The Dove World Outreach Center (DWOC), headed by Rev. Terry Jones has already triggered violence internationally with its promise this weekend to burn copies of the Koran (Qu’ran) and prompted our military commander in Iraq to speak out that such a hateful act would put the lives of U.S. soldiers in jeopardy. Jones, however, is unmoved and is willing to sacrifice someone’s son or daughter for his publicity stunt. Now, we are learning how really creepy this group is.
The 50-family Gainesville church is headed by Jones and his wife Sylvia. Its “Academy Rulebook” was written in November 2007 by Sylvia Jones. The rulebook restricts every part of the lives of students including cutting off contact with family members. They warn “[f]amily occasions like wedding, funerals or Birthdays are no exception to this rule . . . No phone calls. Exceptions can be made under certain circumstances but only after receiving permission.” Romantic relationships are barred: “there is no need to talk at all, or even flirt!” Students must be weighed repeatedly and are barred from “eating out in restaurants.” Students are told to “wash or shower at least once a day but not more then 2 a day,” and to be sure to cleanse “Mouth, sweat areas, hair, feet hands.”
For members have accused the Jones’ of abuse and using church funds for personal purposes. They appear to be in the furniture selling business, though allegations have been raised about the use of the church for this purpose (here).
Jones, 58, is the author of “Islam Is of the Devil” and models much of his lectures on the movie “Braveheart.”
Source: here.
“The husband and father who says he is a doctor, but the California Graduate School of Theology said Jones never went to a class at its school. Instead, he received an honorary doctor of divinity degree in 1993 from the school, which said it denounces what Jones is preaching.” (First Coast News)
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And who at that graduate school nominated Jones for an honorary degree?
From First Coast News
Who is the Rev. Terry Jones?
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=166235
Excerpt:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The man behind the burning of the Koran planned for this weekend is the Rev. Terry Jones, pastor of a small church in Gainesville.
The husband and father who says he is a doctor, but the California Graduate School of Theology said Jones never went to a class at its school. Instead, he received an honorary doctor of divinity degree in 1993 from the school, which said it denounces what Jones is preaching.
“As you can imagine, we have received very, very much pressure in the direction of canceling the event,” Jones told the media on today.
Pressure is nothing new to Jones, who took over Dove Charismatic Ministries in Gainesville after its original founder died in 1996.
At that time, Jones already was running another congregation, a church in Cologne, Germany.
He started the church in Europe in the 1980s, but its members kicked him out in 2008 over what they described as personality issues.
**********
From TPMMuckraker
Koran Burning Pastor In Florida Inspires Copycat in Tennessee
Ryan J. Reilly | September 9, 2010, 12:50PM
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/koran_burning_pastor_in_florida_inspires_copycat_i.php?ref=mblt
Excerpt:
Inspired by the plans of Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove World Center Outreach in Gainesville, Fla. to burn Korans this Saturday, a former Tennessee pastor says he plans to do the same and will post the video online, The Tennessean reports.
Rev. Bob Old, who runs an evangelical ministry called Disciples of Christ but does not have a congregation, says he will set fire to a Quran at his home and then post a video online. He also believes there should be no Muslims in America.
“If they want to have their religion, they can have it somewhere else,” said Old. He is the former pastor of First Baptist Church in Joelton and was previously was pastor of Academy Heights Baptist Church in Gallatin, which is now merged with another church, according to The Tennessean.
Slartibartfast, you are absolutely correct. My point is that there are potential assassins out there who may very well decide to make “Reverend” Terry Jones their hobby. They did in the case of Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch film maker.
http://www.rense.com/general59/shot.htm
There have been several attempts to murder cartoonists who have offended Muslim sensibilities.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Danish_police_arrest_three_in_cartoonist_murder_plot
And of course, Salman Rushdie is still a hunted man. The way I figure it, Mr. Jones is in the process of painting a very large target on himself. There are just too many people who are willing to kill over what they perceive as an insult. Of course, there are quite likely to be a number of additional victims. I read somewhere there have been more than a hundred murders over those cartoons, although so far, the cartoonist himself has survived several assassination plots.
I am reposting this article:
“Two of the actions which Nazi Germany is most infamous for are probably the burning of books and the burning of people. Are the two connected? Curiously, the idea that the former would lead to the latter was famously predicted more than 100 years before the Nazi takeover of Germany by German author Heinrich Heine. What did he understand that others do not? What is the connection between burning books and burning people?
