Holy Week and Easter Sunday in the Oklahoma City metro area will not be tarnished by a national gathering of atheists, several Christian leaders said recently.
“We ought not to be threatened by people who don’t believe,” said the Rev. A. Byron Coleman, senior pastor of Fifth Street Missionary Baptist Church, 801 NE 5.
“It doesn’t reshape the narrative of the Christian Church to have an atheist convention coming to town. We’re still going to have Resurrection Sunday and we’re still going to eat ham after church.”
The Rev. Randy Faulkner, senior pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, 7201 W Britton Road, shared a similar view.
“Their presence in our city will not in any way diminish our joy in celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus,” he said.
The preachers referred to American Atheists’ plans to host its national convention Wednesday through Easter Sunday at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City.
Nick Fish, national program director for the Cranford, New Jersey-based organization, said about 700 people already have registered for the gathering, exceeding the group’s expectations so much so that they had considered moving the event to the larger venue of the Cox Convention Center.
Read the full story at The Oklahoman
