From what I’ve seen in the Tulsa World, yesterday’s Veterans’ Day parade went off almost without a hitch. In retrospect, it was a clever move to put the Oklahoma Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations right next to the city police at the end of the parade lineup, just in case some nutters came along to interfere with the Muslim group. Such as this unknown Bocephus impersonator:
Muslim group's first time in #VeteransDay parade met with sporadic protests amid support https://t.co/8nXIu1QT2v pic.twitter.com/t8NSfRFPrg
— Tulsa World (@tulsaworld) November 12, 2015
Other anti-Muslim protestors were less disruptive and more expressive, such as the fellow holding a 5-foot tall banner reading “JESUS CHRIST, God manifested in the flesh, CRUCIFIED, RESURRECTED, And Coming Again Has a Pressure Cooker (The Lake of Fire) For Every Dead MUSLIM!”
Kuma Roberts offering words of support to @cairoklahoma as Jim Gilles protests them at #tulsa #VeteransDay parade pic.twitter.com/aMGmj4DXDM
— Mike Simons (@mikesimonsphoto) November 11, 2015
This appears to be one James “Brother Jim” Gilles, a man known for his fairly ranty style of open-air preaching, who was last spotted in Oklahoma City shouting at Muslims for daring to show up to the State Capitol. (The man in the hot dog suit remains unidentified as of this time; one must assume there is a plump and juicy story to be had there for any hungry young reporter who cares to sink their teeth in.)
Even without the inexplicable and bizarrely unseasonal costume, there is a “news of the weird” feel to this, as there is bound to be whenever someone shows up from one Abrahamic religion to tell members of another Abrahamic religion that the one true God (in which they all believe) is going to send them to hell (in which they all believe). Then again, I grew up around Southern Baptists who honestly believed all Catholics were doomed to hell, though they were generally polite enough not to go waving signs to that effect in front of the Knights of Columbus as they marched by.
Well, at least we can say that skeptics and freethinkers are not overly troubled by the need to be seen publicly damning each other over irreconcilable doctrinal differences. 😉
