanks. Your insights are right on target, Zerb and Paul.

I think Charley is resigned to the fact that this is a done deal, but he doesn't want to let it go until someone acknowledges that just because it's a church doesn't mean it should get a free ride in the scrutiny department.

What bothers him most is that he can't get his fellow gay employees to see that this has ramifications. Most of them are unchurched, I suspect, and really don't care. They have, for the most part, written off religion as being part of their world.

BTW, he already has a rainbow sticker on his car, and wonders if he has to remove it or cover it up to avoid being singled out.

[Zerbie]

I have the HRC sticker on my car. And during the Prop 107 campaign, I had the NO Prop 107 sticker in my car window. Don't know if the church selling or parking pass is affirming or condemning, but I *did* park in the lot with those stickers on the car. Fwiw. :p

Anyway - a business contract is a business contract. Charley is signing to agree to park in an assigned space, or a select area of assigned spaces and giving money to park there. Business. It therefore is NOT church business to scrutinize bumper stickers. If they DID, you can bet Charley's would not be the only car having issues. And THEN it would become an issue for contention, but only if the church were to cross that line.