“That was mere foreplay. Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.” (German: “Das war Vorspiel nur. Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.”)
– Heinrich Heine, Almansor (1821)”
http://atheism.about.com/od/weeklyquotes/a/heine01.htm
empirecookie,
That just goes to show that something wont catch on until the time is right (in this case the domination of the right by its lunatic fringe in the face of craven silence on the part of the adults on the right) is what I think allowed this putrid bouquet to bloom).
Otteray Scribe,
You might be right, but I fear that anyone extreme enough to use this as a cause for violence will be irrational enough to strike out against anything they identify as American rather than attempting to go after this bigot and his pathetic cult specifically. Actually, I would think that terrorism is more effective if the targets are more or less randomly chosen from the group you are trying to terrorize.
rcampbell,
Both the Koran-burning and the building the community center are allowed under the law – the difference is that one should be barely tolerated like marches by Illinois Nazis and the other should be welcomed by all opponents of Islamic extremism as a bridge-building opportunity that could help make the world a safer place…
Actually the Westboro wack-jobs burned the Quran a couple of years ago and everyone ignored them. They’re quite upset that Jim… er … Terry Jones is getting all this publicity.
http://www.military.com/news/article/westboro-official-angry-on-quran-burning.html
Slartibartfast, good observation. However, my personal take on this is that the pastor is really taking a risk. This is not the same as what the Westboro crowd does. They make people angry enough to want to punch them out, but not kill them.
This preacher is deliberately stirring up stuff with some folks who have already demonstrated the willingness and ability to travel great distances to seek out and destroy those they perceive as blasphemers or insulting to their religion. And what he is doing, especially with his publicity seeking, is adding fuel to the fire (no pun intended).
Of course, as you say, there is likely to be collateral damage with our troops, innocent tourists and others.
Otteray Scribe,
The problem is that the nutjobs in al-Qaeda or other Islamic extremist groups are not likely to direct their blowback against this church or its pastor specifically. One wishes that instant karma would cause this fool to spontaneously combust before he can light his bonfire of hate…
Does anyone notice the irony of Petraeus worrying about inciting violence against our soldiers? Is that why he and Obama originally hired a guy who ran death/torture squads to lead the charge in Afghanistan? Is that why Obama and he now put a guy in charge who said he likes to kill “sand niggers”. Here’s my take on this: Islamophobia starts at the top. You can’t go on crusades, drone civilians, torture, illegally detain and give Muslims the star chamber treatment and say you’re pro-Muslim. The media fixates on this man while ignoring the elephant in the room–the govt. itself is anti-Muslim. I appreciate the protests by other religious groups, but they also need to protest the extreme violence against Muslims by this govt. That would mean taking on the most powerful people in govt., the president and members of congress who support much worse injustices than the burning of the Koran.
I’ve seen and heard some people trying to draw a comparison between the Q’uran burning and the NYC community center issues as both being about actions that, though legal, should be reconsidered. That to my mind is a false comparison.
The only relationship these two issues have with each other is the BOTH are attempts to demonize and marginalize the members of one particular religious group.
It also occured to me that Islam accepts the Judeo-Christian historical accounts in the Bible and Torah up to Abraham. Indeed all three refer to their deity as being the “God of Abraham”. By threatening to burn copies of the Q’uran, is he not also desecrating Christian and Jewish holy books as well?
Pastor Jones represents a minority, just as Islamic terrorists represent a minority. He is using the weapon of fear, just as Islamic terrorists use the weapon of fear.
He and his followers (and, unfortunately, many other “Christian” Americans) are too blinded by hate, ignorance and fear to see that he, and they, are doing exactly what he is “preaching” against – the American Al Qaeda, so to speak.
Oh, the irony.
It’s telling that mainstream journalism didn’t bother to uncover any of this when the rightwing noise machine ginned-up this story.
Just as far too many Americans equate the actions of 19 Muslim extremists on 9/11/01 with every Muslim in the world, one can see how the actions of this fundamentalist extremist lunatic WILL affect the view of far too many Muslims around the world. Conservatives like Glenn Beck nourish these hatreds and encourage these extremists. Conservatism is fundamentalism and as such is dangerous to America politically, financially and does not represent American values.
RACHEL ZOLLRACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
Fla. minister determined to hold 9/11 Quran burn
Sep. 8, 2010 9:32 PM ET
Sep. 8, 2010 10:00 AM ET
NEW YORK (AP) — The Florida pastor who plans to burn the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11 is rooted in Pentecostal tradition that believes Christians are engaged in a modern-day spiritual battle with evil.
