[andrewlittle]

Originally Posted by Godsgift126

i didnt mean to cause a stir at all, and i hope i address all the ?'s that were asked of me...

Please don't be too quick to apologize. Stirring and being stirred are ways in which we can all grow and learn.

when i said immature actions i meant the whole getting arrested thing. Don't get me wrong ive been arrested for a similiar type of sit in, for different purposes, but none the less have been there and done that. but the facts are and were admitted by a soul force member, that they had previously called the county to find out how much bail was for one person, knowing how many bodies they feel that they could "sacrifice" to the cause... demanding to be let into a chapel to worship God is one thing but when it is apparently and i mean apparently staged is another...

Okay! Let's recap some history.
Rev Martin Luther King Jr and many allies were arrested for civil disobedience, knowing full well that they would be.
Jesus was arrested for standing against the religious powers that be, knowing full well that he would be.
There are a heck of lot of examples before, after and inbetween, but I think those two examples should suffice. If the whole "getting arrested thing" is immature, then there is a long history and precedence for being immature for the sake of belief and faith.

As to "staged" - the common terms are "stage a sit-in", "stage a protest", etc. Civil disobedience doesn't effectively happen out of some brain fart, impetuous, disorganized accident. Civil disobedience is planned, the costs (financial and otherwise) of disobedience are considered, and an action is staged in order to make a statement. Most times the backlash of those in the position of power is anticipated and becomes a significant part of the statement. Sometimes, civil disobedience doesn't work, but that generally happens when the powers that be do not act as the protestors anticipated. That is not the case with Palm Beach Atlantic.

Anticipating some kind of rebuttal based on the private property justification for making the arrests, I will quickly address the nature of the property in question. While the school is a "private" university, it does not qualify as sitting on private property. It is a non-profit organization that benefits from public funding. By nature of being tax exempt, it makes use of public dollars - those that would ordinarily be paid into the public coffers as taxes - to further its goals. It also participates in federal student loan programs - federal programs that enable the university to do what it does. Private property issues are blurred to say the least.

Lastly, the issue of the students being arrested while trying to enter a chapel service. Speaks for itself, I think.

what i meant by "just another activist group" was exactly what it says and sounds, ive been part of plenty groups, mostly for animal rights, and have left a number of them due to the fact that the issues get lost in the translation, and there were plenty of times where that happened earlier at PBA. That where my lost of respect comes from as well too... but not ony that, but soul force links themsleves to the Bible and God and so thats why i was finally like well maybe this one will be different, maybe they can come in and get their point across with the Biblical based actions, I just disagree with how some of it was conducted.

Many of us think this is biblically based. You disagree - I can accept that. What actions would have been more biblically based in your estimation? perhaps we can all learn something.

and with the lies... well one example was; the girl that came out, how she never said any of the stuff that soul force claimed she said. after she had walked away to go get some food for the soul force workers they started making thse statements how she elt unsafe etc... then when she returned they stopped until she left again,

So far, this is "he said, she said". Some verification of your claim that lies were told would be a good thing at this point.

...again im not against anything, and i want to embrace all of God's children regardless of age, sex, color or sexual orientation, we were all created in God's image and should love one another as God did for us. I guess i just look too deep into things sometimes, but i did apprecate them coming down here and i enjoyed the day, helped me out with a lot of insight towards the ISSUE AT HAND
Thanks again for having me here

And this is why we love you. Let's reason this out together, and see if we can come to an understanding or, at least, an appreciation for each other's views. So, thanks for being here. May God bless you.

Andy