On Monday, I documented a close encounter of the Bradlee Dean kind at the Hutchinson Walmart, and the reluctance of store management to do anything about the universal (except for Sue Jeffers) condemned extremist ministry that was fundraising in their parking lot.
Nick Pinto at the City Pages tracked the story down to the Ozarks and learned Bradlee Dean lied to Walmart about his church, is now banned from parking lot:
It's been a rough week for Bradlee Dean. On Friday the gay-baiting minister was universally denounced by just about every state lawmaker who could get near a microphone.
Now it turns out that not only is Dean permanently unwelcome in the state legislature -- he's also banned from the Walmart parking lot.
Dean's You Can Run But You Can't Hide youth ministry was sighted yesterday hosting a fund-raising booth outside the Hutchinson Walmart.
We checked in with Walmart headquarters to ask if they knew they were playing host to a guy who says gay folks should be thrown in jail and has praised religious extremists who execute suspected homosexuals.
Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said Walmart didn't know -- because the ministry lied to them.
"They registered their request to solicit outside the store using a false name," Hardie said. "As soon as we learned the groups true identity, they were asked to leave."
And just as Kurt Zellers promised "That type of person will never, ever be allowed on this House floor again," Hardie said the ministry's hateful message has earned them a permanent ban from operating on Walmart property.
"Due to their actions towards our customers, we will no longer allow them to solicit outside our stores," Hardie said.
Since reading this scoop, I suppose I can use my Tidy Cat coupon now at Walmart. Sweet.
Relentless auburn wolverine Nick Pinto wonders if this will affect the Street Team's fundraising abilities:
Some have wondered whether operations like the one in Hutchinson yesterday can possibly be pulling in $1,400 a day.
Walmart isn't the only one calling out Dean's ministry. The editorial board of the Worthington Globe writes today in An ugly prayer:
While the not-so-veiled Obama reference is bad enough, some of Dean’s past comments should have kept him off the floor of our state’s Capitol. He has, for instance, “spoken approvingly of executing gays and lesbians,” as the Times noted, and compared gays and lesbians to child molesters. It should be considered ironic, to say the least, that Dean’s House prayer came in the midst of a heated debate about a proposed constitutional amendment — approved in an emotional vote Saturday — that will allow voters to prohibit same-sex marriage.
Many House Republicans quickly sought to distance themselves from Dean. But how come there wasn’t a huge distance from him before his Friday prayer? What happened Friday morning should have never taken place, and those responsible should be ashamed and disciplined.
Photo: Lost to the supercenter, Dean's banned Street Team.
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