As a pastor preparing to celebrate Christmas, she can’t ignore our president’s racist lies. Because they’re blasphemy.
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On Dec. 2, President Donald Trump gathered his top officials at the White House for a televised Cabinet meeting during which he called the people of Somalia in general and Rep. Ilhan Omar specifically “garbage.” He warned Americans that the country “could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country.” According to Mr. Trump, Somalis “should go back to where they came from” because they are “people who don’t work,” who “just run around killing each other,” whose “country is no good for a reason.” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noam encouraged the president to enact “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies.”
Much has happened since then. Horrific mass killings of students at Brown University and of Jewish worshipers in Bondi Beach, Australia. We’ve watched videos of the government blowing up fishing boats in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A beloved moviemaker and his wife were murdered in their home, allegedly by their own troubled son. People are being flooded out of their homes in Washington state and, unfathomably, out of their tents in the refugee camps of Gaza. With so much violence, death and suffering, I wonder why my heart is so troubled by the racist words of our president. His remarks barely made a blip in the news cycle. The world has moved on. Even the prime minister of Somalia urged people to ignore the president’s remarks, arguing that responding to his comments gives them more prominence and noting wryly that “we are not the only country that Trump insults.”
But as a pastor preparing to celebrate Christmas, I can’t ignore Trump’s racist lies. Because they’re blasphemy. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tells the story of creation, which begins with the word of God. Day by cosmic day, God spoke creation into existence, calling forth light and land, oceans below and heavens above, plants and animals, until on the sixth day, God created humanity. People, we learn, are different from all that has come before, because God made them “in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” God looks with delight on all that has been made and definitively declares it not just good, but “very good.”
Scripture teaches that all people are made in the image of God. Theologians have an ancient name for this: the “imago dei.” It means that each person is indelibly stamped with the image of the living God and so every life holds intrinsic sacred worth. When Trump calls Somalis garbage, he is calling God a creator of garbage. Trump thinks he’s insulting Somalis, and he is — but he is also insulting God, who created Somalis in God’s own image. After creating them, God blesses the newly made humans and commissions them to “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the Earth and subdue it.” Like many Americans, Trump believes that the United States is both the center and hope of the world, but Genesis teaches that God is. No place on earth is God-forsaken. No one made in the image of God is garbage.
As Christians light Advent candles and set up nativity scenes in anticipation of Christmas, it is important to remember that the story of Jesus doesn’t begin with his birth or even the angelic revelation to his parents. The Gospel of John begins with the declaration that Jesus is the word of God through which “all things were made and without him nothing was made that has been made.” Jesus “was with God in the beginning” because he is the word spoken by God which spun creation out of chaos. On Christmas Eve, we will gather to worship and light the Christ candle and declare that in Jesus “was life and that life was the light of all humanity.”
At Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation, the son of God being born, not among a rich, powerful and privileged people, but among the poor, powerless and dispossessed. Jesus was born in the kind of place and among the kind of people our president calls garbage. Those who call Jesus savior will never normalize or rationalize language that dehumanizes those created in his image and desecrates the world he came to save.
Kate Murphy is pastor at The Grove Presbyterian Church in Charlotte and author of “Lost, Hidden, Small.”
From time to time, you read here in this space, my quest, goal, or challenge to define the work that accompanies the faith of a saved Christian. I believe that faith is a verb of a saved Christian. Faith is a verb, and action is the next logical step of a professed follower of Jesus Christ. My dilemma sometimes has been to determine just what it is that I’ve been called to do. What church should I join? What ministry should I participate in? What pastor should I follow? Invariably, when I have prayed on this for guidance, the Lord has a way of reminding me that these are my issues and not His. What church I attend, what pastor I listen to, and what so-called ministry I participate in do not matter to the Almighty. What does matter, He constantly reminds me, is service to my fellow man in His name. Instead of focusing on what to do and which way to go, I should ask God for the opportunity to serve, witness, and expand the knowledge of Him through me.
I am now convinced that whenever I struggle in the real world, trying to determine if I’m doing this thing right, I am falling prey to, allowing, if you will, the devil to do his thing. His thing is confusion. The more confused I am, the less I’ll do in God’s name, afraid to do the wrong thing. You see, Satan wins if nothing gets done. Each and every time I allow myself to take over, I lose. The prayer to God must first submit all things to His will and respond accordingly to what comes next. What comes next is the work. What comes next is what God would have you do. The answer is understanding that the job of being a Christian is to let go and let God. The hard part is letting go. The easy part, once you’ve done that, is then and only then to recognize that God will give you something to do. Not only will He give you something to do, He will also give you the means to accomplish it.
