The Gillis family has always been a Middle-Georgia bedrock of community pride. There are many famous Gillis’s in the Laurens County community: in 2003, the Georgia Legislature passed a resolution to designate Interstate 16 as the Jim Gillis Historic Savannah Parkway in honor of James L. Gillis, Sr., a Democrat who served as a State Representative, State Senator and Director of the Georgia Department of Transportation. His sons Hugh and James, Jr., also served as Democratic State legislators. Hugh, a Representative from 1941 to 1953 and a State Senator from 1953 to 1955 and from 1963 to 2005, and James, Jr. was a State Senator from 1945 to 1946.
Carl Gillis, a relative of Jim Gillis, started a pre-fab housing business in Adrian, Georgia – just outside of Dublin. His son, Gil Gillis, a prominent Republican and business man extraordinaire in Dublin, runs a studio, among other things, out of which Bill Perry hosted a local radio talk-show—where they discussed the contentious issue of gay-marriage and other right-wing business and political topics of the day. In many ways, Gil Gillis has played a part in reaching out to the local community in Dublin. Gil Gillis’s family name is on I-16, the Interstate that links Dublin to the rest of the world. Gil has helped local Bill Perry (Nancy Perry’s husband) get his views out to the Dublin public, and Gil does not shy away from expressing his views, either. Recently, Gil Gillis let it be known, publicly, that he agrees with Nancy Perry that our President is not a Christian for the following seven reasons:
#1: Obama Believes There Are Many Paths to Heaven
#2: Obama Denies the Authority of the Bible
#3: Obama Supports Homosexuality
#4: Obama Supports Abortion
#5: Obama Affirms Muslim Prayer
#6: Obama is Associated with Black Liberation Theology
#7: Obama Has No Bona Fide Christian Testimony
Is Gil speaking for the Dublin Business Community when he denounces our President Obama as a non-Christian? One need only look at Gil Gillis’s public postings and one can see Gil thinks most people who vote for President Obama work at something like a McDonald’s selling french fries. What does this mean, Gil? Is that the local Dublin McDonald’s you are talking about Gil? The picture to the left is what Gil Gillis has to welcome people to his website page.
Gil Gillis wrote in a recent thread “The Laurens County Georgia Democratic Party Facebook page told me I was not a Christian. I didn’t know that. Jesus said I am. I think I will stick with Jesus’s decision. Obama is a devil.”
There is a large section of business-minded Dubliners who have spent a lot of time and effort over the years into bringing International Business into their community: YKK (the Japanese zipper and house-siding manufacturer), Mage Solar (a German solar panel manufacturer), Dinex (a Danish exhaust manufacturer) Valmiera (a Latvian glass manufacture). Now that corporations in the US seem to be able to hold religious views – local business man Gil Gills extraordinaire probably has a view of how Christian these businesses are. He certainly has one about our President Obama. How can a community in Dublin’s position allow local public school teachers, such as Nancy Perry, and local business men, like Gil Gillis, degrade the voting choices of the citizens of Laurens County?
How can Dublin let these three voices represent Dublin and Laurens County and still expect to remain attractive to serious big international business? Who speaks for Dublin – the likes of Gil Gillis and Bill and Nancy Perry? – or the people who are striving to make Dublin a place for everyone, including people like President Obama, the people who voted for him, including gay and straight people harmoniously, and the International Businesses who depend on common sense to prevail in their local communities? From listening to these three, Nancy Bill and Gil, it seems there is no welcoming room in Dublin for anyone but “their” kind of Christians.
Is there now a Christian-Mafia, a Christian ISIS, a Christian Taliban, ready to run certain undesirable Non-Christians out of Dublin and Laurens County? Are they trying to bully the people in Dublin to vote a certain way? Is this how Dublin welcomes people who are different? We have all heard Nancy and Bill and Gil – are they the three-stooges voices of Dublin Georgia and Laurens County? Is this how Dublin is going to advance itself into a bright future for everyone in the community? or are we going back to the regrettable times of the Salem Witch Trials and Lynch-Mob rule? As Bill Perry, Nancy Perry’s husband and local radio talk-show host has stated in the local paper, we are all eagerly awaiting to hear how “strongly” Bill Perry will be responding to what his teacher-wife has instigated in her classroom. For some reason, the Perry’s advisers have told them not to comment. Bill Perry, nevertheless, has promised us “more.” Is there such a word as “triple-down” and, if so, does that make Bill, Gill and Nancy the Three Stooges?
