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Seattle-area 'Coffee with a Cop' event canceled after shop owner's Christian views attract LGBTQ backlash
A Seattle suburb canceled its upcoming “Coffee with a Cop” event after it faced protests because of the coffee shop owner’s Christian beliefs.
Seattle radio host Jason Rantz reported that the city of Shoreline, Washington, canceled the community event, which aims to strengthen the relationship between police officers and residents, after the city’s Facebook page was flooded with negative comments from liberals upset that Pilgrim Coffeehouse would host the event.
Pilgrim Coffeehouse is owned by Keith Carpenter, head pastor of Epic Life Church. The church states it believes marriage is between “one man and one woman” on its website.
Commenters vowed to hold a protest and one even called for the coffee shop to leave the city, saying that Carpenter’s views on marriage did not align with the progressive city’s ideals.
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Shoreline, Washington canceled a “Coffee with a Cop” event after LGBTQ activists in the community threatened to protest the event. ( (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images))
“Picked the Christian homophobic coffee house!” an account called “Sounder Sam” posted under the city’s venue announcement. The same person alerted the community that a “pro LGBTQIA2S+ protest” was planned outside the coffee house the morning of the event.
Other comments accused the city of picking a “bigoted” and “anti-LGBTQIA+” venue and demanded it be hosted elsewhere.
In response to the backlash, Shoreline abruptly canceled the event, Rantz reported.
“It was neither the department’s nor the City’s intent to make any community member feel unwelcome based on the selection of the event venue and the values that the venue may or may not hold. When planning future events, we will be more intentional with our venue selection,” Shoreline City Hall wrote in a March 12 statement posted to Facebook.
A coffee house in a Seattle suburb faced LGBTQ backlash over the owner’s Christian beliefs. (Getty Images)
The cancelation announcement was met with mostly positive comments.
“Thank you, Shoreline!!!! My family feels a little bit safer in our neighborhood now thanks to this decision,” one comment under the City Hall Facebook post read. Another said, “Thank you for listening and doing the right thing.”
Carpenter also responded to the cancelation post by outlining all the ways his church helps the needy in the community and pledging that everyone would be treated with respect and dignity at his coffee shop.
He also spoke out against the cancellation in an interview with Rantz.
“It is a form of discrimination, for sure,” Carpenter told the radio host, adding that he didn’t want to play “the victim card.”
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A Seattle-area “Coffee with a Cop” event at a coffee shop was canceled after liberals vowed to protest the event due to the coffee shop owner’s religious views on marriage. (iStock)
Carpenter said he could deal with online backlash but that there were also “blatant lies” being spread about his church and coffee shop.
“We serve anybody who walks in the door. I don’t even know (if they’re LGBT). We don’t ask questions. So it’s like a non-starter for us, because nobody’s asking questions at the door. Anybody who walks in that space will get the same exact beautiful, generous, generously hospitable treatment. And probably the best cup they’ll have all month or all year,” he told Rantz.
He said it didn’t “make a lot of sense” that the city would exclude his business from participating in the event while at the same time touting its inclusive values.
“It basically says, ‘We don’t want Pilgrim Coffeehouse in our city,’ and putting it out there publicly,” Carpenter told Rantz.
“It’s completely opposite than [the]message they’re trying to say about inclusivity. It’s the opposite of that, and it’s hard. It’s hard as a business,” he added.
Pilgrim Coffeehouse owner Keith Carpenter said the city’s message about inclusivity was at odds with how his business was excluded from participation in the community event. (iStock)
A spokesperson for the City of Shoreline told Fox News Digital, “The City is committed to being a welcoming place for all people, no matter who they are or what they believe.”
“The work of local government is mostly focused on the basics—it is potholes, sidewalks, and public safety. Coffee with a Cop is supposed to be a place where law enforcement can talk with residents about law enforcement in Shoreline. When the March 26 event got caught up in issues other than public safety, it could no longer serve its purpose and was canceled. Moving forward, we will only host these events at public facilities,” the spokesperson added.
Carpenter did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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A pair of San Francisco tourists were rescued Saturday after getting stuck on a cliffside, the San Francisco Fire Department said.
Crews were sent to the area between Deadman’s and Mile Rock Beach around 3:30 p.m. for a cliffside rescue.
The Fire Department said one of them dropped their cellphone, and both of them got stuck on the cliffside trying to get it back.
Crews from the Cliff Rescue 14 and Heavy Rescue 1 helped with a rope-rescue operation. The pair were rescued around an hour later.
Neither was injured, and they were issued a ticket by the US Park Police.
