Sullivan County Tennessee Exposed

Hello form Sullivan County!

Sullivan County Tennessee Exposed

by Lewis Loflin

Sullivan County has gone through a lot in the ten years I put up this website. There have been some positive changes, some old problems still remain. As of 2007 I give them a cautious "thumbs up." The following are highlights of an old controversy that we all are glad is finished. As for the "fundamentalists" while I disagree with them on several issues, they are not monsters. For current issues I'd recommend the Kingsport Times-News.

Quoting the Kingsport Times-News (1-18-2004) on comments by Sullivan County Tennessee attorney Dan Street on the Ten Commandments religious plaque placed in the Sullivan County, Tennessee courthouse,

"It seems clearer and clearer and clearer that we are promoting a particular religion, and that's a violation of the Constitution. The Constitution is the one document that protects minorities, and just because most people feel the Christian faith or the Jewish faith is the right faith, that doesn't mean they have a right to impose it on everyone else. Plenty of Christians and Jews who may follow the Ten Commandments, but don't believe they should be displayed in public buildings. Most of the time, however, those people don't come forward with their opinion because they are afraid of being chastised. People think if you want the Ten Commandments down you're an atheist, and that's just not true.

In 2006 fundamentalist' fanatics are at it again. In response to recent Supreme Court rulings, have intorduced legislation in Tennessee to extend state-sanctioned religious bigotry into Tennessee law. Typical are these words from local politicians,

"We accept other cultures, we open our arms to them. But if they come to this country they have to accept where we came from...If they have a problem with that, that's tough. I'm not real sensitive about that. "As for the atheist perspective, I could care less how they feel,"

For a master site map of articles on this website (over 3000)
click here.

This law was defeated. Our community deserves credit for this positive change.

Sullivan County Schools

"I'm so frustrated with this whole mess...I've been on the board for 27 years, and I believe this is about the worst situation of the least concern by the County Commission that I have ever seen. I am very, very disappointed and frustrated that an effort has not been made by the funding body. If that bothers them, I'm sorry. I think we are putting ourselves in a precarious position that is going to affect children, and that's what we are in business for," Mr. C. Bridwell. (Kingsport Times-News 6/24/03) The saga goes on today in 2007. There has been fear of closing Sullivan North, it's still here. My guestbook (click here) has a lot of parent entries on the local schools.

Why your college degree is worthless here

The refusal to pay better wages limits the labor pool. We have plenty of college graduates, but that isn't what they want. They desire better educated minimum wage workers to work all of the $6 an hour jobs this region produces. They won't get it.

Quoting a Sullivan County official, he confirmed again what most in power here will not address: "I was in no way casting dispersions on the level of education at ETSU. When I said that "we have ETSU students flipping burgers," I was pointing out that we do not have the level of jobs in this area to sustain the number of graduates from our local colleges. Therefore, they are forced to either leave the area or take what jobs are available to them, which in most cases are in the service area," The trouble is there are no decent jobs even in trades as the Tarnoff report revealed. See:

Fundamentalists have lost already

Printed January 25, 2006 Kingsport Times-News

Re: Sullivan's Ten Commandments display unchallenged, so far, the fundamentalists have lost whether the plaque goes or stays. Proof is the fact that many others challenge them in this space. Mr. Street can make excuses, but the public record is clear; in their efforts to silence me, they proved the plaque was designed to intimidate others. I gave them a way out by simply agreeing that all faiths have equal access; they shot themselves in the foot. The ACLU thanks them. They made a mockery of God. Claiming the purpose of the plaque is secular is insulting to God and violates His very commandment against false witness. Promoting a religion from public office to intimidate citizens is a direct violation of the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions.

Roger Clites (Dec 11) claims, "the Constitution …was not to be applied to actions of individuals … (and) … does not apply to the states." From section 1 of the 14th Amendment: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the U.S. nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It does apply to you, Mr. Clites.

During the plaque dedication, Carletta Sims and I were threatened with arrest and barred from the courthouse. I met some of the participants after the ceremony, including a minister who in no manner was some hate-filled, fundamentalist fanatic, and we were shocked at how much we had in common. I believe he is more typical of many Christians. Leave the plaque where it is, along with Halloween, Happy Holidays, Harry Potter, evolution, and Merry Christmas. All are part of American culture, all correctness be damned.

Lewis Loflin
Bristol, Va.

Sunday, June 27,1999

Kingsport Times-News Our View

Commission should rescind vote on Commandments

Lewis Loflin, the Bristol, VA., resident, who represents something called the World Union of Deists of Bristol, may come across as a bit extreme. But the central point he made to the Sullivan County Commission last week is nonetheless valid.

Loflin told commissioners that since they had approved a religious plaque for the county courthouse, he wanted equal treatment. What he got instead was the threat of a lawsuit.

And so we now have in Sullivan County a government which is endorsing a particular religious belief in the form of a public monument to it, and which threatens legal action against those who object.

County residents should take serious note of this situation. It is not only frightening, but represents an attack on religious liberty for all Americans.

