Smoke and mirrors. Like there aren't enough snake oil salesmen in town, an alleged businessman's group (note the sexism, it's intentional) has pulled a fast one on the community and the office that they used to sell nearly 250 tickets to an annual function.
The men behind the curtain are a very small club called the Dunamis Group. They purport to be a Christian-based organization of men who espouse fundamental beliefs in their day-to-day transactions.
They are sponsoring the third annual Santa Clarita Mayors (apostrophe omitted at the request of the office holder) Prayer Breakfast, which is scheduled Thursday morning at the Hyatt Valencia. Ostensibly, it is part of the National Day of Prayer series of events where people come together to pray for their leaders welfare and good judgment.
Too bad the judgment doesn't extend to the organizers of the breakfast.
After publicizing the event for more than a month, using Santa Clarita Mayor
Marsha McLean and former mayor Assemblyman
Cameron Smyth on their fliers, the Dunamis Group announced just a few days ago that a controversial, yet unordained, pastor
Ralph Drollinger would be the keynote speaker.
If that name sounds familiar, it's because in 2004, he used his private group, Capitol Ministries, as a pulpit in Sacramento to tell the world that mothers who worked outside the home, especially those who hold government offices, were sinners; he referred to the Roman Catholic faith as a false religion and said homosexuality is a sin as well.
Not someone you would think of as a unifier in my book.
The timing of the announcement has put the mayor in a sticky situation. She will attend the breakfast because she accomodates any group that asks her to speak; she considers such requests part of her duties as the leader of this corner of the world.
She will also attend an event sponsored by the Santa Clarita Interfaith Council, being held at noon Thursday outside City Hall. That group, which includes women, represents all the faiths specifically excluded from the Dunamis Group event, such as the Muslims, Presbyterians, Methodists, pagans, Mormons, Baha'i, Lutherans, Jews, Catholics, Episcopalians, the Science of Mind Center and the Unity Center of the SCV.
Organizers are quick to point out that anyone can buy a ticket to the breakfast, which brings us back to the snake oil correlation. You're welcome in the revival tent anytime, little boy, because we might just be able to save you.
If anyone is going to save me, I want it to be the group with the largest number of people and widest variety of ideas.
The National Day of Prayer was established in 1775 by the founding fathers who asked the people of our brand-new nation to pray for guidance. The tradition continued through administrations and wars, times of peace and strife. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan declared the first Thursday of May a day for ecumenical gathering that transcended all religious boundaries.
But in 1990, the event was taken over by Focus On the Family, an evangelical Christian group and in 2004, organizers excluded Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus from participating. We seem to have strayed far from the initial purpose of unity, a deception perpetuated by alleged community leaders.
Drollinger lives in Santa Clarita, in a community not far from two active Catholic churches and a Jewish synagogue. His wealth shields him from seeing those served by church workers - many of them women - who do Christ's work by ministering to the needy without judgment. They don't need saving. But he remains unrepentant of his accusations, claiming his courage is a virtue worth defending. I'm embarassed to say I live in the same town.
But he has a Constitutional (remember the guys who started the first unity thing?) right to speak and on that basis, the Dunamis Group are within their rights to host him. I'm hoping all the women - and clear-thinking men - at the breakfast will stand up to his intolerance and mysogyny. Our mayor deserves much more respect than what one of her constuituents has offered.