Last week, Sarah Edwards wrote a follow-up story on Pioneers Durham, the LGBTQ-non-affirming church-business hybrid organization that has a home in a prominent space on Geer Street downtown. Reader Chip Davis had this to say in response to the story:
As one who had a front-row seat to the rise of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in Charlotte in the 70’s, I pray (IU) that you continue to hold the Catholic and whatever-the-hell-it-is Pioneers churches feet to the fire (and brimstone).
These are social diseases and, if left unchecked will metastasize into a cancer on the community. Or at best, a pox. I had many friends and colleagues join the PTL cult. Early on, they simply seemed like a hip, cool, church, selling the same salves as traditional churches with a more hip vibe. It didn’t hurt (in my colleagues cases) that they paid their technical people (computer, A/V, etc.) slightly above scale. As long as they didn’t mind some rather draconian “turpitude” clauses in their contracts. As for my friends, sadly, they were simply gullible idiots.
For the web, Caryl Espinoza Jaen wrote about the Durham Public Schools’ dual-language program remaining at Lakewood and Bethesda Elementary Schools. Reader Dave Miller had some clarifications to add about the following part of the story:
“Durham Public Schools is in the middle of systemwide redistricting and the school board’s plan was to remove the program from Lakewood and Bethesda and relocate it to the larger Southwest Elementary following the redistricting process.”
This is not fully accurate. The original plan was to sunset both the Lakewood and Bethesda DLI programs and to allow students at Lakewood and Bethesda to have access to their respective regional DLI programs associated with the new model. The Southwest Elementary program already exists in a fully mature state and so the idea of relocating the Lakewood program to Southwest may be a bit misleading, but the idea of Bethesda being given access to the Southwest DLI appears to simply be inaccurate—the regional DLI for the east region where Bethesda is located is planned to be Merrick-Moore Elementary, so Bethesda would have been given access to the Merrick-Moore DLI and not to the Southwest Elementary DLI. Keeping students from traveling out of their region and thereby reducing travel (and busing) is a goal of the plan. Also note that Bethesda is actually a larger school than Southwest.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Backtalk: Social diseases that will metastasize if left unchecked
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Last week, Sarah Edwards wrote a follow-up story on Pioneers Durham, the LGBTQ-non-affirming church-business hybrid organization that has a home in a prominent space on Geer Street downtown. Reader Chip Davis had this to say in response to the story:
As one who had a front-row seat to the rise of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in Charlotte in the 70’s, I pray (IU) that you continue to hold the Catholic and whatever-the-hell-it-is Pioneers churches feet to the fire (and brimstone).
These are social diseases and, if left unchecked will metastasize into a cancer on the community. Or at best, a pox. I had many friends and colleagues join the PTL cult. Early on, they simply seemed like a hip, cool, church, selling the same salves as traditional churches with a more hip vibe. It didn’t hurt (in my colleagues cases) that they paid their technical people (computer, A/V, etc.) slightly above scale. As long as they didn’t mind some rather draconian “turpitude” clauses in their contracts. As for my friends, sadly, they were simply gullible idiots.
For the web, Caryl Espinoza Jaen wrote about the Durham Public Schools’ dual-language program remaining at Lakewood and Bethesda Elementary Schools. Reader Dave Miller had some clarifications to add about the following part of the story:
“Durham Public Schools is in the middle of systemwide redistricting and the school board’s plan was to remove the program from Lakewood and Bethesda and relocate it to the larger Southwest Elementary following the redistricting process.”
This is not fully accurate. The original plan was to sunset both the Lakewood and Bethesda DLI programs and to allow students at Lakewood and Bethesda to have access to their respective regional DLI programs associated with the new model. The Southwest Elementary program already exists in a fully mature state and so the idea of relocating the Lakewood program to Southwest may be a bit misleading, but the idea of Bethesda being given access to the Southwest DLI appears to simply be inaccurate—the regional DLI for the east region where Bethesda is located is planned to be Merrick-Moore Elementary, so Bethesda would have been given access to the Merrick-Moore DLI and not to the Southwest Elementary DLI. Keeping students from traveling out of their region and thereby reducing travel (and busing) is a goal of the plan. Also note that Bethesda is actually a larger school than Southwest.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Send comments to backtalk@indyweek.com.