Every time I get lost in my walk, I, by now, have enough sense to stop and ask directions from the Creator. I generally get what I’ve asked for each time I do this. Like Christ turning over tables in the temple, the point is doing God’s work, not getting hung up on the definition, parameters, or the name of the work. You know, Jesus spent a lifetime trying to get people to relate to the spirit of the law, rather than the rule of the law. Bingo! That’s it. The spirit of God’s law demands that we remain open to the possibility that we can, will be, and must be used in His service. We must give Him all the honor and all the glory. Faith prepares you for this. Faith molds you for this. Faith gives purpose and intent. Through this faith, God provides circumstances and opportunity. The rest is up to us. Just remember there is a way out when you get confused, lost, or overwhelmed. Treat the next person you meet, and deal with the next circumstance you encounter as sent by God to allow you to put your faith in His hands. Christ has already guaranteed the outcome. Let go and let God. The rest is given.
It’s a massive, unsightly hole in the ground — the site of a construction project in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea whose previous owners ran out of money six years ago, leaving behind nothing but concrete, rebar and hard feelings.
In 2020, The Pit was purchased by Patrice Pastor, a billionaire real estate developer from the tiny European nation of Monaco, for $9 million.
Last year, he plopped down $22 million for a much prettier property: Cabin on the Rocks, the only oceanfront home ever designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Jeff Becom, president of the board of the Carmel Art Assn., stands next to the construction eyesore known as “The Pit” in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
And in mid-June, he got approval from the California Coastal Commission for his “visionary plan” to restore public access at Rocky Point, a seaside property he bought for $8 million in nearby Big Sur with views of the iconic Bixby Bridge.
Pastor has been on a buying spree in and around Carmel-by-the-Sea, dropping more than $100 million on at least 18 properties over the last decade. So much so that his presence has become a source of intrigue, and for some, downright suspicion, in this moneyed one-square-mile town of 3,200 people.
Pastor bought the Hog’s Breath Building, the site of the pub once owned by actor Clint Eastwood. He bought the L’Auberge Carmel hotel, which houses a Michelin star restaurant. He snapped up the Der Ling building, a 1924 shop, done in fairytale-style architecture next to a stone pathway leading to a hidden garden.
“When someone comes in with so much money and can use that money for influence on so many things, that’s … scary in any community,” said Dee Borsella, who owns a custom pajama shop across from The Pit. “Every person has the right to do this. But why is he picking Carmel?”
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1.A visitor walks through the central courtyard of Der Ling Lane.2.The Bingham Building on Dolores Street, reflected in a storefront window.3.The Rocky Point Restaurant, one of the latest purchases by Monaco billionaire Patrice Pastor, rests on a bluff high above the Pacific Ocean in Big Sur.
Pastor is the scion of a powerful real estate family that built much of mega-rich Monaco, a dense, one-square-mile nation on the French Riviera.
He says he first came to Carmel-by-the-Sea at age 7 during a trip with his father, and that he had never seen his dad more relaxed. The memory stuck with him. He now owns multiple homes in town and visits several times a year.
“It’s not like he picked up a book one day and was like, ‘Let me find the best place to invest.’ It’s that he personally loves it here,’” said Claire Totten, a spokeswoman for Esperanza Carmel LLC, the local branch of his international real estate company.
Still, Pastor has created quite the buzz in this gracefully aging town where, according to Zillow, the typical home price is $2.2 million.
During a scuffle last summer, the city administrator took a swing at an art gallery owner who accused local officials of being xenophobic for slowing one of Pastor’s projects. And the billionaire’s local real estate portfolio burst into international headlines this year after an article by SF Gate quoted an anonymous business owner who said people were “terrified” of his intentions.
Soon afterward, Pastor showed up to a City Council meeting via Zoom and said he would “like to inform those who feel terrified by my presence” that he would be in town a few days later: “So I suggest they either take a vacation during this period or come and meet me for a relaxation class.”
Pastor — who, according to the French newspaper Le Monde, has squabbled over lucrative development contracts with associates of Monaco’s Prince Albert II — has more humble antagonists in Carmel-by-the-Sea: the City Council, the Planning Commission and the Historic Resources Board.
The city has rejected several of his design proposals, including two for The Pit.
Development — including upgrades to private homes — is notoriously slow here. The city strictly regulates architecture to maintain the so-called village character of this woodsy place. Carmel uses no street addresses (people give their homes whimsical names instead), and has no streetlights or sidewalks in residential areas.
The Mrs. Clinton Walker House is the the only oceanfront home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Eastwood, who was mayor in the 1980s, got involved in local politics after fighting with the City Council over what he said were unreasonable restrictions on the design of an office building he wanted to erect. Pastor now owns that building.
Pastor “loves that it’s a bit idiosyncratic,” Totten said. “Carmel is a little bit etched in time. The world moves on, but Carmel is still Carmel.”
Pastor’s local defenders question whether he is being discriminated against because he is too rich.
“He’s had a hard time with the city,” said Karyl Hall, co-chair of the Carmel Preservation Assn. “It’s one thing after another after another. They’ve just beaten him down incredibly.”
“There’s no question that he gets more scrutiny,” said Tim Allen, a real estate agent who has handled most of Pastor’s local purchases, including the Frank Lloyd Wright residence, also known as the Mrs. Clinton Walker House.
Completed in 1952 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the architectural jewel had been kept within the original owner’s family until Pastor bought it in February 2023. The 1,400-square-foot house, on a rocky bluff jutting into Carmel Bay, has a hexagonal living room and stone masonry walls shaped like a ship’s prow cutting through the waves.
