When the automatic doors of the Faulkner County Library in Conway slid open Saturday, visitors were greeted by seven long tables full of books on sale.
You could walk out with a pound of books for 50 cents.
While an enticing deal, it wasn't why the library's parking lot was full on a weekend morning. The cause was down a hallway to the left of the building's entrance, in two opposing meeting rooms.
The room on the left held an event that was booked a month ago, at the encouragement of Kirk Cameron.
Across the hall was an event hastily arranged in the last week in response to it.
In the first room was the "Pastor Story Hour" led by Owen Strachan of the Grace Bible Theological Seminary in Conway.
A Facebook post announcing it described the event as "a direct contrast of modern culture's popular and controversial Drag Queen Story Hour that has been occurring more and more frequently in public and private venues around the United States."
Wearing his Sunday best and addressing a packed room of more than 40 children and even more adults, Strachan read Christian children's books, "The Biggest Story" and "God's Design."
Among stories about Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark, there was a theme in his message for a group of children as young as toddlers: there are only two sexes, man and woman.
"Eve was the first woman who was designed to complement the first man," read Strachan. "All women who have come after her have been designed in the same way, women have been specially designed by God to do the work of helping, supporting and submitting to the man that God has put over them as their head. ... This book is teaching us how God made boys and girls."
Strachan then gave a "quiz," asking for a show of hands.
"Who's a boy? Just to be clear, just so I can clarify. Okay, who's a girl? Who's a girl? ... That's it! God made men and God made woman for his glory. Good job, everybody on that quiz."
A chuckle rippled through the room.
The location of the "Inclusive Story Hour" was an accident.
When Leah Bilokury, a member of the Faulkner County Coalition for Social Justice, made the reservation for her meeting room, she had no idea it would be directly across from Strachan's.
A 27-year-old "recovering Evangelical" and Conway native, Bilokury put together the "Inclusive Story Hour" after learning about "Pastor Story Hour" on Facebook.
As she stood in the room with one of her two children strapped to her chest, Bilokury explained what led her to create the event.
"We saw the posts about [Pastor] Story Hour and we're like, 'this is not the world we want to foster,'" Bilokury said. "We don't want a world where queer people are being told that there's something wrong with them. That they're evil, that they're sinful. ... So let's do something that is gonna be a safe space to tell people that you're valued, you're loved, not in spite of your gender or sexuality.'"
This is what she had managed to put together in a week.
The room had three tables. One had books, including "And Tango Makes Three," "It's Okay to Be Different" and "This Little Rainbow."
Another had pamphlets, wristbands and other educational material from the coalition. Across the room was an arts and craft table. Near the door were two tubs full of dried beans and cups for kids to play with if they lost interest in the main event.
That was at the back of the room and was marked by a circle of chairs.
That's where a drag queen named Angila Dubois would read books to the assembled audience.
"I have never done something this level before," a clearly stressed Bilokury said. "So I'm pretty tapped out."
The first book of the day was "If You're a Drag Queen ..."
Dubois began reading, "If You're a Drag Queen And You Know It ... Blow a Kiss!"
Each group had their supporters.
Billy Froman, a student of Strachan's, attended to support him.
"I think it's a great way to introduce kids to the gospel and make them aware of the reality that we live in and expose them to God's truth," Froman said.
That reality, Froman said, was that "God has made us both male and female and we live in this fallen world and we're in need of a Savior."
When asked what he thought of the "Inclusive Story Hour" Froman gave a firm "no comment."
In the other room was Jamie Atkinson.
Atkinson, 47, is a lesbian who was attending with her 7-year-old daughter.
"My little girl loves drag queens," Atkinson said. "She has anxiety issues, she doesn't feel like she fits in anywhere. But when you put her in an area with a drag queen she feels unconditional love and acceptance. I'm here because this is fun."
Atkinson is also an ordained minister who attends an Episcopal church.
"I definitely am all about seeking God's will for our lives," she said. "I just feel like [they're using] some misinterpretations and misdirections ... in order to exclude people. We are called to love everyone, we are called to love all people. There are some people over there that I've known all my life and I love them. I just disagree with the fact that they think that we're here to hurt them, because we're not."
Back in the "Pastor Story Hour," the story telling continued.
In reference to something in one of the stories he was reading, Strachan raised his hand and asked his young audience another question, almost rhetorically.
"Who wants to be in a war that never ends?"
Eventually, the crowds for both groups thinned out.
In the hallway, three members of the coalition stood across from Strachan.
There was Jason Bailey, a gay man, Morgan Erby, who is transgender, and Austin, who identifies as non-binary, pansexual and polyamorous.
What played out was a more than 10-minute discussion, tense, but cordial, with talk of "inborn realities" and "false equivalences."
"I want to understand, even if we disagree kind of polar opposite, I always want to understand what people are," Strachan. "Christians aren't perfect."
"One group is actively engaging in violence and the other group is trying to exist," Bailey responded.
"All we really want to do is live our lives in peace, we're no threat to anyone," Erby said later. "And nobody's interested in grooming kids. If there was not another transgender child born after tomorrow, that would be perfectly fine with me. I wouldn't wish this on anybody. We're not actively trying to remove another group's right. And that's how we feel, we're constantly under attack."
In the middle of the discussion, Strachan stopped and pointed at Austin's right arm.
"So what's the Elven say?"
Taken aback, Austin rolled up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo dedicated to "Lord of the Rings."
The Elven script was from the series' "One Ring" poem, reading "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them."
Above the script was the image of the Eye of Sauron.
"I've never seen a Sauron tattoo before," Strachan remarked.
Back in the coalition's room, Austin said he hoped Strachan was genuine in his curiosity.
"It was different," Austin said. "It's difficult just hearing the same thing that I heard as a child, it was just the same stuff repeated over again."
Austin had not anticipated bonding over Lord of the Rings.
"I love that," Austin said. "And I hope to have some Lord of the Rings discussions with him in the future. I'd like to show him we're just like everybody else."
Austin wound up back in the hall with Strachan.
"If I walked into your church tomorrow, would you accept me?" Austin asked.
"Absolutely," answered Strachan.
"Are we all welcome?"
"Bring everybody," Strachan said. "I always want fellow sinners."
Austin introduced himself and held out his hand, Strachan followed and shook it.
"Nice to meet you," Austin said.
"You seem cool," replied Strachan. "You like Lord of the Rings."
While Strachan said the hallway encounter was a "great conversation ... I did not walk away in anyway changing what I believe [and] know to be true from the Bible."
"I want to have conversations," Strachan said. "And America at a much lower level than like, eternity and where your soul is going to be forever, needs this. We need more actual honest conversation, where we treat each other with dignity. ... I heard about the experience of those folks and value hearing them. Because everyone has complex life stories. Many people have had hard experiences, and I have real compassion to that. So that's always good to hear about.
"People are not abstractions. People are living beings."
Owen Strachan, provost and research professor of theology at Grace Bible Theological Seminary, reads “God’s Design” by Sally Michael and Gary Steward. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)
Angila Dubois, a local performer, reads “Julian Is a Mermaid” by Jessica Love at the Faulkner County Library in Conway on Saturday. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)