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Christian missionaries at Burning Man forced to leave in the middle of the night · Best of: Features

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  Christian missionaries at Burning Man forced to leave in the middle of
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  the night. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice, generated by Everlet. The Burning Man event welcomes all attendees from
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  all walks of life to the Black Rock Desert for ten days
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  of festivities with a philosophy of radical inclusion. However, one group is
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  alleging that it was unfairly excluded from the event. On Tuesday, the
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  Christian missionary camp shift, the atmosphere, was asked to pack up its
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  belongings and leave the playa. According to videos posted on Instagram by
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  camp member John Hinnerman, the complaint stemmed from the camp engaging in
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  non consensual activity, including filming Burning Man attendees and encouraging The to
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  receive a blessing. Burning Man has strict rules regarding privacy, and no
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  photos or videos that show attendees faces are allowed to be taken
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  without permission. Burning Man takes participants right to privacy seriously, said Burning
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  Man's spokesperson Dominique Debouquet Dodley. Seeking permission and consent before filming or
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  engaging other participants in Black Rock City is a requirement and responsibility
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  for anyone at They
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  event. This camp received multiple warnings and opportunities to correct their behavior,
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  yet continued to violate our policies, and were therefore evicted. Hinnermann's videos
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  allege that the camp, was being discriminated against based on its religion
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  and that its members were given only three hours to pack their
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  belongings. The camp,
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  alleges that over six hundred attendees had given their lives to Jesus,
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  with the group conducting baptisms on the playa in small water tanks.
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  Some
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  commenters on Reddit noted that the use of communal water on
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  human bodies violates Burning Man's rules regarding no public pools or showers,
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  which stem from Nevada's State Health Department. Attendees in neighboring camps commented
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  on shift the atmosphere's presence on the playa. Jennay Gerstman gave an
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  interview to an SFF gate reporter while serving Rahamen Spiked with vodka
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  at Camp Effing Magical. Then were giving away coffee and matcha, Gerstman
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  said. The definitely had some really loud music. We had to tell
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  They Hey, The
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  volume's too high. You got to keep it down, noting that the
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  music was Christian EDM, and that the volume was eventually lowered. Shift
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  the Atmosphere was located directly or from the Kidsville camp, with one
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  twelve year old whose attended the burn every year of his life,
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  noting that he was offered matcha and coffee, but before receiving them
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  he had to listen to prayers, and was given a yellow cartoon
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  pamphlet, whose cover proclaimed For God So Loved the World. Julian Rabinau,
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  a San Francisco man at the Axis of Stillness camp, noted that
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  members of Shift the Atmosphere invited him into the camp to look
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  at biblically inspired paintings, and asked if he was in the mood
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  for submitting his life to Jesus Christ. Rabinau declined but agreed to
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  let a man pray for him. I can understand why some people
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  might be a bit put off by the question Are you ready
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  to submit your life to Jesus? I'm not one of them. That's
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  just me, he told S. F. Gate. Rabineau saw shift the atmosphere
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  tearing down its infrastructure on Tuesday, around ten PM, as wind gusts
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  led pieces of its camp to fly into the street. Nearby campers
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  noted that the group had left much of its gear behind, breaking
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  Burning Man's leave no trace rule. So we were hearing some shouting
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  there, and then it calmed down, said Rabinau. We saw a cop
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  car show up, and then we walked around there again, and we
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  saw one of the structures had just like flopped over and was
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  blocking the street there. They cleared that out after like an hour
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  or so. The Bureau of Land Management, the Carson City Sheriff's Office
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  and Shift The Atmosphere, did not offer comment by time of publication.
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  SF Gate National Parks Bureau Chief Ashley Harrell contributed reporting to this
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  story.