Ocean City Prayer Breakfast Used Tax Dollars? // Extremist Jerry Boykin Event Sponsored by State Police & Area Governments

UPDATE: Maryland Juice is hearing behind the scenes that at least one of the entities listed on the door of the prayer breakfast is responding that their organization did not sponsor the event; rather individuals bought tickets with their own funds and sat together. Hmm.

This morning, Ocean City's Mayor held his annual "Prayer Breakfast," over the objections of hundreds of concerned vacationers. The Mayor's special guest, former General Jerry Boykin, is a well-documented extremist and homophobe. Though we hear the controversial speaker declined to repeat some of his more incendiary views at this morning's event -- a new problem is emerging. Even with General Boykin's muted remarks, this event still appears to be violating principles of Church & State separation.

An attendee forwarded Maryland Juice the following two photos of signs that were taped to the doors of the "Prayer Breakfast." The notices highlight the sponsors of the event, but they alarmingly list a number of governments and taxpayer-funded agencies.

A few troubling sponsors of the "Prayer Breakfast" are:

• Maryland State Police
• Worcester County Board of Education
• Town of Berlin
• Berlin Police Department
• Ocean City Fire Department
• Worcester County Jail
• Worcester County State's Attorney

See full images below:

Baltimore Sun to Ocean City Mayor & Council: SPEAK UP

The Baltimore Sun editorial board is on top of the Ocean City disgrace:

Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan and the town council can attend the breakfast if they so choose. What they cannot do, however, is pretend that their presence there won't reflect badly on them and the resort town they lead. They need to make clear whether they agree with Mr. Boykin's views, they need to do it immediately and they need to do it publicly.

Ocean City Update: Mayor's Special Guest Says Gays Are "Not Normal" // The Presence of LGBT People is "Divisive"

Maryland Juice has yet another follow-up to the controversy over the Ocean City Mayor's "Prayer Breakfast." Hundreds and hundreds of people have emailed to ask the Mayor and City Council to distance themselves from tomorrow's event featuring former General Jerry Boykin, due to his inflammatory statements about the First Amendment, religion, President Obama, and more.

Surprise, surprise, it turns out he is also a homophobe. A Maryland Juice reader has forwarded additional video and audio footage of Mr. Boykin's views on homosexuality. Amazingly, in the video, a young person tries to challenge his logic. He doesn't budge:


BOYKIN on Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Presence of Homosexuals has "Divisive Effect"

Ocean City Mayor's Extremist Event Blows Up: ABC, WAMU, Baltimore Sun Stories

News about the Ocean City Mayor's extremist prayer breakfast is spreading fast (see below). P.S. Sign a petition calling on Ocean City and its officials to distance themselves from this event: [ SIGN TODAY ]. Over 801 signers and counting!

 ABC News:

Ocean City Ignores Complaints About Extremist Speaker & Plays Dumb About His History // Ideas for A New Vacation Spot?

UPDATE: Progressive Maryland just blasted the Ocean City petition to their members: [ SIGN TODAY ]. Over 580 signers and counting!

Maryland Juice has another update on the rapidly evolving story over Ocean City's disgraceful "Prayer Breakfast." The event is in less than 48 hours, so let me catch you up quickly:

• Ocean City's Mayor hosts an annual "prayer breakfast."
• This year's annual guest is truly an extremist (ie: talks about Hitler and Obama, no 1st amendment rights for all religions, was a General during the "War on Terror" and publicly called it a religious war, said W. Bush was annointed by God, etc).

-----------> PFAW/CAIR & JUICE BLEW THE WHISTLE 

• Hundreds of Marylanders are now calling on the Mayor & City Council to respond.

Today, Ocean City's elected officials broke their silence, and it appears that their response is to play dumb. Delmarva Now reports:

JuiceBlender: Updates on Ocean City Mayor, Andy Harris' Drunk Intern, Sam Arora on Marriage, Redistricting & MORE!

SPECIAL EDITION: "Don't Shoot the Messenger"

Maryland Juice was distracted with work last week and missed a few screwy political headlines. Let me try and catch you up with a quick whiz-bang through recent "news of the angry." See miscellaneous juice below. Note: these aren't my words, just my curation. Where appropriate, I'll note the writer/speaker's name in bold:

JUICE #1: UPDATE on Ocean City Disgrace: Last Friday, Maryland Juice wrote about how Ocean City's Mayor was embarrassing the Free State by inviting an extremist, Jerry Boykin, to be his honored guest. The story is now snowballing as The Washington Post provides more background on Mr. Boykin (who refused to respond to their reporter about this issue):

Washington Post: A Pentagon investigation in 2004 concluded that Boykin had violated “internal regulations” by giving speeches marked by fiery religious rhetoric while in his U.S. Army uniform. The controversy surfaced after videos of his speeches were picked up in the nation’s press.

In one instance, Boykin mocked a Muslim adversary in Mogadishu for believing he would be protected by Allah. “I knew that my God was bigger than his,” Boykin said. “I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

Boykin described the war on terror as a battle against satan, and said that then-President George W. Bush had been installed in his position by God. Despite the controversy, Boykin remained deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence under Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, and retired in 2007.

JUICE #2: UPDATE on Rep. Andy Harris' Underage Booze Party: At the start of the New Year, Governor Ehrlich's former "Prince of Darkness" Joe Steffen revealed that GOP Rep. Andy Harris may have tried to sweep under the rug misconduct from his Chief of Staff Kevin Reigrut. We previously wrote about how Mr. Reigrut allegedly bought alcohol that resulted in an underage intern getting trashed and booted from her program. Baltimore's Inside Charm City blog updates on this story:

MD DISGRACE: Ocean City Mayor's Special Guest Says "No Mosques in America," Invokes Hitler Against Obama, Etc.

UPDATE: CAIR is now calling on Ocean City's Mayor to rescind his invitation to Jerry Boykin.

Today Maryland Juice received news that Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan is embarrassing the Free State with his choice of special guest at his annual "Prayer Breakfast." Last week, Ocean City's Dispatch wrote:

Ocean City Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Director Bruce Spangler expressed excitement this week about Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin of the US Army, retired coming to Ocean City next month.

“Talking to people that know this guy, they say he’s a soldiers-soldier … he isn’t somebody that lives from behind but is upfront leading,” Spangler said....

“He is an expert on Islamic history,” Spangler said....

The Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast will be held Jan. 26 at the Clarion Hotel....

“Our speaker for this year’s 22nd annual event is in much demand throughout the country and has been seen on all major networks, as recently as last week.  He has an exciting testimony that you do not want to miss,” Spangler said.

This year the event will also last a little longer than normal giving Boykin plenty of opportunity to share his knowledge and experience with those in attendance. The event begins at 7 a.m. sharp and will end promptly at 9:15 a.m.

Before you decide whether to make the trek out to Ocean City to see Mr. Boykin speak, you can watch some of his expert testimony on Islam below:


BOYKIN: "No Mosques in America"