The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office’s Henry 1 helicopter was on standby for the rescue, but was not needed.
A Denver hairstylist who disappeared after leaving her University Hills apartment on April 15 has been found dead, her mother announced Saturday.
“There are no words strong enough for the grief we are feeling,” Jax Gratton’s mother, Cherilynne Gratton-Camis, wrote in a Facebook group dedicated to finding her daughter. “The light she carried, the love she gave so freely and the joy she brought into our lives have been taken from this world far too soon.”
In the nearly two months that Gratton was missing, more than 5,100 people joined the group to share information and try to find the missing 34-year-old hairstylist.
Gratton was last seen at about 10 p.m. April 15 in the 4200 block of East Iliff Avenue, according to the Denver Police Department.
Her body was found a week short of two months later, Gratton-Camis said.
Gratton-Camis started worrying when her daughter didn’t call on Easter, and the hairstylist’s friends realized something was wrong when she missed multiple appointments with her clients. Gratton rented a studio at the Solera Salon Suites’ North Broadway location.
Gratton’s body was found in a Lakewood alley in the 9600 block of West Colfax Avenue at about 5 p.m. Friday, Gratton-Camis told Denver7 on Saturday.
She said a Lakewood detective visually identified the hairstylist by her tattoos and that her daughter was found wearing the same clothes she left in.
“The body was in advanced stages of decomposition and could not be positively identified,” Lakewood Police Department spokesperson John Romero said in an email to The Denver Post. He said a suspicious death investigation was ongoing.
Jefferson County coroner officials said Sunday afternoon that no forensic identification had been made and the cause of death was “pending until further notice.”
No updates in the Lakewood investigation were available Sunday, Romero said.
“This has opened my eyes in ways I can’t ignore. It’s not just about Jax — it’s about all of you in the LGBTQIA+ community who face the world every day with courage, just wanting to live, love and exist safely and equally,” Gratton-Camis wrote on Facebook. “That should never be a fight. And yet it is.”
Gratton’s friends and family plan to gather in front of Denver’s City and County Building at 1437 Bannock St. at 11 a.m. Monday to talk about her death and remember her with the community.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Originally Published:
The Seattle Seahawks’ OTA practices last week were open to media members, which offered them the first glimpse of new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s scheme.
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Of course, it’s difficult to glean too much from practices at this stage of the offseason. No live contact is allowed, teams are still early in the process of installing their playbooks and new players and coaches alike are still adjusting to their surroundings.
But even with all that in mind, former NFL wide receiver Michael Bumpus liked what he saw at OTAs from Kubiak’s Shanahan-style offense, which is known for its wide-zone blocking scheme and play-action attack.
In particular, Bumpus said it was refreshing to see the connectivity of Kubiak’s system and how everything ties together.
“I saw the vision,” Bumpus said during Friday’s Four Down Territory segment on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy. “I literally saw the vision of Kubiak and this offense. … I saw a wide zone. I saw a wide zone to a screen. I saw a wide zone look to a reverse boot over the top. You just see the connection from play to play to play.
“It was just refreshing to see not necessarily new concepts, but concepts that connect,” he added. “… It’s OTAs, (so) take it for what it is. But the vision was there and it was fun to see it unfold.”
The connectivity of Kubiak’s scheme is something other analysts have highlighted, too.
Back in January, when Kubiak was interviewing for the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator job, ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky described it as a “butterfly effect” during an appearance on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. Orlovksy said the attachment from play to play is the biggest difference between Kubiak’s system and the one run by former Seahawks OC Ryan Grubb last season.
“In that (Shanahan coaching) tree that Klint comes from, that scheme, the most fundamental part of it is everything looks the same,” Orlovksy said. “There is always a butterfly effect to a play call, and things are always constantly attached. There’s a consistent sequencing of events. You’re painting a picture so often in that scheme, rather than writing a letter.
“And Ryan Grubb’s stuff (last) year, I do think that there was, we’re gonna call this play, and then we’re gonna call this play, and then two quarters later, we’re gonna call this play,” he added. “There wasn’t a lot of attachment to, all right, we called this, and we have these three things off of it that are gonna look the same or were set up because of.
“I think that’s the fundamental difference.”
Listen to the full Four Down Territory segment at this link or in the audio player near the middle of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
More on the Seattle Seahawks
• Wyman: What looks different about Seahawks LB Tyrice Knight in Year 2
• Seattle Seahawks had perfect OTA attendance – why that matters
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• Seahawks RT Abe Lucas on his health: ‘I’m playing – that’s a good sign’
• Takeaways from a week of Seattle Seahawks OTAs | Bump & Stacy
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