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The speaker I had hoped to get for this month's meeting is not going to be able to make it. However, it occurs to me that in this case this might not be a bad thing, as it can allow us to take advantage of a rare opportunity that should be advantageous to all of us.

Bob Woodward will be speaking at Knight's Hall at Bellarmine University at 7 pm, March 20th (which is the time we normally start getting together at TGI Fridays). In the process of writing "Bush At War" in 2003, Bob Woodward had close access (some say too close, and accuse him of having lost his perspective) to the Bush Administration. In writing about the administration's reasons for going to war in Iraq, he talks about the religious justifications behind the decision, among others. He has most recently written "State Of Denial" about the same subject, and seems to have withdrawn his approval of the administrations actions.

This is a rare opportunity to talk to someone who has seen the operation of the current white house administration up close and personal, and ask some hard-hitting questions about the religious doctrine that seems to drive some of their decisions. It doesn't hurt that one of our regulars, Dave Melendy, actually knows Bob Woodward personally, as they were in the navy together as young men.

I suggest that this month, instead of our normal get-together at TGI Friday's, we meet at Knight's Hall on the Bellarmine campus at 7 pm to hear the presentation and put some questions to Mr. Woodward. My apologies for the short notice, but I only thought of this just now. I'll send out a couple of more reminders in email to try to make sure everyone gets the message, as well as directions to Knight's Hall. Mr. Woodward's presentation is free. It starts at 7 pm, I'd suggest trying to arrive by 6:30 pm to make sure you can get seats.

I'm also going to post a topic on the meetup site where we can compile some questions we'd like to put to Mr. Woodward about the Bush administration.

Our first meeting of the year will be held at the meeting room of TGI Friday's on Linn Station Road. We will have two speakers attending, expatriates from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who left due to the philosophical and political change in environment there.

These speakers are not themselves atheists, but they ARE strong believers in the separation of church and state and their experiences with the political agenda of fundamentalist Christians in Louisville are well worth here. The speakers are Todd Eklof and Derek Timothy. Todd was at the Southern Baptist Theological seminary around the time of the takeover by the Southern Baptist Leadership Council, and left due to the changes there. Derek attended the seminary last year, and left when he could no longer tolerate the religious intolerance and political agenda he saw being carried out.

Todd Eklof sends the following bio of himself --

Todd F. Eklof has been the minister at Clifton Unitarian Church in
Louisville the past 7 years. He is a native of San Francisco,
California and grew up in the Bay Area. He attended a Baptist
University in Texas where he earned his first Bachelors in Philosophy.
He moved to Louisville in 1986 to attend Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary. He dropped out after a semester-and-a-half because he found
the environment far too stifling, both academically and spiritually.
After marrying his spouse, another seminary drop-out, in 1989, he
earned a second degree in Communications from Spalding University, and
began a 16 year career in TV journalism and corporate video production.
Throughout the years, however, he continued his passion delving into
life's perennial questions, and eventually found his way into the
Unitarian Universalist church. After more than a decade he became a
Unitarian Universalist minister and received his Master of Arts in
Religious Studies. Rev. Eklof made local and national headlines in
2004 after he informed his congregation that he would no longer marry
anybody until he's free to marry everybody. He secular employer,
Kentucky Farm Bureau, fired him after his "gay friendly stance," and he
is now suing the company for violating his First Amendment rights. He
and his wife, Peggy, live in Louisville with their 14 year old son, and
10 year old daughter.

Derek Timothy has a web page and blog at --

http://www.myspace.com/DerekTimothy

This month we'll be meeting at TGI Friday's. Beth Wilson, from the Kentucky ACLU, will be there to tell us about separation of church and state issues the ACLU is involved with in Kentucky and what interested volunteers can do to help.

Since we'll be in the meeting room of a restaurant, I thought I'd change the format slightly. We'll have dinner at 7 pm, then the actually meeting and presentation at the normal time of 8 pm. If you'd like to arrive for dinner by all means do so, since the more people having dinner there, the more amenable the venue will be to us meeting there. :-)

Map

This month we will be meeting at the offices of Win.Net Internet, at 1048 E. Chestnut. From downtown, drive east on Chestnut Street until it curves to the left. We are in the MedCenter Two complex at the intersection of Chestnut and Liberty Streets. Please call 502-387-1095 if you have any questions.