Concerned Middle Georgians want to know.
How dark is a closet? Come out into the light Gil…..It”s your destiny to be happy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czRtuU-O6aM
Did you know that Gil Gillis is a LOG CABIN REPUBLICAN
Agree!
These people are pathetic attention seekers.
Oh no, they really believe this, at least in action and words. I can attest to their sincerity. Which is honestly more upsetting than it being done in jest or for attention.
Wat the frack really
Let me make this perfectly clear. Nancy, Gil, or whoever else that thinks like this is NOT my voice.
These people are the problem. Let me try and help you out a little bit..
Jesus preached kindness, equality for all, and just pure love for everything and everyone.
these people have done the exact opposite of that.. Too me, it sounds like they are speaking with hate in their hearts.
very christian like, huh?
Just because one thinks a president is or is not christian ….. Wait what’s that called? An opinion? Yes… And EVERYONE has the right to have and share their personal opinions, right? Isn’t that liberty? Doesn’t that freedom allow for this article to even exist? Do YOU wish to give up YOUR freedom to think and publish those thoughts? No, of course not. So don’t be such a bigot. If you truly felt the opinions expressed by these people were wrong to share, you would have never mirrored the exact same behavior by sharing your own.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2015/04/07/president-and-vice-president-speak-easter-prayer-breakfast
EVERYONE, even the small town Christian, has the right to speak out as they wish. If it’s good for liberals, then it’s good for conservatives. If atheists, scientologists, Buddhists, Gays, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Democrats, Libertarians, feminists, lobbyists, homeless, famous, rich and poor are given the right to think and speak what they want, the the conservative Christian Right-wing republican white American male has the exact same freedom as protected by the constitution of the United States, and I for one am glad SOMEONE took a stand DESPITE the hypocritical bigot BULLIES that terrorize anyone with old fashioned conservative opinions!!!!
Now you have a right to say what you want, we all do … But before being so quick to jump someone else, remember to grant others the same permission you are so freely entitled to.
And one more thing, he may not like things our president has done, but he still follows the laws of this country and that’s the only obligation any of us have. And no one I know has more heart for his community, and he gives freely of his time, talent and money to aid others in need. Whether people agree with him or not doesn’t define his character, but that does. Same as your small minded misinformed name calling (stooge? Really?) defines yours.
Just FYI, our international industries don’t go through Gillis or Perry, they come in by way of the Chamber of Commerce… And the chamber president is a Christian. That fact has yet to be a hindrance in international business, nor will it. Those who MATTER don’t mind, and those who mind…well… Who are you again? Yep, doesn’t matter
Having had the misfortune of being born and raised in Dublin, I can confirm that it is one of the most backwards towns that I have ever seen. (A accusation which the recent election confirmed, with entire neighborhoods boasting Trump lawn signs.) Its frightening how much many of the town’s residents enjoy being stuck in the 1960s, and proudly celebrate their racism, mysogyny, hypocracy, and rejection of “liberal” ideas. Since Obama’s election, I’ve really noticed how ingrained and insidious the racism is- most of the “Christian” whites will vehemently deny being racists, but just think that blacks aren’t “quite as good as us”; (direct quote from a store clerk @ Belks) and that’s not accounting for the hundreds who don’t bother hiding it, proudly plastering confederate flags on everything and liberally sprinkling the N word into everyday conversation. In a county w/ a nearly 50/50 racial makeup, there is very little mingling. Middle Georgia was hit hard by the recession, with many of the mill/factory jobs that were a staple of the economy disappearing; this fostered an ugly resentment which only deepened the racial divide. These ppl are angry, they refuse to listen to reason or facts, and the town only reinforces these beliefs; and since most liberals escape @ the first chance they get (present company included) there’s very few ppl left to challenge these delusions, so the vicious cycle continues.
I saw the most fitting metaphor for Dublin back in April: A woman in Kroger, wearing a “Washington, you’re fired” tshirt, and paying for her groceries with an EBT card. People there live in a bubble, refusing progress and continually voting against their best interests, it’s truly depressing. And I realize that not everyone in Dublin thinks this way, and that there are dedicated liberals who stay there and continue fighting the good fight, and I have nothing but respect for them!
Gil and Bill are a lot more than friends… Dublin knows the truth about ol’ Gilly.