prayer booths in Barney Allis Plaza in Downtown Kansas City

[pstokely]

I saw these things at the Chimp protest Thursday, aren't they on Public Property?

[Nevernose]

1. It's not illegal to pray or even have prayer booths on public property

Especially if the area in question is considered to be a public park, such as Barney Allis Plaza (I'm assuming; I've never been to KC).

If the booths are sponsored or subsidized by the city gov't, however, it's a whole other story.

[pstokely]

2. doubt the city paid for them

but they were screwed into the concrete

[LizW]

11. Maybe not illegal, just creepy

I swear, I read something every day here that I think MUST be a joke.

"Prayer booths"? On public streets? With little kneelers and microphones to record your prayer? Are they there all the time, or were they just brought in and installed for Bush*'s visit?

We are living in a Margaret Atwood novel.:crazy:

[Neecy]

12. yup, all the time

They're imbedded into the sidewalk, so it's a permanent 'feature' of our fair city.

I just moved here from San Francisco and the only thing on the sidewalks there are homeless people. I'm not sure this is an improvement (and - oh my - imagine if they tried these prayer booths in SF. What a brawl THAT would be).

[HootieMcBoob]

3. are you sure they weren't urinals?

ok i'm going to hell now right?

[stilpist]

4. What the hell is a prayer booth?

Seriously. I've never heard of such a thing before.

What do they look like? How would I know if I were seeing one?

[arwalden]

5. Remember The "Prayer Closet" In The Movie Carrie?

Candles, pictures, trinkets, bibles, crosses. EVERYWHERE!!

(One can only hope that Mrs. White won't lock you inside.)

[htuttle]

15. They remind me of the 'electric Jesus' booths in THX-1138

There's a great scene where Duvall is getting sick with radiation poisoning, and starts barfing in the booth. The computerized 'Jesus' picks up on this and starts responding to it in an 'Eliza-like' manner (ie., one of those computerized 'psychologist' programs...).

Duvall: <Bllooorrrrrtght!>
Jesus: Tell me more about this, my son.
Duvall: <Grooollllp! Blaaaaaaarrrrrt!>
Jesus: That's very interesting. Why do you think you feel that way?

[FlaGranny]

18. They seem to be places where you can do your praying

in public. You know, the thing that Jesus said you should NOT do?

[Neecy]

6. I saw the damn things too

They look just like open-air phone booths (they're intended to, in order to fool people into walking up to them). They have little kneelers that you pull out and a microphone that records your prayer.

I took the opportunity to pray into one that Bush won't be re-elected in '04.

I'm going to find out if the city funds these things. They are on city property, and given that the city maintains the property there must be a cost associated to KCMO taxpayers. I'll look into it and post what I find out.

[graphixtech]

8. while you are on the phone,

could you ask what the security cost for the Bush visit / fundraiser was to KCMO taxpayers? Rather curious about that.

Several of us must have been very nearby each other. Cool!

[Neecy]

9. I'll do that

I also wondered how much the taxpayers were absorbing to provide security for the dolt (the motorcycle cops alone were overwhelming in numbers). I'll call around City Hall on Monday to see if I can get that information, since I was already planning on checking out if we were paying for the damn prayer booths, too.

Did you ever get an official crowd estimate? I noted that the AP or UPI wire (I forget which) classified us as a 'handful', I think most of the local media estimated it as between 150-250, depending on the source. Since we were split up on both sides of the Plaza it was a little hard to tell.

[graphixtech]

10. certainly not official,

but i did a rough count for my own curiosity.

I walked to the west side of the front fountain area and counted the union men crowd, then the line in front of the fountains, then stood across the street from the east side and continued the count.
My count at that point was about 225, and I did not realize that there was another bunch of protesers on the west street. This was still early (about 10:15) I walked over to the west street a little later, and guestimated another 75.

Since my initial count was somewhat early, and there were a pockets of protesters in side areas, I am relatively confident that there were 350-400.

[pstokely]

16. nothing about God or Jesus on them

nt

[pstokely]

17. maybe KCMO put them there for the Promise Keepers conference

they are invading KCMO in about 2 weeks

[jafap]

19. Amen to that

I did not notice them or I might have said the same prayer. But that sentiment is already in the Lord's prayer - it says: "deliver us from evil".

[graphixtech]

7. just like phone booths,

the old blue and white plexaglass ones? After the police ordered us to move up to this street (away from the motorcade) I was standing about twenty feet from them and they caught my eye.

My first thought was that they were phone booths, then I noticed the differences. It looked like the plexaglass had simply been replaced, while leaving the iron structure usable.

Instead of the telephone logo they had a logo of praying hands. They also seemed to have some sort of sound system.

I also thought they were very odd, and asked a friend about them.
He thought they were an artistic statement of some type.

I thought it seemed an attempt to proselize religion. The booths are in the center of the sidewalk, and rather intrusive.

edit: added couple pictures

[ComerPerro]

13. That doesn't matter to me

Public property? Such as a park or something like that, I have no problem.

But when you put it in a government building, expecially a courthouse, with a prominent location and display, then I take exception.

[Gin]

14. Does it broadcast your prayer? if so...here is a prayer...Lord please

rid the US of the gang that can't shoot straight. Play it loud and often...

[electricmonk]

20. Do they look anything like this?

[ComerPerro]

21. LOL

Ahh, the first episode...