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So there was a scuffle between people who hold differing opinions, right?
That's certainly what most people will take from KOMO's story.
However, there is more to the story. And the story does not fit the narrative the news media has created around the "marriage equality" movement.
The person physically assaulted is not actually a "protester," he is a preacher, who preaches the gospel without malice. And has done so on the streets of cities across America for the past 33 years.
The "group of people" KOMO describes are homosexual activists and their supporters.
Here's what really happened, including a video of the physical violence and bullying.
Fortunately there are other news sources that reported on the beating in Seattle.
Christian Post said this about it: "Two street preachers carrying signs that read 'repent or else' and 'Jesus saves from sin', were protesting against homosexuality at a gay pride event in Seattle, Wash. on Sunday, and were physically attacked, punched and kicked by attendees who warned them that they 'better leave or else'."
The above link includes the video taken by a man who witnessed the beating.
Ruben Israel, the minister who was beaten, has been preaching with Bible in hand on the streets for 33 years. He is a member of the national ministry group "Bible Believers." The organization has 74 chapters nationwide.
Israel says he was similarly beaten in Chicago this past June by homosexual activists who also tried to burn the Bible he was holding.
He says it also happened in Albuquerque where his attackers even attacked the police cars that were being used to protect him from the activist mob.
He says, "We are not haters." He says this "has nothing to do with hate." He said they don't just target homosexuals, we preach the gospel---we target sin from a biblical perspective.
However, he believes attacks like the one in Seattle "will happen more often" because he says the LGBT community "believes they have the law behind them."
Israel said, "If you disagree with them, you're in the wrong. These are the people who blanket themselves with the word 'tolerance'. I see it escalating over and over and over. They will attack us in the presence of the police and they will attack us in front of a video camera."
Israel explains that his ministry and others like him go "where the rubber meets the road" and challenges "society's acceptance of immorality and sin."
He says, "Unfortunately, most Christians have never seen these incidents, such as the one in Seattle."
That's true. Review the KOMO report against what actually happened.
Israel says, "For somebody to get so aggressive---pushing, shoving and hitting---speaks volumes."
Indeed it does.
We have to wonder why those who engage in this particular behavior feel the need to be so aggressive and violent. We wonder why they are unable to express tolerance when they preach tolerance, and why they, who endlessly advocate anti-bullying in public schools, continually bully those who disagree with their lifestyle.
Perhaps columnist Star Parker touched on part of the answer in her recent column, "Same-Sex Marriage Is A War On Religion".
She wrote in part:
The Book of Proverbs, part of biblical canon, once a vital part of American culture, tells us: "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."
It's this haughty spirit, this pride that precedes destruction, that lies behind the Supreme Court's decision last week to bury the Defense of Marriage Act.
DOMA defined marriage, for purposes of federal law, as traditional marriage -- the union of man and woman.
This decision did not come out of nowhere. It did not happen in a vacuum. It is but the latest in a long process of the unraveling of American culture driven by pride -- the sense that we answer to no higher authority. That the two-legged animal man is master of the universe and decides, invents right and wrong, true and false.
A free society must start with a foundation of rules. If our biblical tradition is not the source of these rules, what rules do define how we live and where do these rules come from?
The preamble of our Constitution tells us that its purpose is to secure the "blessings of liberty."
What is a blessing? The first definition in my Webster's New World Dictionary says that a blessing is "a statement of divine favor."
How can we secure divine favor in a nation for which the divine is unconstitutional? A prideful nation by definition must be a nation that rejects the idea of a blessing.
Parker, an African American, says we all suffer from our current social and moral condition, but the minority children suffer, perhaps, the most.
She says, "Sixty seven percent of black children are raised in single parent households. The collapse of black family life reflects this very welfare-state materialism, bestowed to blacks by elitist white liberals, that defines the culture that now rejects the sanctity of traditional marriage."
She asks, "Can there be any doubt that the grandparents and great-grandparents of the five Supreme Court justices who just voted to delegitimize the sanctity of traditional marriage in America would be appalled by the decisions of their offspring?"
And she concludes, "Can there be any doubt that if the ancestors of these same Supreme Court justices had the values that their offspring are selling today, that these judges would most likely not be who they are and sitting where they sit?"
She believes, "When values of meaninglessness become sanctioned as part of our public and official culture we should know that this is the 'pride' that 'goes before destruction.'"
Parker tells her readers, "Let there be no doubt that same-sex marriage is about much more than marriage. It is a deliberate and conscious assault on religion and all traditional values."
Indeed it is. And I personally believe we, collectively, will soon begin to become aware that we have made some wrong turns in the "pursuit of happiness" and the "blessings of liberty".
If people of faith will not become weary in well doing and will continue to stand firm, spiritual restoration can and will come.
Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Bold. Be Blessed.