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Complaints prompt water park to end discounts for church groups
Fox News ^ | 8/13/12 | Mike Jaccarino

Posted on 08/14/2012 9:04:10 AM PDT by Impala64ssa

Now, no one gets the discount.

A water park in the heart of the Bible Belt is ending the $5-per-person discount it had been offering on its entrance fee to church groups after the head of a secular charity that caters to inner-city youths requested the same deal for its kids.

The Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock, Ark., had been knocking a few dollars off the price of admission for people who came to the park with their church group. The entrance fee was lowered 50 percent to $5 for children who came in that context. However, when Leifel Jackson, executive director of Reaching Our Children and Neighborhoods (ROCAN), a secular non-profit that seeks to help inner-city youth, asked if the 35 kids he wanted to bring to the park could get the same discount, he was rebuffed by a park office worker.

The park, which hosts Bible camps throughout the summer and has long catered to church groups, charges $15 for adults, $10 for children under 15 years of age, and $9-a-head for groups over 15 people. The park knocks $6 off admission for firefighters, law enforcement and members of the military.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Arkansas
KEYWORDS: atheistcrybabies; churchandstate
I'm getting so tired of asking this type of rhetorical question, if the same kind of discounts were given to an mosque-affiliated kids group....
1 posted on 08/14/2012 9:04:21 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
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To: Impala64ssa

Pretty cheap...won’t even offer the same deal for other kids. What did the kid’s do to deserve this treatment?


2 posted on 08/14/2012 9:08:03 AM PDT by stuartcr ("When silence speaks, it speaks only to those that have already decided what they want to hear.")
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To: Impala64ssa

They just need to have a special quiz contest such that anyone who can answer a quiz question gets a $5 discount. And make all the questions bible questions. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.


3 posted on 08/14/2012 9:12:20 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: Impala64ssa

Pretty cheap...won’t even offer the same deal for other kids. What did the kid’s do to deserve this treatment?


4 posted on 08/14/2012 9:12:35 AM PDT by stuartcr ("When silence speaks, it speaks only to those that have already decided what they want to hear.")
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To: Impala64ssa

They just need to have a special quiz contest such that anyone who can answer a quiz question gets a $5 discount. And make all the questions bible questions. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.


5 posted on 08/14/2012 9:12:35 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: Impala64ssa
If this is a privately owned business, they should have told the inner-city group to go scratch. The full priced admission is probably necessary to cover the damage the city kids do when they're there. I really wish these private businesses would stop cowering to special interests. It's obvious the park's owners gave a discount because of the bible camps they hold there.
6 posted on 08/14/2012 9:13:13 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (If Barack has a memory like a steel trap, why can't he remember what the Constitution says?)
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To: Impala64ssa

I’d suggest this discount wasn’t about religion but that church groups are well behaved. No fighting, no trash, no out of control kids that drive the pool staff and life guards frantic. When the goverment gets involved in every little thing, then there is no control and the bullies reign...


7 posted on 08/14/2012 9:17:37 AM PDT by djone (Justice discards party, friendship and kindred.)
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To: djone

I never saw anything yet that couldn’t be screwed up by Acorn. (Racon same difference).


8 posted on 08/14/2012 9:20:37 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: Impala64ssa
Anyone remember the LAKE NIXON swimming area on Col Glenn Road about 45 years ago?

You had to have a .50 cent membership, along with admission, to swim and listen to the live bands. If persons came up who were not wanted there, they suddenly ran out of memberships.

One of these groups sued several years later and rather than open to a certain class of people, the owners closed the place down.

9 posted on 08/14/2012 9:31:54 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Tyrannies demand immense sacrifices of their people to produce trifles.-Marquis de Custine)
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To: circlecity

Just close the park every Sunday for a private party. Anyone showing a church bulletin gets a discounted fee but no church bulletin means no admission. ‘Cause they were not invited to the ‘private party’.


10 posted on 08/14/2012 9:41:05 AM PDT by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: Impala64ssa
Religion: a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.

Atheism fits that definition. Therefore, atheism is a RELIGION.

So, atheists are guilty of forcing us to conform to their religious beliefs.

In short, they have forced the STATE to ESTABLISH A RELIGION.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

These people violate both clauses. They have established their religion and have prevented THE FREE EXERCISE of all others.

11 posted on 08/14/2012 9:43:07 AM PDT by ConradofMontferrat (According to mudslimze, my handle is a Hate Crime. Hope they don't like it.)
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To: stuartcr

The man was giving several groups discounts, not just church groups. I thought it would be nice had he done so, but he didn’t. If everybody gets a discount, then no one is getting a discount.


12 posted on 08/14/2012 9:49:19 AM PDT by healy61
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To: stuartcr
You think EVERY kid should get a discount? Same with senior discounts at restaurants? If a senior gets the discount or a vet etc. then everyone should get it? Gimme a break. Of course the implication is that it's RACIST and that we should all tremble in front of that word. But it's NOT. I'm sure if some inner city (buzz word) church group came and asked for the discount they would receive it. That's the level playing field... and it's fair. Church groups. All church groups. Black, white, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Unitarian... whatever. Church group. Not 'kids who are delinquents who will tear up the park and destroy business AND AT A DISCOUNT. Nope, anyone can come - but not at reduced price.
13 posted on 08/14/2012 9:52:22 AM PDT by GOPJ (Freeper Neveronmywatch's convinced: Put a compass in the hands of a liberal it'll point south.)
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To: Impala64ssa

There are two areas of the question, one legal and the other philosophical.

Someone can claim that the philosophical question might suggest the park’s owner - in a position of “charity towards all”, should offer the same discount to the secular non-profit outfit. People can be on either side of that.

On the legal question there should be only one answer among Conservatives - the park is NOT LEGALLY BOUND to offer discounts based on any position other than it’s own. They are not the government or a government entity, in service to all citizens. It’s a private affair.


14 posted on 08/14/2012 11:26:32 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Impala64ssa

There was a private swim club nearby that would let youth organizations come on quiet days. A city run feral youth ‘office’ set up a sting by saying they were from out in the countryside. When the showed up in a city bus, and completely dominated the club with their uncouth behavior, the club asked them to leave. The club was accused of being racist. They were closed permanently by law suits shortly thereafter. It was a nice charitable family swim club. Now gone.


15 posted on 08/14/2012 11:31:17 AM PDT by Born to Conserve
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