Bob Dutko describes himself as “a leading voice today in the
fearless defense of Christian truth, using logic, reason, science, history and
factual evidence to disarm the critics and equip believers.”
To be the “truth” and account must be in “conformity with
fact or reality”. Bob Dutko’s account of events at the Monroe County Fair on
Saturday, August 3rd, 2013 at about 11:00 AM fails to meet the basic
definition of what truth is.
I stood in front of the Monroe
County Democratic Party tent with fellow Democrat Kevin
Shopshire. I said to him that I was once a Christian, that I still had many
respected friends who were Christians and I could not regard the people
working in the Citizens for Traditional Values tent as Christians without
loosing respect for myself and my friends.
Volunteers in the Traditional Values tent were lying; they were
telling people that tax dollars are being spent to pay or will be spent to pay
for abortions. I suggested that nobody in the Traditional Values tent knew anyone or
knew of anyone who had an abortion that was paid for with tax dollars. They
were telling people this to get signatures on a petition that was being
circulated from their tent.
Over the course of the week I had observed volunteers
routinely calling out to passers by and asking them to come into the tent and
sign the petition. This is a practice called “carnival barking” and merchants
and non-profits at the fair are prohibited from doing it as part of their
rental agreement.
Earlier in the week, the volunteers from the Traditional Values
tent had been taking their petition to the crowd, a practice also prohibited.
Someone must have complained because they stopped doing that. Each merchant or
non-profit is required to keep their activity within the space they rent and
prohibited from taking it to the other places on the fairgrounds.
I was at least 15 feet from the Traditional Values tent and
standing in the entrance of the Democratic Party tent when I spoke with Kevin
and indicated that they were lying about taxes being spent on abortions but I
must have been overheard by the woman who was volunteering at the Traditional Values. It wasn’t long afterward that she left her tent and visited the
entrance to ours.
The woman confronted Kevin and wanted to know why we said
that she was lying. Kevin made an effort to explain to her that tax dollars
were not being spent on abortions and that the petition she was circulating was
a sham designed to stir people up. She replied, “But Obamacare …”
The tone of the woman was confrontational from the first and
Kevin’s tone matched hers. The conversation was short and Kevin ended it by
turning his back on her and walked to the back of the Democratic Party tent.
She did not follow; she turned and went back to the Traditional Values tent.
In Bob Dutko’s account, he indicated that Kevin went to the
Family Values tent and provoked the volunteer there, but the truth is just the
opposite.
Bob Dutko arrived at the Traditional Values tent not long after
the unfortunate conversation. Dutko has helped staff the tent for several years
now. He periodically visits the Democratic Party tent pretending to be
interested in something we have in our tent and striking up conversation. His
ultimate goal is to bring his message into our tent, something that is
prohibited by the fairground rules.
I engaged Dutko in these conversations in the Democratic
Party tent multiple times in the past three years that I have worked there.
Each time I have managed to keep the conversation civil and agreed to disagree.
It isn’t easy to do that with Dutko because he is … slippery. I might choose
other words like smarmy, evasive, deceptive, arrogant, or self-righteous, but
let’s just stick with slippery for the moment.
Bob Dutko came into the Democratic Party tent and spoke with
Kevin Shopshire; he asked Kevin if he would come over to the Traditional Values tent
and sign the petition. Kevin replied, “I will not.”
Dutko was already in the wrong. He was prohibited by the
fairground rules from taking his message outside of the tent where he was
working.
Dutko told his listeners that he was just being neighborly
and thought he would walk over and say, “Hi.” His account is not in “conformity
with fact or reality”; his account begins with a lie. A “lie” is “a false
statement made with deliberate intent to deceive.”
Bob Dutko was not satisfied by Kevin’s reply and responded,
“Why not?”
Dutko, like the woman earlier, was in the wrong; he was
taking the argument to the neighboring tent and he was provoking disagreement. Galatians
5:26 suggests that Christians should not be conceited or provoke others; Dutko
is the textbook example of conceit and provocation.
Kevin Shopshire was asked why he would not sign the petition
and he was forthright in his reply indicating as he had earlier that tax
dollars were not being spent on abortions and that the petition she was
circulating was a sham designed to stir people up. Bob Dutko was quick with,
“But Obamacare …”
This conversation was not going to end well because there
was no place for Kevin to retreat; he could not walk away because Dutko was
inside our tent. Dutko was the clever and aggressive one; Kevin was merely
being honest and forthright.
I did not join the conversation immediately and I did not
take notes but I recall Kevin indicating that he did not wish to discuss it
further and Dutko pushing forward with something about why was it so difficult
to just have a conversation about it. Dutko was not on the defense; he was on
the offense.
I went over and told Bob Dutko that I was not really
interested in having the full conversation with him but I did want to know if
the petition being circulated was a “legislative ballot initiative”. His reply
was evasive and I wasn’t sure why but I wanted to know so I rephrased the
question asking if the petition were successful would it lead to language being
placed on the ballot in November. His reply was again … evasive.