In a 1945 letter to Wright, artist Della Walker wrote: “I am a woman living alone — I wish protection from the wind and privacy from the road and a house as enduring as the rocks but as transparent and charming as the waves and as delicate as a seashore. You are the only man who can do this — will you help me?”
The architect replied: “Dear Mrs. Walker: I liked your letter, brief and to the point.”
“There’s no question that he gets more scrutiny,” real estate agent Tim Allen says of Monaco billionaire Patrice Pastor, whose land purchases in Carmel-by-the-Sea have generated suspicion.
Allen said Pastor’s purchase includes the original furniture, because “he’s buying a piece of history” — albeit one that “needs a ton of work,” including an expensive new roof.
Last spring, Esperanza Carmel LLC, applied for a Mills Act contract for the site, a tax break for owners of historic properties who commit to restoring and preserving them. Although the City Council had approved such a contract for the home’s previous owner, some council members balked at giving the tax break — a saving of an estimated $1.5 million over 10 years — to Pastor and postponed a decision for several months.
One resident, in a letter to the City Council, wrote: “I doubt the applicant is in financial hardship … I’m not in favor of giving handouts to ultra wealthy property owners.”
Before the council approved the tax break this spring, city officials tried to persuade Pastor to give public tours of the house and to make direct payments to local schools (which are partly funded by property taxes) — requests not made of applicants for other properties. Pastor refused.
Via Zoom, Pastor told the council he would “maintain this wonderful house in perfect condition, even if only to continue to bother those jealous people who will never have access to it.”
City officials are waging another only-in-Carmel fight with Pastor over a mixed-use development and subterranean parking garage on Dolores Street that he has been trying to build for more than three years.
Plans submitted to the city in 2021 called for the demolition of a former bank annex once used as a community room. Because it was less than 50 years old, it did not qualify as a historic structure — but after it turned 50 in October 2022, the Carmel Historic Resources Board voted to add it to the city’s historic resources list.
Pastor agreed to build around the annex.
Then, another issue arose: The project would require the removal of a small concrete wall, decorated with exposed aggregate and inlaid rocks, built in 1972 by a man local historians dubbed the “father of stamped concrete.”
The City Council last fall said the wall was too important to be moved and sent Pastor’s company back to the drawing board.
Allen, the real estate agent, decried the delays as petty grievances. Pastor’s proposed developments, he said, will add apartments, parking and public restrooms — all of which are sorely needed.
Carmel-by-the-Sea relies on the tourists drawn to its cottages, courtyards and secret passageways.
Carmel-by-the-Sea strictly regulates development to maintain its village character. The city uses no street addresses. Instead, people give their homes whimsical names.
“He doesn’t just buy to terrorize people,” Allen said. “He buys because it’s a good investment.”
Mayor Dave Potter said it is tough for anybody to build here and that Pastor is being treated fairly.
“We pride ourselves on our uniqueness,” he said. “You don’t get to just come in and build whatever you want. We don’t care if you’re a movie star or a mega-millionaire. You have to play by the same rules everybody else does.”
Hall and Neal Kruse, co-chairs of the grassroots Carmel Preservation Assn., are adamant, if surprising, supporters of Pastor.
They believe modern architecture — which they describe as ‘Anywhere, USA’ buildings with sterile facades and box-like structures — poses an existential threat to Carmel-by-the-Sea, which depends on tourists drawn to its cottages, courtyards and secret passageways.
Hall, a retired research psychologist, said she talks regularly with Pastor, whom she described as “so nice, so charming and so heartfelt,” and noted that he has several modern-architecture projects in the works overseas.
“He said, ‘Karyl, you’d hate them,’” she said, laughing.
Hall and Kruse started the preservation association in response to the first proposal for The Pit, a contemporary design approved by the Planning Commission for the previous owners. They called that planned edifice “the ice box.”
Hall said they were heartened by Pastor, who proposed more traditional buildings for The Pit.
Longtime residents “remember Carmel, and we remember the sacredness of it and why people come here,” said Kruse, an architectural designer. “We’re the ones that are largely concerned about the loss of character. But Patrice played a central role in reassuring the residents that he would help that not happen.”
Karyl Hall, left, and Neal Kruse started the Carmel Preservation Assn. Longtime residents “remember Carmel, and we remember the sacredness of it and why people come here,” Kruse says.
Over more than two years, the Planning Commission rejected two Esperanza Carmel designs for The Pit before approving a third last August for a mixed-use project with apartments, stores and an underground parking garage. Construction has not yet begun.
The 91-year home of the Carmel Art Assn. — of which surrealist painter Salvador Dali was a member — is next door to The Pit. The demolition of two buildings there, which started in 2017, caused the art gallery to shift so much that it damaged its new roof, which started “leaking all over the place,” said Jeff Becom, president of the art association’s board.
“It’s on a sand dune. You dig a big hole and you vibrate it for several weeks, it starts to slip,” Becom said. “It’s an important place, and we didn’t want it to fall into The Pit.”