What if this were — as is the case in many locales in America — a region where the predominant religion was Buddhism? What if a majority of the county commission were Buddhists, and voted to place a bronze image of Buddha in the county courthouse? And what if a Christian resident appeared before that commission asking to be allowed to place a symbol of his religious faith in the courthouse? And what if the commission voted to entertain a lawsuit against that resident?

It is precisely because its Constitution prohibits government sanction of religion that America has avoided the religious wars, which throughout history have killed millions and destroyed nations.

In this country, no matter our ethnicity or faith, we have equal rights. Were that not so, America would not stand today.

County commissioners should know that.

They surely knew in resolving that a plaque containing the Ten Commandments be placed in a government building that they were endorsing a particular religious philosophy and violating the spirit and letter of the law. But they lacked the backbone to vote against it because they were afraid they would be painted as somehow godless.

That is why they sat silent last Monday as Commissioner Mike Gonce moved that the county attorney investigate legal action against Loflin's "lies."

It is why they have put at risk the right of all to worship as they choose: as do those who rail for prayer in schools when students already can pray in school or anywhere else they choose; or who preach the need for America to return to "religious values" — their religious values.

There is time for the commission to undo its terrible wrong and rescind its vote. People of faith —all faiths — should insist on it.

The next article was circa 1998. Today there is no Klan activity that I know of or at least in public. On the national scene, it's interesting as well the hysteria some Christians around here went into over Y2K has been replaced by hysteria on the political left with George Bush.

The Christian Reich in Sullivan County, Tennessee
Jerry Falwell, the Antichrist, attacks Jews

Fundamentalists failed

Re. the letter from Sharron Mahan (Times-News April 18), that's the reason and proof why Carletta Sims launched her lawsuit and why she should win. Statements such as "get a job in another area outside the Bible Belt" and "why should she be compensated for fighting against someone (God)" is telling of the mental state of the writer.

Sims draws more hatred than both the Combs Family and the Lillelid murderers combined. She didn't cause the huge loses at Eastman, Fingerhut closing, the wave of bombings in the area, etc. The real issue isn't Sims.

Fundamentalists have totally blown it and can only blame themselves. It never was about the SBC plaque in the courthouse or hanging "In God we trust'' on every outhouse, but their failure to reach people. 100 million Americans have no connection to any church. Atheism has had no growth in 11 years while the "unchurched'' have exploded by 110 percent, outnumbering even Catholics and Baptists who attend church. Church attendance is down below 40 percent. After Sept. 11, people went to churches looking for comfort instead found political rhetoric, hate and demands for money. Three months later, they all left and polls show fundamentalists now have a higher divorce rate than the general population. Seems family values are little more than just talk.

One can't achieve with politics what one refuses to believe enough to follow themselves. Faith alone won't cut it nor will demands for forced prayer in schools. Will God be harder on the atheists or the hypocrites? A lot of Sullivan County fundamentalists should be getting worried. Don't tell me to leave, Mrs. Mahan, I won't. Go get them, Carletta.

Lewis Loflin
Bristol, Va.

Grundy, Virginia and the $200 million Bridge to Nowhere

Self-Sufficiency Standard in the Bristol, Virginia Community

Article List

Baptists and Mormons call each other cults, again! One problem most people don't understand is these Evangelical Protestants don't consider many Christians as being Christians and target their members harshly to "bring them to God." This includes Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, and most small Christian groups along with "mainline" Protestants they consider "too liberal." They refer to these groups as "cults" only on theological grounds, not social conduct. Fundamentalist Christians in the social sense do operate as cults. Finally regardless of their "love" of Israel fundamentalists are anti-Semitic targeting Jews endlessly hoping their conversion will finally bring the second coming of Jesus.

What ING say about Tri-Cities

Catholics attacked in Sullivan County
Debate over religion killing children in Colorado.
God has a moral right to kill..so do we.
More quotes from fundamentalists.
The Old South and the New Religious Right
The Christian Right seeks dominion by Sara Diamond
The new fundamentalist Royal Race of the Redeemed. This is evil 101!
Christian Reconstructionists in their own words.
Interview with Gary North King of Christian Economics
There's something about Gary

Religion verses Science

25 Questions and answers for Creationism
Introduction to the scientific method.
The scientific method.

Humor

What Tennessee Law would be under fundamentalism.

Christian Confusion On End-Times Nonsense
220 Dates for the End of the world!!! Date Setters!
Baptists in N.C. aim to convert Mormon, Jehovah's Witness 'cult' members
Christian complains about cartton
Christian Fundamentalism and Science
Gate City Evangilist  attacks ACLU over school prayer
Religious Fundamentalism As Mental Illness
Christianity as a sect of Judaism?
Jews speak on y2k hype
Jungle of Christ
Article: EVOLUTION AND THE POPE
The Difference Between Science and Pseudoscience
Sullivan County emergency crews will be ready to roll in case of Y2K problems
How can a politician be a Christian, too?
No nudes in Sullivan, except for commission
Survey suggests teens not worried about Y2K

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