Coudersport Public Library Approves 'Bible Believing' Presentation
2 min readChristian response to Out In The Silence scheduled
COUDERSPORT – The Board of Directors of the Coudersport Public Library has approved a request by Coudersport resident Doctor Wagner to use the library space for a “Bible believing Christian response to ‘Out In The Silence’ and related topics”.
Dr.Wagner and others say they feel they were not given the opportunity to truly participate in an ‘open dialog’ after the screening of Out In The Silence. They plan to use the upcoming presentation to express their point of view and present information that was stifled during the screening.
Joe Wilson, Director of Out In The Silence, has plans to return to Coudersport during the event, along with many of his followers and supporters.
Some of Wilson’s supporters say they are coming to the event simply to ‘irritate Diane Gramley’, who is the President of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania. Gramley is scheduled to appear as a special guest.
Gramley was one of the subjects of Out In The Silence, and she says that the film was edited in such a fashion to misconstrue statements she made to portray her in a negative light. She also said that she and others were harassed by Wilson and company over the course of several years while they filmed the documentary, going so far as to show up on her doorstep with cameras in hand, and in one instance, mulling her while she attended a parade in Oil City.
While Wilson did not allow those who opposed his agenda to speak at the library during the screening of Out In The Silence, only time will tell if Dr. Wagner stifles the speech of Wilson and his supporters in the same fashion.
Ironically, it appears that Wilson has rallied a larger protest to the Christian presentation than the alleged protest to the screening of his film.
The presentation will be held on August 25 at 6:30 pm at the Coudersport Public Library.
The Potter Leader Enterprise had a very complete and factual news story on the Out in the Silence screening written by the editor of the paper Brent Addleman. According to his word-for-word transcript, Dr. Wagner and other opponents were hardly “stifled”, in fact they spoke at considerable length and interrupted other people including a woman who was in tears over the treatment of a gay family member. The news article also reports that the filmmaker Joe Wilson tried to calm things down by asking everybody to be respectful and to “make sure that everybody that wants to join in this conversation has the opportunity to do so.” As far as I know the Potter Leadre Enterprise is not biased one way or the other on this subject, they were just reporting what actually happened.
Editor’s Response:
It was hardly complete. The story was spun, just as the story by their former editor Don Gilliland in the Harrisburg Patriot-News was spun.
Locals don’t call it the ‘Potter Liar’ for nothing 🙂
As for Wagner interrupting a woman, what a twist. Wagner was interrupted by a woman, and attempted to continue speaking.
I’ll address this again later on when I have a chance.