Brickbat: Dour Scots

Destiny Church had booked Edinburgh, Scotland's city-owned Usher Hall for a conference on growing church membership that would have featured American minister Larry Stockstill. Stockstill is founder of the Surge Project, which claims to have helped found 20,000 churches. But after receiving complaints about Stockstill's opposition to gay marriage, the city council canceled the booking. "The Destiny Church event at the Usher Hall has been canceled due to the keynote speaker's publicly-stated views about same-sex relationships which are, in the council's opinion, offensive and discriminatory," said a council spokesman. "We are committed to promoting diversity and equal rights for all. The proposed event did not meet the standards which we expect from those hiring and visiting our venues to respect and observe and the booking was therefore canceled" The church is trying to raise money to pursue legal action against the council.