WENT TO THE BEEBE AR. TOWN COUNCIL MEETING - RE: SEEKERS TEMPLE & PAGAN STORE

Hello all,

I am not sure if ya'll are aware, but I had never meet Bert Dahl, HP of Seekers Temple, nor his wife before yesterday. My husband and I wanted to find out for ourselves what was going on. We took another friend with us, who wants us to help her establish a Temple in LR, and she has her Press Credentials, which she wore.

First off - good people. We drove up to their house and were welcomed heartily though none of us had ever met; even offering us food, though it looks like they have a big house with lots of mouths to feed.

Second off - O.M.G. on the lighthouse the church built across the street! Jeez, this thing looks like the bottom of a real lighthouse on the coast of New England. It is HUGE! Looks to be about the size of a 2 story house, octagonal, with large windows on each side of the walls. It can be seen from the freeway a mile away! Thank goodness ALL the neighbors had complained about it and they have finally pointed the light up over the houses, but it still hits drivers when they are going down that major street. I can't believe they have been allowed to get away with that light! You'd think the FAA would get involved with a light like that.

I started in with the questions to S.T. - IRS paperwork - yes; State paperwork - yes; Non-Profit Status paperwork - yes. They had just moved in February from another town in the same county and had had no problems whatsoever there. Taxed filed and paid. I asked about selling goods as a church/temple and it was stated to me that a church can do that as along as all the money goes back into church, but not towards salaries, etc. They keep separate books on the church/temple and their personal funds and do not co-mingle. They have been doing this for 6 years come December. I was satisfied that they aren't a fly-by-night operation and knew what they were doing.

More cars started arriving and there was quite a group of people there. My DH & I kept saying we need to go up there, we may not have a seat, though it was 5:15 p.m. Finally, we all caravan to City Hall and it was amazing looking down the parking lot at everyone coming out of their cars. Word had gone out to covens/groups to dress nicely. No babies or other distractions. I was the worst one dressed and I had on a nice silk blouse and shorts. Everyone else came in suits and dresses - for Beebe nonetheless. We looked just like anyone else, in fact, the only the thing that separated us was jewelry and even that was small and tasteful. I think that fact shocked them - we're just like you, just on a different spiritual path. There is no difference between us and we were born here too.

We walk in and almost all the chairs were taken up - by their kids and babies. Good grief! I turn to Anita and said, you know, when I was growing up, kids *never* got the chairs if there was an adult standing. Ever. She said the pentecostal church just wanted to make sure they stuff the chairs with their people. Anita & I found a chair, but most of our group didn't. Lauren had her press pass, so she got to sit up front with TV and newspaper people.

The meeting finally got started and the mayor stated that it was the most people ever at city council meeting. We then had to sit through a 5 minute sermon/prayer led by the Chief of Police. Good grief! Because of all the people, they put the Ordinance Change for Seekers Temple first in the order of business. First the mayor states that the Zoning Officer had final say, though the mayor sent a letter to the Zoning Officer, telling him not to give ST any re-zoning paperwork and to just outright deny anything that ST wants to do. I think that letter is here in one of the many links of the story. The mayor then offers a private meeting with the city attorney, Zoning Officer, and the Dahl's and their counsel. After they left the meeting, we were pretty much asked to leave if we weren't going to the 4th of July picnic. Their church and our group left the meeting.

We went outside and I grabbed my notebook and pen and passed it around asking everyone to sign it so ST will have an idea how many people showed up in support. Gary, a HP from Jonesboro, really made sure everyone signed it. We had 42 Adults sign the sheets of paper. How's that for not really trying?

The pentecostals got in a circle and prayed and we got in a circle and sang, though one of the HP from Memphis changed the frickin' words of song! Only 4 people from their group really knew the words!

About this time, us milling around waiting for ST to come from their meeting, along with Channel 4, it started storming! Wow! That was some freaky lightening. Bert Dahl came out from the meeting and they had recorded it all, and from his perspective, it is discrimination and a civil rights standing, because of what the city attorney stated - that no one in Beebe both lived in a church and they had to be separate buildings with separate utilities, etc. AND he had to have a paved parking lot, AND a separate address, on and on.

I suggested since the lot for sale right next door to ST is zoned commercial that he set up a crowd sourcing and let everyone donate to that so he can just buy that land and put up a decent structure on it, and there ain't a damned thing the city can do then.

I am completely satisfied with Seekers Temple and what they are wanting to do. The only reason they moved to Beebe is because his customer base is there and they finally saved up the money to sell their place in El Paso (AR) and move to Beebe - it is a college town and the kids wanted a place in town to shop for supplies rather than running down the highway for incense, etc. The mayor welcomed them until he found out they are Pagan, then all this starts to fly. The only reason they went to the media is because they were denied at every turn in talking to city hall and getting the zoning regulations (denied by that office) and the initiate the paperwork for rezoning (denied by that office). So they took to the media simply to get heard by City Hall.

Bert Dahl, in spite of his anti-Obama screeds, seems to be a nice dude. Almost a disconnect there. THIS is the person who posted all that stuff on their FB page? Weird...

Your Ace Reporter,

Hestia

a segment ran on http://arkansasmatters.com and you can see how filled up the city council meeting space was.