[UPDATE] The Common Ground (no 's') church and pastor Olive have been given a gift: But how will they respond?

UPDATE: pastor Olive had his chance at last night's (1/5) City Commission to send a message of reconciliation but he chose a different route. The divisiveness, drama, and attention-seeking will continue from the 'Common Ground' church. The blog post from Monday (1/4) on this issue follows:

[The church plant in downtown Lake Worth, the 'Common Ground' (no 's') church, has been given a gift by Mayor Pam Triolo. Their pastor Olive will give the first invocation of the year. He has a special opportunity to set things right vis-à-vis the "War on Religion", "War on Jesus", and the "Epic Battle" nonsense here in the City. We'll find out tomorrow at the City Commission meeting whether the church's silliness will continue or they'll take another path that's less much less divisive, PR-based, and personality-driven. Anyhow, the invocation is a tiny item leading up to the re-zoning vote for the Gulf Stream hotel project. Make plans to show up TOMORROW for Item 10B on the agenda. If you interested, continue reading how the 'Common Ground' church came to be in Lake Worth:]

On Friday, January 30th, 2015 (Vol. 1/Issue 3) in Margaret Menge's now-defunct (always-FREE, delivered-FREE, advertising-challenged) tabloid, she wrote the words below in her "House Editorial". In her pitch she gave clues to the nonsense that was to come about her "larger truth" vis-à-vis pastor Olive and the curiously named 'Common Ground' church:

     Media bias is often more to do with what newspapers decline to cover than what they do cover. There is almost no coverage whatsoever of churches or of faith in most American newspapers, except in articles about the African-American community. Churches don't get written about. Looking back at old newspapers one time, I saw newspapers reprinting whole Sunday sermons from a local church as a regular thing.
     I'm not planning to do that in these pages. But I do want to write about our churches, and the faith of the people who attend them. And I want to write about many other things, as well, to tell the larger truth of our community, and to make a more complete record of what is happening here.

There are so many churches in our 6 square mile City of Lake Worth that do so much for the community; way too many to name here. And most of us in Lake Worth, including myself, are very appreciative.

On Friday, February 20th (Vol. 1, Issue 6) Ms. Menge made good on her promise to tell her "larger truth". Unfortunately a local TV news station and some that were duped in the national press picked up on the nonsense before the real story could be told. It was a black eye the City didn't deserve:

CBS12/WPEC's Kathleen Walter with her news segment on February 26th about 'pastor' Olive and his Common Ground (no 's') nonsense. Interesting to note, and completely off topic, the segment aired 12 days prior to election day.

A "soviet-style crackdown"? So much for searching for the "common ground" (no 's').

Now you know the real story.

As far as churches and religion not mentioned in newspapers? Each week's Lake Worth Herald dispels that ridiculous notion. There is almost no news coverage about faith by the media? Did Ms. Menge ever hear of Pope Francis? And as far as sermons not printed in entirety in newspapers any longer. . .a thing called the internet made the effort unnecessary. And so did email. And Facebook. And YouTube. And Twitter. . .

[Stay tuned for Part 2 of the War on Religion Show. Just in time for the March 2016 elections in the City. Remember, Menge's first tabloid appeared out of nowhere on January 16th and went downhill from there.]