With Pastor’s plans, “I have much more hope than I’ve had for some time,” he said.
Across the street, Borsella, owner of the sleepwear shop Ruffle Me to Sleep, is more dubious. She keeps prints of the architectural designs tucked under colorful tissue paper because customers ask her about The Pit every day.
Dee Borsella, owner of Ruffle Me to Sleep, says Patrice Pastor seems to be on a charm offensive “to ease the collective opinion that somebody’s invading our property, our town.”
Borsella, who used to work in one of the now-demolished buildings, thinks Pastor’s planned complex is too big. She doesn’t like its mezzanine. And she does not think the city should compromise its building standards just because people are sick of looking at a hole in the ground.
Pastor, she said, seems to be on a charm offensive “to ease the collective opinion that somebody’s invading our property, our town.” A few weeks ago, he stopped in her shop to introduce himself.
“I’m a bit of a lion,” she said. “I knew he was kind of trying to come over and pet me. I felt like he was trying to win me over.”
In 2021, Pastor bought another coastal gem in Big Sur, about 10 miles south of Carmel-by-the-Sea: a 2.5-acre cliffside parcel off Highway 1 occupied by the closed Rocky Point Restaurant.
Pastor inherited a slew of issues with the land, including investigations by the California Coastal Commission into unpermitted development by the previous owners and the use of locked gates and “No Trespassing” signs to block access to public land.
The Coastal Commission struck a deal with Pastor to clear the violations and potential fines if he restores the poison oak-covered bluffs and trails and removes the gates. Pastor also agreed to add public bathrooms, parking and electric vehicle chargers.
The deal is limited to clearing the violations — not the redevelopment or reopening of the restaurant.
Jeff Davisson takes in the view from a bluff on Rocky Point in Big Sur.
On a recent blue-sky Monday, Jay Davisson, chief executive of a Carmel-by-the-Sea luxury home-building firm, led family members visiting from Detroit and Tampa, Fla., to a bluff top on the property where they could see the Bixby Bridge.
Davisson, who recently moved to Carmel from Atlanta, said he considered buying Rocky Point, but it was “a little too expensive.” He loves Pastor’s plans to restore access — and has been closely following the news and scuttlebutt about his other purchases.
In such a small town, he said, “everybody talks. But I like the fact that it’s growing.”
Less than a week after one prominent Dallas megachurch pastor stepped down following decades in the pulpit because of “old sin,” another, arguably more powerful pastor from North Texas is under fire for sin from his past. Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church, a Southlake church with a number of locations throughout North Texas, has admitted to sexual impropriety…
Earlier this month, the National Restaurant Association Show descended upon Chicago, with hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of attendees converging at McCormick Place for the unveiling of the latest innovations in restaurant dining. The annual Product Showcase featured food service items of all kinds, and the Food and Beverage (FABI) Awards provided an overview of what’s trending in the restaurant space from year to year. In 2024, Chicago’s own Grecian Delight Kronos earned top honors with the debut of a new product that might raise some eyebrows in Chicago’s restaurant scene: ReadyCarved Pork Al Pastor Slices, a heat-and-serve version of the seasoned taqueria specialty.
Entrepreneur Peter Parthenis founded Kronos, a global manufacturer established in Chicago in 1974 that’s historically focused on Greek food. Parthenis, according to the Kronos website, aimed to “bring the gyro sandwich and other traditional Greek foods from the restaurants of Halsted Street in Chicago to consumers across the United States.” In partnership with Chris Tomaras, Parthenis expanded Kronos’ portfolio of Mediterranean cuisine, and in 2020 Kronos merged with another name familiar to regulars at Chicago street food stands, Grecian Delight. The brand’s offerings now encompass the more general category of “inspired world cuisine,” hence the addition of al pastor.
Award-winning meat.Grecian Delight Kronos
Al pastor, available across the city at taquerias and Mexican restaurants, is a dish consisting of pork marinated in a mix of pineapple, spices, and chiles and grilled on a spit for hours. The new al pastor product from Grecian Delight Kronos (GDK), meanwhile, doesn’t require restaurants to use a spit at all.
“ReadyCarved® Pork Al Pastor is a culinary breakthrough in operator convenience and flavor authenticity,” the press release reads in part. “Marinated and vacuum-tumbled, then hand-stacked on a large industrial-sized vertical spit, flame-broiled rotisserie style, and robotically carved off the cone, this fully cooked delicacy offers operators a convenient way to serve genuine Hispanic street food using a wide range of standard kitchen equipment — no special equipment needed, simply heat and serve.” The slices are “flame-broiled to a partial cook and individually quick frozen” so that they can be prepared using a restaurant’s flattop, oven, or “even a microwave.”
Al pastor has Middle Eastern roots and was developed in Mexico in the early 20th century using Turkish doner kebab and Lebanese shawarma techniques as its inspiration, and these foods share a common root with Greek gyros. So, how does GDK’s al pastor compare to that of Chicago’s beloved taquerias? It might depend on what protein the company starts with.
