From the Ocean City (Maryland) Dispatch:
The commander of the infamous Black Hawk Down has been announced as this year’s Ocean City Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast speaker.
Ocean City Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Director Bruce Spangler expressed excitement this week about Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin of the US Army, retired coming to Ocean City next month.
“Talking to people that know this guy, they say he’s a soldiers-soldier … he isn’t somebody that lives from behind but is upfront leading,” Spangler said.
…“He is an expert on Islamic history,” Spangler said.
Right Wing Watch adds a bit more context to this report:
In reality, Boykin is an anti-Islam activist who believes that Muslims do not deserve First Amendment protections and should not be allowed to build mosques in America. He also says that not only can there be no interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims, but that Christians must go on the offensive against Islam.
He also believes that George Soros and the Council on Foreign Relations intentionally collapsed the US economy in order to help elect President Obama, who is now using health care reform legislation to create an army of Brownshirt soldiers loyal only to him.
Boykin is particularly associated with the neo-Pentecostal evangelist Rick Joyner, and with Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries and Oak Initiative.
The Dispatch also gives a bit of general background:
Twenty-two years ago, Spangler was approached by two friends of his who organized the Easton Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast and the Delaware Governors Prayer Breakfast. After approaching Ocean City’s mayor at the time, Fish Powell, the concept of the resort’s Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast was created.
(“Fish” was apparently a nickname). In 2010, the speaker was Steve Young from Campus Crusade for Christ International; according to the Dispatch,
“We have in between 400 to 500 people who attend,” Spangler said. “Professional people, business people, people in the community. People come to me and say, what a great way to start a day.”
…Tickets can be purchased at City Hall, Long and Foster Realty on 120th street, Cropper Oil Company on Route 50 in Berlin, and the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce on Route 50 in Ocean City.
That last detail caught the attention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which made a complaint to current Mayor Rick Meehan
…urging the city to discontinue the use of city resources and taxpayer funds to “plan, organize and promote” a Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast.
…A city attorney responded that tickets will no longer be available for purchase at city hall.
According to a 2009 report in Ocean City Today,
Past speakers have included a missionary injured in Iraq, a firefighter injured in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and a man who was on death row for murder.
The reference to a “man who was on death row” was perhaps a botched reference to Maury Davis, who spoke at the Prayer Breakfast in 2008; the young Davis killed a middle-aged woman in 1975 (almost decapitating her with a knife), but thanks to an insanity plea and a juror who believed in demonic possession he was found guilty of manslaughter rather than murder. Now a wealthy evangelist, Davis recently hosted an “anti-Shariah conference” in Nashville, as I blogged here.
Spangler told Ocean City Today that he
started the annual breakfasts because he wanted to bring the word of God back to the Ocean City and Worcester County community, not in a church setting but in the real world where real people could share their experiences. Every year he searches for engaging speakers with interesting stories of how the Lord touched their lives.
“You can see the miracles the Lord has done through our speakers. I think it gives people hope and helps them to develop a relationship with God,” Spangler said.
Spangler is the co-director of Peninsula Professional Services, an investigative agency; his business partner, Doug Cymek, is a member of the City Council and supportive of the Prayer Breakfast.
In April, Boykin will be the Keynote Speaker at the NRA Prayer Breakfast in St Louis.
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