In the online Brainerd Dispatch, Zach Kayser reported Friday in At Oak Street Chapel, board members resign, embattled pastor remains:
The after-effects of an anti-Islam speech late last month by Usama Dakdok ripped a Brainerd church apart.
Todd Wooden is still pastor of Oak Street Chapel, a nondenominational Christian church founded in 2000. The church board members who asked to him resign last week, however, have instead resigned themselves.
Wooden came on as pastor in 2013, two years after original pastor Julian "Chip" Avelsgaard was killed in a motorcycle crash. Avelsgaard's death prompted fears the group he founded out of his garage would disintegrate into nothing—though the church endured.
However, Dakdok's presentation sparked an internal conflict at Oak Street.
Former board of trustees president Dace Julifs said Wednesday he had resigned his post along with other five board members, four of whom had agreed that Julifs would ask Wooden to resign following Dakdok's presentation at the church Sept. 29. That left one remaining board member of the original seven people.
Alpha News reported earlier this week that the entire board had resigned and that "around half of the 80 member congregation have left or plan to leave the church." [italics in original].
Julifs told the Brainerd Dispatch:
"What does Dakdok care?" Julifs said of the church's subsequent problems. "He got his minute of fame. He's going to move on to the next town, and do the same thing to the next church."
"As far as I'm concerned, (Oak Street Chapel) now is a blight on the community, with this hate," Julifs said. "It's so sad, because this church used to be a shining example of what we're supposed to be as Christians: happy, fun, caring, giving."
That certainly seems to have been the case with Dakdok. As Bluestem noted in With time on his hands in Minnesota, anti-Muslim speaker Usama Dakdok bothers some Christians:
According to an interview with radically anti-Muslim activist Usama Dakdok on the October 4, 2016 edition of Brannon Howse's show on Worldview Weekend Radio, the public and internal church turmoil that his speaking engagement created at the Oak Street Chapel in Brainerd in late September prompted at least one congregation to cancel his speaking engagement.
Sure enough, an event planned at a church in Wadena has vanished from Dakdok's calendar for October.
Nonetheless, Dakdok is managing to find ways to gain free earned media (he's an attention addict, regardless of his talking dirty about the news industry). Witness his publicity stunt in Detroit Lakes.
DL Online's Vicki Gerdes reports that Meet your Muslim Neighbor event in DL interrupted by anti-Muslim activist. Our favorite part? This fine turn by the local chief of police, who happened to be attending the event while out-of-uniform:
As Dakdok tried to continue grilling the two speakers, he was asked forcefully to sit down by several members of the audience, who although they didn't outright "boo" him, applauded both Haider and Kamel when they responded, clearly making a point about who had been invited to speak, and who had not.
"You had your turn to speak in Brainerd," Haider said at one point, referring to a recent event where Dakdok was invited to be the featured speaker at a Brainerd church, for an anti-Islam presentation that had taken place just a couple of days prior to Sunday's forum. After several minutes of back-and-forth exchanges, Dakdok approached the front of the room, stating that he wanted to show Kamel a passage from his copy of the Quran (as Kamel did not have a copy with him), and Kamel said, 'Sir, please sit down."
At that point, Detroit Lakes Police Chief Tim Eggebraaten ‒ who was present at the forum, but not in uniform — quietly approached the Florida minister from the side of the room. After escorting a clearly reluctant Dakdok back to his seat, Eggebraaten sat down in the chair right next to him — where he remained for the rest of the presentation.
Aside from Dakdok's interruption, most of the forum was focused on showing the similarities of Muslims and Christians, and how peaceful, friendly relationships can be forged between the two groups.
Dakdok's next scheduled appearance in Minnesota will be at the Saw Mill in Grand Rapids, Monday, October 10, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The sponsor is Acting for Grand Rapids, a chapter of Act! for America. Dakdok will also hold a closed meeting a week from today at a place that's not been announced.; drop us a line if you have more information about this event.
Photo: Dakdok at the meeting in Detroit Lakes.
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