“We get our pork from D’Artagnan,” says Angel Guijosa, chef de cuisine at Taqueria Chingón in Bucktown, which specializes in al pastor. “A heritage pork shoulder. You see the difference: It’s very tender and absorbs a lot of flavor.”
To build those flavors, Guijosa explained, the meat is thinly sliced and marinated in “our crazy, 20-something-ingredient marinade,” then refrigerated overnight. Slices are pulled out only as needed, allowing the remaining pork to continue marinating. Early in the morning, the spit (or trompo) is assembled, weighing 5 to 70 pounds, depending on the day of the week and the anticipated foot traffic.
“You’re going in layers as you’re building up,” Guijosa says. “Lean meat, fat, lean meat, fat. We finish with fresh pineapple and an onion, to keep that Mexican street-style tradition.” Before serving, the spit spends at least three hours on the heat, low and slow, with direct flame on the exterior, melting the fat and gaining a crispy texture while the inside remains tender. To assemble one al pastor taco, the cook slices off between 2.5 and 3 ounces of pork from the trompo — “a hefty amount of meat for a taco,” according to Guijosa — then adds fresh pineapple, onion, cilantro, and two types of salsa on the side. It’s among the most labor-intensive items on the menu at Taqueria Chingón.
“But the quality is there,” Guijosa says. “We wouldn’t really have a designated prep cook just for that if we didn’t know the result would be there. It speaks for itself, I like to say.”
Not only has GDK won a 2024 award for ReadyCarved Pork Al Pastor Slices, but it has won the coveted designation of being one of 10 FABI Favorites, which is described as “special recognition to food and beverage products that excel within an already extraordinary lineup, exemplifying creativity, ingenuity, and the ability to expand menu options industry-wide.” Though his own process is far from the heat-and-serve simplicity promised by Kronos, Guijosa remains open-minded about its arrival at Chicago restaurants.
“I don’t want to knock it down, because I haven’t tasted it,” he said. “As long as your product tastes good, and it’s consistent — I mean, I love a good Kronos pita with gyro. It tastes the same every time, so you know what you’re getting. As long as [the al pastor is] good, I don’t see a problem.”
Just one caveat: the price point.
“Just make sure that the marketing is there, and the price too. Sometimes there’s fluctuation between different purveyors, different companies. Where are they sourcing their pork from? Over the last few years, especially now, we’ve seen an increase in everything. So I think that’s the big issue: Make sure the price stays consistent, that the consumer is going to say, ‘You know what? This is good. I’m going to keep ordering this from you every week.’”
Drivers and Big Sur visitors will soon gain access to more breathtaking views of the Bixby Bridge and rugged bluffs of Highway 1 along California’s central coast under a recent deal between state regulators and a Monaco billionaire to open an iconic piece of cliff-side property to the public.
The California Coastal Commission and Rocky Point owner Patrice Pastor landed an agreement last month to open the 2.5-acre seaside parcel to the public in exchange for clearing violations related to unapproved construction and property changes made by the former owners.
Pastor’s real estate company, Esperanza Carmel, purchased the Big Sur property, most notably the site of the since-shuttered Rocky Point Restaurant, for $8 million in 2021, according to the Mercury News, with plans to open a high-end 166-seat restaurant and 14-room inn with views of some of California’s most beautiful terrain.
But Pastor inherited a slew of issues with the land, including investigations by the coastal commission into infrastructural changes made to the “environmentally sensitive habitat” by its former owners without approval. The owners also had limited public access to the land with “no trespassing” signs and locked gates, according to the Mercury.
The cliff-side restaurant, located about 10 miles south of the charming coastal town Carmel-by-the-Sea, boasted panoramic views of the awe-inspiring scenery along Highway 1, where visitors could “catch a glimpse of playful sea-otters, dolphins, seals, and many whales as they migrate up the coast.” It closed in 2020 during COVID.
The coastal commission agreed to clear violations and any potential fines if Pastor committed to making property improvements and guaranteeing development rights to the surrounding bluffs. He also agreed to replace the “no trespassing” signs with those signaling public access, and said he would improve trail access and add bathrooms and significant parking space. The agreement was signed May 17, the Mercury reported.
Pastor, a billionaire from Monaco who has in recent years purchased several properties in Carmel, bought the Big Sur land with ambitions to develop the property and open a restaurant, inn and visitor center. The agreement is limited to clearing the violations and guaranteeing public access, but could eventually make it easier for Pastor to earn approval for the redevelopment plans.
Esperanza Carmel did not return requests for comment.
He would find a rape suspect not guilty if the victim wore shorts or a short dress, the Rev. Bobby Leonard of Bible Baptist Tabernacle in Monroe said in the sermon.
“If you dress like that and you get raped and I’m on the jury, he’s going to go free,” Leonard said in the sermon last summer that only recently circulated on social media.
“I was pissed,” Nichole, 34, said. “This is 2024.”
Beliefs ‘don’t fit in 2024’
Nicole said she was sexually assaulted in 2010 at age 20.
To highlight the falsity and absurdity of Leonard’s claim, Nichole said she was wearing blue jeans when she was attacked.
