ChristianWeek

Resolute social activist Bill Whatcott and his travelling protest show have set up shop in north-central Alberta where he is in the process of gathering the necessary 100 signatures to merit a run for mayor in Edmonton's civic elections this October.

In keeping with a widely-publicized confrontational style that to date has earned him a variety of arrests, court appearances and fines, Whatcott is again serving notice that his platform is largely constructed on his unrelenting opposition to abortion and homosexuality.

Addressing prospective voters via numerous postings on www.freedominion.com, Whatcott stated on June 17:

"Today I kicked off my Mayor's campaign in Edmonton at the annual homosexual parade...Prior to entering the Sodom parade and meeting, Darcy, Robert [Campaign Manager and Director of Communications respectively] and I prayed for earthly protection as the sodomites outnumbered us about 1,000 to one...

"We started at 2 p.m. One minute into my campaign the Edmonton police stopped us and asked if we were intoxicated. The officer was ignorant and obviously pro-homosexual. I replied we were 'high on the Holy Spirit.' Shortly thereafter a couple of other police officers threatened us with arrest if we "in any way stepped out of line." These officers never said anything to the sodomites and lesbians who were already swearing at us. Sigh....Such is life for a Christian who takes a public stand for Christ and sexual morality in this crazy mixed-up country called Canada."

An accompanying video clip depicts a friend and Whatcott, clad in a T-shirt proclaiming "Sodomites will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven" and bearing various sandwich boards and signs with similar messages walking "against" the parade—which included a car carrying Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel and openly gay city councillor Michael Phair-as it made its way up what appears to be a prominent street in the City of Champions.

For someone whose past antics have included disrupting a Gay Pride parade in Regina and plastering graphic anti-abortion literature on windshields in the parking lots at the University of Calgary, Whatcott reports that apart from taking an iced cappuccino in the head and enduring no shortage of verbal abuse, he emerged comparatively unscathed from his mayoral race kick-off.

Anyone who has paid any attention to Whatcott's theatrics over the years knows that the aspiring mayor's interpretation of Christ's directive that His followers are to be salt and light amidst the decadence and darkness of society has a decidedly "in your face" spin to it. And it is clear from scanning his election brochure that he views himself as a modern-day Jonah commissioned to urge repentance on the residents of modern Nineveh.

Accordingly, for following what he believes to be God's call on his life, Bill Whatcott should be applauded. No doubt in his day many considered John the Baptist to be "nutso."

That being said and notwithstanding his Acts 2-like zeal, Mr. Whatcott would do well to give equal consideration to our Lord's counsel to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.

Tim Callaway pastors in Airdrie, Alberta, and is the former Alberta regional correspondent for ChristianWeek.