I don’t know why he didn’t just answer the question but I
had a couple of thoughts: 1) he may not have known the answer; but that seemed
unlikely, 2) the petition may have been a sham petition that was merely
collecting names of supporters who would later be asked for donations, or 3)
answering a question puts the other party in control of the conversation and he
may have been attempting to keep control of the conversation by refusing to
answer.
In retrospect, I believe it was answer 3; he was keeping
himself in control. In any event I wanted to know so I rephrased the question
again asking if the petition was a legal kind of petition that was required to
have language approved and filed with the Secretary of State. This provoked a
response; Dutko became all indignant telling me that I was suggesting that the
petition was somehow “illegal”.
I attempted to recover and then I realized it was useless
and said firmly, “Is this or is this not a ‘legislative ballot initiative’; do
you even know what a ‘legislative ballot initiative’ is?”
I think this is when Kevin told him that it would be better
if he went back to his own tent. Kevin’s suggestion was not rude, loud or even
forceful, it was a suggestion. Dutko was in our tent; we were not in his. We
rented the space to promote our message and his message was not welcome in our
space.
Dutko suggests that he was in a “public” place, but he was
not; he was in a place that was privately rented by the Monroe
County Democratic Party and he should have left when asked to
do so.
Romans 12:17-18 suggests that a Christian should not repay
anyone evil for evil but should be careful to do what is right and if it is
possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Dutko’s
actions were NOT those of a Christian. Whereas we could not leave our tent to
preserve the peace, it was well within his power to do so.
Dutko began to carry on and asked why we always got “angry”
and Kevin asked him more forcefully to leave then I stated as firmly and matter
of factually as possible, “You have been asked to leave; you need to leave.”
This is the point where Dutko took off his glasses and
leaned into me. That is right, I did not get in his face as he stated in his
account; he got in mine.
One aspect of Dutko’s account really strikes me in an odd
way. Dutko told his listeners that throughout the conversation he had the urge
to strike one of us and that the only reason he didn’t do so was because he was
a Christian. I am not a Christian and I never had the urge to strike Dutko.
Dutko asked, “Is this your tough guy routine? Is this is
your best tough guy routine? It’s not very effective!” He was clearly scrapping
for a fight and I was not at all interested in that. I am reminded of how a
frightened dog’s hair stands up on the back of its neck and how it snaps at you
to scare you away. Dogs sometimes catch me off guard but they don’t frighten me
and neither did Bob Dutko.
Dutko indicated that if we had been “polite” he might have
left but he was not going to be “bullied” into leaving a “public” place. I
began to say that he had been “politely” asked but then realized that he was
being a petulant child. He literally crossed his arms and planted his feet like
a three year old. I told him, “We have no duty to be polite, but you have been
asked and ordered to leave; you must leave this tent now.”
He said that he would not. At this point, Bob Dutko was a
trespasser. As I indicated, the space in the tent was rented and it was ours to
occupy and control. There are some rules relative to ‘places of public
accommodation’ but Bob Dutko had violated those rules when he first entered the
tent and asked Kevin to sign the petition. Bob Dutko needed to leave the tent
but he was not going to do so.
I went to the fairground office and let them know what was
happening and asked them to help out. They agreed to send someone to the tent.
When I returned Bob Dutko was still standing in the rent, resolutely, arms
folded and feet planted. He said, “I see nobody came with you. I think I will
leave the tent now but not because I was bullied out.”
I replied, “You have been asked to leave and you should,
either way someone will be here shortly to speak with you.”
When the fairground manager arrived at the Democratic Party
tent and asked me what was happening, Bob Dutko simply could not stay in the
Traditional Values tent and rushed over to get his points in. The fairground manager
asked him to return to his tent and he did.
Bob Dutko tells his listeners that he did not visit our tent
again because he did not want to provoke us. The real reason that he did not
visit out tent again is because the fairground manger explained the rules to
him and directed him to honor our demand that he stay out of our tent. We had
every right to make that demand and he had a duty to honor it, even if it
deflated his ego.
Romans 12:21 says do not overcome evil with evil, but
overcome evil with good. Bob Dutko tells his listeners that he did not “repay
evil with evil” and I agree. No evil was done to Bob Dutko; Bob Dutko was the
bully and he brought the evil from the Traditional Values tent into the Democratic
Party tent.
He should not have come into our tent asking for a petition
signature, he should have accepted the fact that Kevin did not wish to sign
without explanation, he asked for an explanation and should have accepted the
explanation without argument, and he was asked to leave the tent and should
have left immediately.
Diehard Bob Dutko fans will not view his actions as being
motivated by conceit, pomp, arrogance, or self-righteousness; they will not
recognize him as a smarmy, slimy, slippery, evasive, and deceitful liar; and
they will not identify him as the actual bully in his story.
All I can do is
make sure that the intelligent people who stumble upon his record of the
encounter have the opportunity to read a more honest account.