Nichole said she attended the church’s Tabernacle Christian School for three years. Her grandfather was good friends with Leonard, she said. Her family couldn’t afford the school, and Leonard let her attend for free.
“Pastor Leonard is a very good man,” she said. “He’s very strong in his convictions. But some of the things he believes in don’t fit into 2024.”
She said she’ll join a planned protest outside the church on Sunday morning with her 12-year-old daughter, Aubree Sapp. She hopes her daughter will learn “the importance of speaking out” against injustice, she said.
“A man’s a man”
“I told my wife, this is the kind of preaching we need,” Leonard said in his sermon, according to a recording of the sermon reviewed by The Charlotte Observer. “I told my wife, ‘Momma, when we go to Pigeon Forge, to the outlet mall here and sit in the parking lot, you’ll find more women going to have shorts on than pants and dresses put together.’”
“And you don’t like that, do you?” Leonard told his congregation after saying what he’d do as a juror in a rape case. “I’m right though, I can’t help you that I’m right, because a man’s a man.
“When I was a boy, 85 years ago, 80 years ago, I was raised in an apartment in Mocksville, North Carolina, I don’t remember women wearing anything but dresses,” Leonard said.
“I don’t want you to go home depressed tonight,” Leonard told his congregation, according to the recording. “I’d rather you go home encouraged, but I want you to go home wanting to serve God. But it seems like we pay no attention to God. Isn’t that right?”
Leonard didn’t reply to a message from the Observer on Friday left through the church website. The church voice mailbox was full, and the phone number doesn’t accept text messages.
Protest prompts apology
Wadesboro resident Jason King led a protest outside the church during its service on Wednesday night, Feb. 21. King posted a video on Facebook of the protest and plans a second one at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
“You can’t stand behind a pulpit … and teach the word of God and claim that you believe it OK for people to go around raping people for what they wear,” King said.
“We got signs made up out here that say ‘Repent, Turn Back to God,’ and ’Matthew 7: 15-16,’” King said in the video. “A false prophet. How do you know a false prophet? You tell them by their fruits.
“We are fruit inspectors, and I’m telling you what he said behind the pulpit was not good fruits,” King said. “It was very unsettling and as a man behind the pulpit, it brings a reproach on God. And we’re out here tonight hoping that Bobby Leonard will repent.”
The protest prompted an apology from Leonard on a sign outside the church, Observer news partner WSOC reported.
Pastor Bobby Leonard apologized on a sign outside his North Carolina church after video spread on Facebook of his comments during a sermon blaming sexual assault victims who wore shorts or short dresses. WSOC
“I am sorry for any hurt, I was wrong,” Leonard said on the message sign.
This story was originally published February 24, 2024, 9:55 AM.
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Joe Marusak has been a reporter for The Charlotte Observer since 1989 covering the people, municipalities and major news events of the region, and was a news bureau editor for the paper. He currently reports on breaking news. Support my work with a digital subscription
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa, December 9, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Presidential candidate Ryan Binkley took the stage before Vivek Ramaswamy and Ambassador Nikki Haley and after Governor Ron DeSantis at the highly anticipated Faith & Family with the Feenstras forum Saturday, Dec. 9, at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa. No other candidates were present.
“We’re looking to make a strong finish in the next five weeks,” Binkley said. “We’re looking to finish in the top five in the Iowa caucuses in January. We’re going to keep pushing ahead.”
Binkley is on the Republican primary ballot in South Carolina, Idaho and Hawaii – all states where one candidate missed the filing deadline – and Maine, where another candidate did not qualify for the ballot. While one of his rivals has not campaigned in Iowa, Binkley was the first candidate to meet with voters in all 99 Iowa counties, referred to as the Full Grassley tour named for Sen. Chuck Grassley who popularized the tradition. Unlike some candidates, Binkley has focused his campaign on uniting Americans and reducing federal debt rather than adding to it.
“Republicans have spent as much money in the last 40 years as Democrats, just on different things,” Binkley said. “It’s time we change that.”
Unlike any of the candidates at Saturday’s faith-based event, Binkley is a pastor who has devoted years of his life to ministry. As the co-founder of Create Church with his wife, Ellie, and the father of five children, including an adopted child, Binkley epitomizes faith and family – the topics that Feenstra and his wife, Lynette, discussed with the four key presidential candidates and their wives or children in front of an audience of hundreds of Republicans.
Binkley has more than 80,000 unique donors who have contributed to his campaign, and he landed in sixth place ahead of Hutchinson in a recent national poll, where he surpassed Christie among millennials.
Binkley’s stature continues to rise as the field narrows, from 15 Republican presidential candidates in the summer to seven, including two who are not spending the time, resources and more than $600,000 in filing fees to get on the ballot in all 50 states and five U.S. territories as Binkley is.
Members of the media are invited to follow Binkley on the campaign trail, view his online press kit, and schedule a one-on-one interview by contacting his campaign press office at press@Binkley2024.com or 214-494-1792.
Pastor Julie Green, a self-proclaimed prophet and a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement, claimed in a recent video that she received a prophecy from God about “dark connections” to President Joe Biden.
