Street Preacher Plans Anti-Santa Message

LOXLEY -- Controversial evangelist Orlando Bethel may be headed for a showdown with Loxley authorities today, when he intends to take his no-holds-barred message to the town's annual Christmas parade against the wishes of organizers.

Bethel, who drew national headlines over the summer when a crowd of funeral mourners attacked him following his condemnation of the deceased, said Friday he will not back down from his mission to spread the truth about Christmas. He said unholy attention on Santa Claus takes the Christ out of Christmas.

"Santa Claus is Satan's cause," said Bethel, who promised to protest along the parade route on Alabama 59 clad in a Santa costume and devil mask.

Bethel's plans have injected intrigue into a normally small, quiet affair in this sleepy town of 1,348 at the cross section of Interstate 10 and Alabama 59.

Organizers from the Loxley Optimist Club initially told Bethel his New Life Gospel Productions could participate in the parade, then rescinded the offer after Bethel announced he would dress in his SantSatan costume and preach outside the parade.

Bethel said he would not ride in the parade after the Optimist Club told him it was limiting the parade to one Santa. Event chairman John Chappell said Bethel's application is nullified since he will not be on the float as his application to join the parade indicated.

"Due to the adverse publicity this provided ... and with him not being in it, it changes it," he said. "I just think he's someone who wants a lot of attention."

Chappell, who owns Mane Street Style Shop in Loxley, said he did not expect controversy when he agreed to head up the planning for the parade. He said his organization has sponsored the event for at least 20 years.

"We're pretty cut and dried. You follow the rules, or you're not in our parade," he said. "Our intention is to have a safe, enjoyable and happy Christmas parade and move on with the spirit of Christmas."

It is exactly that spirit that Bethel said he wants to uphold. He said it is modern society, with its emphasis on a fat man in a red suit bringing presents to children, that has it wrong.

He said he will hand out leaflets to folks explaining that Santa promotes idolatry and covetousness. He chastised parents for perpetuating the myth.

"They're lying to their children to pray to, or ask, Santa Claus for presents," he said. "It's contrary to the gospel. It's contrary to Jesus."

Bethel and his wife, Glynis Bethel, have taken an aggressive approach to preaching the gospel since moving to Loxley from Miami about two years ago. Orlando Bethel angered members of the congregation at Pine Grove Baptist Church who had gathered for the funeral of Lish Taylor.

Last month, he was convicted of harassing communications for tacking a sheet of paper to the door of his brother-in-law, Jasper Lemuel Molden. The sheet called Molden a "whoremonger," his then-fiancee a "whore" and urged them to repent for "fornication."

The Bethels planned a confrontational approach to the parade, entering a van displaying messages like, "Only Jesus Can Save You From the Lake of Fire" and urging people to reject Santa Claus.

Some mainstream religious leaders took issue with Bethel's characterization of Santa. Dino Entac, the director of campus ministry at Spring Hill College, noted that Santa Claus comes from St. Nicholas of Myra, a fourth-century Catholic bishop who gave money and gifts to the poor and sick.

Entac said some may get carried away with the secular nature of the holiday, but he added that he believes the story of Santa is no more satanic than that of the Easter bunny.

"Does that take away from the day Jesus rose from the dead? I don't think so," he said.

As for the parade, Glynis Bethel said she intends to line up today at Loxley Municipal Park as float No. 23.

"We're going to show up at 9 a.m. tomorrow with the float ... and if they want to ban us, they'll have to ban us in front of the TV cameras," she said.

Police Chief Cliff Yetter said he does not expect trouble with so many children in attendance. He said six officers will work the parade, the same as usual.

Link-back to Bethel's previous entry for his list of greatest lifetime ~~hits~~ beatings...

To: aomagrat; ClancyJ; Yeti; southern rock

Preacher says he was beaten by mourners 06/26/02
By GARY McELROY - Staff Reporter
A Loxley street preacher who screamed at a funeral that the deceased was burning in hell said Tuesday he was beaten by mourners for telling the truth.
While Orlando Bethel vowed his battle against evil has only begun, one relative at the service said he believes Bethel set out to incite the grievers because he was bitter over a family land squabble.
The incident occurred June 14 at the Pine Grove Baptist Church in Loxley at the funeral of Lish Taylor, an uncle of Bethel's wife, Glynis.
Bethel claims Loxley police did nothing after "a mob" beat him.
"They said it was attempted murder," Loxley Police Chief Cliff Yetter said Tuesday. "It was a little scratch on his shoulder."
Yetter said Bethel's verbal assault "slandered the family of the deceased. ... He told them the man in the coffin was going to hell, calling them whoremongers."
Neither of the Bethels disa greed with claims that Orlando Bethel screamed out during the solemn gathering, condemning all to "a lake of fire."
He was only supposed to sing, Orlando Bethel admitted, "but the Holy Ghost told me to really speak the truth -- I said this man was no longer with us because he is in hell, that they needed to repent of their sins, there was a lesbian scheduled to sing, and there were fornicators.
"That was when I was dragged to the back of the church by several men," he said.
"He almost got killed," Glynis Bethel said. She said her husband was seriously injured and she later found him "balled up in an embryo position."
The Bethels said Tuesday that after getting nowhere with Loxley police, they went to the Baldwin County Sheriff's Department, where a warrant was issued for Glynis Bethel's brother, Lemuel Molden, one of the alleged attackers.
According to a sheriff's spokesman, no warrant had been issued by late Tuesday.
Molden said Tuesday his sister had been away from Alabama for years and returned to Loxley from Miami about a year ago to claim part of a 50-acre home site left to family members when their grandmother died.
The Bethels ended up with about an acre, Molden said.
"They wanted to acquire all of the property and make it some kind of retreat," Molden said. "It didn't pan out like they thought it would, and I guess they are a little bitter."
Molden said that after his uncle died, Orlando Bethel called and asked to sing at the funeral.
Molden now says he believes the request was "premeditated."
"My uncle didn't like Orlando," Molden said. He said Bethel would often "go down and pray for my uncle," only to be ordered out of the house.
"I think he was being revengeful," Molden said of Bethel.
Molden said that when Bethel began his harangue at the church, mourners froze in shock.
"After he sings, he grabs the mike and yells that Lish is burning in hell. He just screamed it out."
Molden said that when someone cut off the microphone, Bethel gestured to a young man to bring a bag down front.
It was then, Molden said, that people began leaving, fearing there were weapons in the bag.
"He pulls out a megaphone," Molden said. "We tried to get him out of the church. I asked him, 'Orlando, why are you doing this?'" Molden said.
Molden said that later the Bethels drove up to his home. Orlando Bethel began screaming about hell, and Glynis Bethel, while "speaking in tongues," sprinkled olive oil on Molden.
"I thought it was gasoline," Molden said.
Molden, although frustrated at his sister and her husband, expressed respect for their "persistence."
As if to confirm this, the couple said Tuesday the battle for the souls of relatives and other Loxley sinners was only beginning.
"We are going to get a parade permit," Glynis Bethel said.
End of story.
My comments begin. As some surmised, it appears there was a bit more to this story than was reported in the original article. If this article is correct, then there is a good case for suing this guy, fraud, since it appears there was a contract for him to sing, not to preach. He could also be sued for disrupting a service too.

214 posted on 06/28/2002 5:47 PM EDT by DugwayDuke
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