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Lines drawn amid prayer

Mayor says she'll defy, not boycott, Drollinger

By Patricia Farrell Aidem, The Los Angeles Daily News, May 2, 2007

Santa Clarita - Mayor Marsha McLean said Wednesday that she would ignore a call to boycott this morning's Prayer Breakfast, opting instead to challenge the controversial keynote speaker with calls for tolerance and appreciation of diversity.

At the Hyatt Valencia event, whose private sponsors call it the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, McLean said she will be a voice for those insulted by speaker Ralph Drollinger, leader of Capitol Ministries, who has a long record of bashing Catholics, gays and mothers of young children who serve in the state Legislature.

Nevertheless, dozens of protesters signed an online petition initiated by blogster Jeff Wilson on community Web site scvtalk.com, urging the mayor to be a no-show at the $25-a-plate breakfast. The petition, e-mailed by Wilson to McLean, was sparked by Daily News reports this week on the event and speaker Drollinger.

"Marsha, you're better than this," Henry Schultz commented in signing the petition.

"The mayor's presence and endorsement suggests that the city government does not view its citizens equally," added Mike Devlin of Saugus.

Carol Clark of Valencia said, "This group is designed to exclude some members of the community and pass judgment over them. I would think it shouldn't be the position of any elected member of our city to participate in such a group."

Drollinger, who lives in Newhall, came under fire in Sacramento when he said female legislators who leave young children at home to work in the Capitol are sinners. A man's role "is primarily to be a breadwinner and woman's is to be at home nurturing their children," he said.

He irked Catholics by saying theirs is a "false religion," and that they won't go to heaven.

Capitol Ministries Vice President Sean Wallentine said Drollinger's goal in speaking is to spread the group's belief that faith in Jesus in the only path to heaven. The best outcome at today's event, he said, would be to convert individuals in attendance.

McLean said she urged event organizer Joe Messina of the Dunamis Group, a Christian businessmen's organization, to see that Drollinger's comments are tamed.

"Knowing the climate in our valley, how great the people are, I hope his remarks would be tempered, and he would not bring forth those comments about women and Catholics," McLean said.

Schultz said he would be mollified if McLean stood up to Drollinger. But he doubted Drollinger would change what he has to say.

"The fact that Drollinger was chosen by this group to be the keynote speaker indicates their certain lack of niceness," he said. "He has a long record of saying the wrong thing - the wrong thing in the sense that he demeans people."

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