In the message posted on Monday, Green said God indicated he would “expose” these connections to the White House, which she said involves “the Red Dragon” [seemingly China], Iran, Iraq, Ukraine and Canada.
Green frequently posts videos on streaming channels for her Julie Green Ministries International in which she shares messages that she claims God sends to her. Last month, she said in a video “prophecy” that the U.S. would soon suffer a major “attack” following the “persecution” of Trump.
Green has been a featured speaker at right-wing ReAwaken America events, which have also featured guests such as former Trump adviser Michael Flynn and Eric Trump, one of the former president’s sons. The younger Trump appeared on Green’s show in September, where she told him that messages from God to her indicated the Trump family is receiving God’s protection.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. A self-described prophet claimed she recently received a prophecy about “dark connections” related to Biden being revealed. Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
During her Monday message, Green spoke of a “greater weakness” in the “house you call white” and with “the one who’s sitting in a seat that doesn’t belong to him,” seemingly referring to Biden.
“I’ve told you I’ve cut the string from the puppet master and the puppet, so soon you’re about to see the puppet fall in greater ways,” she said.
The pastor then spoke of “great confusion … in the enemy’s camp” and said “he’s about to say again who’s really in charge and it’s not him.”
“For I will expose, oh yes, I will expose the tentacles that have been controlling the Biden. I will expose all the deep swamp are trying to do to you in this hour,” Green said.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the White House and Green via email on Thursday.
She continued by speaking of “foreign governments in foreign nations” being allowed to “infiltrate” the U.S. government. Green then further relayed the message she said was from God about exposing “every foreign entity in Washington, D.C.”
After running down the list of foreign governments such as Iran and Ukraine, Green emphasized America’s neighbor to the north.
“You will see connections to Canada. Evil dark connections with this deep state … The swamp runs far and wide,” Green said. “The roots of these nations connect in DC. I will show you each country. I will show you each government. I will show you each person. I will show you all the money.”
The message that Green said came from God then turned to the entertainment industry.
“I will show you what Hollywood has done. How they’ve had a major part in what you see in this great, evil movie that you have seen played before you like it’s real when it’s actually not.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
The mother of an accused murderer in Florida believes that her son was overtaken by “demonic spirits.”
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) said the body of 20-year-old Roderick Wilson, Jr. was found with multiple gunshot wounds early Sunday morning in the parking lot of the Pentecostal Church of God in Winter Haven, where the victim’s father is a pastor. Florida has the 27th-highest rate of gun deaths in the United States, according to Every Town.
Taquion “Quan” Cotton, 22, who lives a couple of streets away from the church, was identified as the suspect and arrested on the following felony charges: first-degree murder, burglary with battery, kidnapping, battery-domestic with prior conviction, harassing in a felony proceeding, resisting with violence, tampering with physical evidence, discharging a firearm in a residential area, and resisting without violence.
“I’m devastated. Very devastated about this situation,” Cotton’s mother, Shavon Sheffield, said according to local CBS affiliate WTSP in St. Peterburg. “He opened up a demonic spirit that he can’t control. I don’t believe the video or whatever they showed me looked like my son. I asked to see other angles and they wouldn’t show me.”
Taquion “Quan” Cotton (L), 22, has been arrested for multiple felony charges including first-degree murder for allegedly killing 20-year-old Roderick Wilson, Jr. on Sunday in a church parking lot in Winter Haven, Florida. Cotton has a long criminal history. Police are still trying to determine the motive and to locate the firearm used in the shooting. Polk County Sheriff’s Office
Members of PCSO’s homicide and crime scene investigation units have conducted multiple witness interviews and pieces of evidence relating to the incident. The murder was reportedly captured by nearby surveillance footage.
“Regarding the video of the murder, we haven’t shared it publicly yet as detectives are still hoping to speak to additional witnesses,” PCSO public information officer Brian Bruchey told Newsweek via email.
He did not respond to the statements made by Cotton’s mother regarding being possessed by demons, and other PSCO officials have publicly stated that it remains unclear what led to the altercation and eventual shooting death.
“Detectives are still trying to determine Taquion Cotton’s motivation to commit this murder,” PCSO Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference on Monday. “At this time, there is no indication the two men knew each other prior to tonight. Despite the murderer being locked up, there is still work to be done.”
Cotton and Wilson reportedly exchanged words and a shoving altercation ensued prior to a gun being pulled out and used, Judd added.
The firearm used in the homicide has still not been recovered.
The body of Wilson Jr., who had been living in an apartment on church property, was reportedly discovered by a passerby at about 1:57 a.m. Judd said multiple vehicles drove by around the time of the incident, publicly requesting for them to come forward as witnesses.
PCSO said Cotton was found on Sunday afternoon during an area search affiliated with the homicide.
Cotton was reportedly spotted in a roadway not far from the crime scene, prompting the suspect to flee to a nearby residence where he allegedly battered a woman and put her in a chokehold so he could gain entry.
