Yesterday, two individuals with Wisconsin Christians United were in Burlington, Wisconsin literature dropping the WCU brochure Homosexuality: The Truth and a flyer dealing with so-called same-sex marriage. After leaving that literature on the doors of close to half of the homes in Burlington, the two men stood on a busy street corner holding signs which read, "Homosexuality is sin," and "Christ can set you free." The two individuals with WCU are Mike Foht, a full-time missionary, and a young Christian friend from Northern Ireland (Ulster) who had come to America to experience some ministry work here.

After a short time, a car with two individuals stopped by the picketers. A very large, very angry young man jumped out of the car and approached the picketers demanding to know "What the f--k are you doing? What's with that sign. You guys got something against gays? . . . I'm going to kill you both and bust you." The man then began viciously kicking one of the WCU signs with what appeared to be steel-toed work boots. He also kicked the young man from Ulster, bruising his knee. The assailant then turned on Mike Foht, kicking him and swinging his fists at him. In the process of trying to fend his attacker off, Mike ended up on the ground. The perpetrator's friend shouted at him to come back to the vehicle so that they could flee the scene, which they did, but not before the berserk man picked up the sign reading, "Homosexuality is sin," and repeatedly punched it while screaming curses.

During the incident just described, Mike Foht had a video camera hanging around his neck. The camera, which was aimed at the ground but running, recorded the first few seconds of the man's assault but stopped working due to the violent nature of the attack upon Mike, who sustained bruises from it.

The man responsible for the Burlington attack has been taken into custody, thanks to the quick thinking of an alert citizen who followed the attacker to his home and reported that location to the police. As this report is being written, the man is in custody with charges pending. Yesterday, WCU also received a phone threat from Burlington that we feel is serious enough to turn into law enforcement officials. We will be doing that later today. In addition, Mike Foht has notified Burlington police that while he was waiting for police to respond to the crime scene described above, four young men standing nearby approached him and said, "We are going to hunt you down." Could any of this have anything to do with the fact that Christians who take a biblical stance on homosexuality are constantly being portrayed as ignorant, violent hatemongers looking for victims on which to satiate their mindless rage?

"What happened in Burlington, Wisconsin yesterday does not by any means reflect the character of the majority of people in that town, but it does reflect the heart of a fascist-minded subculture which will not tolerate any dissent from its party line, including a simple gospel message about homosexuality. I commend the Burlington police for their professional conduct in handling the situation yesterday in which two Christians were viscously assaulted by a pro-homosexual individual. It will be interesting to see how the district attorney will handle this case. We often have been pleased to see the local police do their job in similar situations only to have the D.A. bow to political pressure and release a dangerous perpetrator with a slap on the wrist—or worse, a pat on the back. Either way, WCU will be back in Burlington soon to finish up lit dropping the town and to do another picket. This time, we will be on hand with considerably more than two people."
Pastor Ralph Ovadal, Director, Wisconsin Christians United

For more information, call WCU at 608-328-4841.