Sheffield reportedly ran to the woman’s aid and attempted to help deputies apprehend her son. Cotton allegedly bit his mother, leading deputies to use a taser to subdue him.
After he was apprehended, Cotton reportedly yelled for his mother to not press charges against him for biting.
“It’s never going to be the same,” Emily Pringle, the mother of Wilson, told WTSP on Monday. “I don’t have my baby.”
Newsweek reached out to Wilson Sr. and the Pentecostal Church via email for comment.
Cotton’s previous criminal history includes 11 felonies and 9 misdemeanors consisting of the following charges: attempted murder, aggravated battery on a pregnant victim, burglaries, thefts, batteries, drug and weapons violations, and resisting.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
RIVERSIDE, Calif., June 4, 2018 (Newswire.com)
– Dr. Norman Quintero has established in his public policy platform strategies to combat discrimination based on one’s religion. Pastor Quintero’s initiative has the purpose of protecting human values and defending the fundamental freedom to exercise an individual’s faith. Based on faith as a creator of acts of justice, mercy and tolerance, Dr. Quintero recognizes and enforces the work of people of faith and religious organizations and supports that work where possible.
“As a man of faith and respectful of the law, different forms of faith should have a space in the community and should be respected,” said Quintero.
Cities and communities deserve people in public positions with the knowledge and awareness of the dangers of discrimination in all its ways.
Dr Norman Quintero, Pastor
Also, Dr. Quintero denounces the dangers of religious discrimination. According to Quintero, also a mental health specialist, for years religious discrimination has created unequal treatment of an individual or group based on their beliefs or on the other hand, can create favoritism for a specific religious group or denomination.
“Religious discrimination unchains a series of dangerous events disrupting the stability of a diverse ethnic community, like attempts to eliminate religious groups, prohibition of worship or practice of certain beliefs, harassment over religious dress and more. It can be perpetrated by individuals, governments, at workplaces, in communities or even schools,” conclude Quintero.
Despite the fact that Senior Pastor Dr. Norman Quintero preaches in his own church Gethsemane in California, Quintero strongly believes that religious discrimination is a social attitude that segregates people.
“I know that our nation, our communities and our lives are made vastly stronger and richer by faith and the countless acts of justice, mercy and tolerance it inspires. I also strongly believe in the power of national service to solve problems and break down barriers by bringing people of all backgrounds together in common purpose. National service expands opportunity for people across America, strengthening our communities and our country. And those who serve earn education awards that they can use for college while building valuable work skills,” said Dr. Quintero.
“Cities and communities deserve people in public positions with the knowledge and awareness of the dangers of discrimination in all its ways,” concludes Dr. Norman Quintero.
ABOUT NORMAN QUINTERO:
Dr. Norman Quintero was born on the Island of Puerto Rico and holds two doctorate degrees. He is a licensed real estate broker in Florida and California where he is also a mental health clinician in the City of Menifee. He owns Hispanic radio and television networks that reach more than nine million people daily and hosts a nationwide television show each week. He is also the senior pastor of Iglesia Getsemani located in Orange County, California. For more than 20 years, he has created charitable programs that now feed more than 100,000 low-income, homeless and veterans, and that have provided toys to nearly one million children.
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 27, 2018 (Newswire.com)
– A 25-year-old woman was found dead at a lodging in Hwasun, South Korea; a victim of a coercive conversion program. CheonJi-News reported the confirmed investigation from the Hwasung police stating the autopsy showing the possibility of suffocation and a high possibility of cardiopulmonary arrest due to oxygen deprivation. After this incident, protesting to bring awareness of Human rights violation and discrimination of religious freedom took place and petitioning for the protection of religious freedom protected by the Constitution of South Korea, Article 20 started.
Sunday, January 28, Cheonji-News reported 140,000 people attending a protest in Seoul speaking against Coercive Conversion Education. The purpose of the demonstrations is to bring awareness of the situation and to petition for a legal framework criminalizing religion-based violence. According to the Korean Civil Society NGO, Human Rights Association for Forced Conversion (HAC), Coercive Conversion Education was performed on more than 1,000 individuals, by a group of Korean pastors. Organizations such as the Association of Victims of Coercive Conversion Programs (AVCCP) have reached out to international human rights groups to spread awareness. Through the petition, all branches of the HAC within many countries have gone out nationwide spreading awareness to citizens, organizations, and media as well as to the United Nations.
After the January 28 event, a Ban on the coercive conversion education has become a viral sensation, continuing to spread across the world and Human rights organizations across the nation are coming together with other organizations and groups from multiple countries, such as, the Philippines, Germany, Japan, Australia, Uganda, Kenya, Netherlands, France, Malaysia, China, and United States. Washington DC, New York City, and California all led a demonstration and the newly establish HAC of San Francisco and San Jose took part in this growing movement by practicing their rights of Freedom of Speech bringing awareness of the Forced Conversion of Religion and Human rights Violation at the San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge. Since the effect of the discrimination and the practice of the Coercive Conversion is becoming more revealed, how can we allow this to continue and to be ignored? That is why the solidarity displayed through these events will be heard all over the world.