For Terry Jones and his Dove World Outreach Center, Islam is that evil, a world view drawn from his politics and theology — as well as an apparent thirst for publicity for his tiny, independent church.
“Our burning of the Quran is to call the attention that something is wrong,” Jones said Wednesday at a brief news conference outside his Gainesville church. “It is possibly time for us in a new way to stand up and confront terrorism.”
Jones is under worldwide pressure to drop his plan to burn copies of the Muslim holy book Saturday. Condemnations have poured in from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; the Vatican; and elsewhere.
“As of this time, we have no intention of canceling,” Jones said.
Conservative Christians have taken pains to distance themselves from the event.
The National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group for theologically conservative Christian churches nationwide, issued a statement July 29 urging Jones to cancel the burning “in the name and love of Jesus Christ.”
The Rev. Richard Land, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant group, called the plan abhorrent. George Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, one of the largest and best-established Pentecostal denominations, warned of damage to Christian-Muslim relations.
Yet, there is no sign that Jones will be persuaded by other Christians. He is as critical of them as he is of Islam, calling other pastors failed religious warriors in what he considers a secular world bent on silencing Christians.
“The real problem is not the politicians or even Islam,” Jones said, in his YouTube video series called “The Braveheart Show,” inspired by the Mel Gibson movie. “The real problem is not our educational system that wants to remove God from every part of our society. The problem is the church has laid down. The church has given up.”
Jones’ road to notoriety began in 1986 in his living room, where he founded Dove World Outreach Center, which operates out of a sprawling property in Gainesville. Despite its impressive name, the church has only about 50 members.
Its property has served as a sometime storage site for Jones’ furniture business, a violation of Dove’s tax-exempt status that was punished with a county fine and partial loss of nonprofit standing, The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun reported. Jones previously founded a small church in Germany, the Christian Community of Cologne, and was accused by his daughter and a former church elder of using donations to enrich himself, the Sun reported.
In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, a leader of the Cologne church, Stephen Baar, said only that Jones was thrown out over a difference in leadership style. Jones has denied any wrongdoing.
The pastor’s troubles extend to his use of the title “doctor.”
Jones calls himself “doctor” as do members of his church, but the title comes from an honorary degree that hangs on his office wall. He says he was given the diploma by the California Graduate School of Theology, an obscure school that boasts on its Web site that it’s so independent, it has never been accredited. In 2002, Jones was convicted by a Cologne administrative court of falsely using the title and was fined $3,800, German media reported.
Dove’s religious beliefs are spelled out in a comparatively brief statement of faith on its website.
The church frequently mentions “apostolic leadership” and “apostolic anointing,” terms from Pentecostalism, which teaches that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself today through speaking in tongues, healing and other miracles. But Jones has no apparent ties with any major groups or thinkers in Pentecostalism, according to Vinson Synon, dean emeritus of Regent University’s School of Divinity, who has studied Pentecostals for decades.
“It’s a church doing its own thing,” Synon said.
The Smoking Gun on Wednesday posted what it says was a copy of the Dove World Outreach Center rule book that included demands for obedience from church members and directives to cut off most contact with relatives.
Jones’ animosity toward Islam can also be found among some other hard-right conservatives, especially since 9/11. Yet, Jones’ brand of confrontation, spelled out in his book, “Islam Is of the Devil,” seems in a category of its own.
For many Christian conservatives, criticism of Islam is rooted in the longtime persecution of Christian minorities in predominantly Muslim countries and in bans on Christian missionaries working in those same nations. Christianity and Islam are both evangelizing faiths that are in competition in many areas. Many conservative Christian churches have seized on the threat from Islamic extremism the way they railed against communism during the Cold War.
However, Synon said he has never heard of any Pentecostals burning the Quran.
Jones met privately in the church Wednesday with the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, Imam Muhammad Musri, who afterward described their discussion as cordial and polite. At an interfaith news conference Tuesday in Washington, religious leaders said some have tried unsuccessfully behind the scenes to reach out to Jones and stop him.
“I’m hoping and praying they’ll change his mind and express his views in a different fashion that is more appropriate,” Musri said. “I believe our hearts are in the hands of God, and God can change his heart.”
… ripples ….
This is an unfortunate case of free but controversial actions leading to a spiral. The Muslim community center has the right to be where it is, but it has agitated what sounds like a very extreme Christian group (this particular church smells kind of cultish). The church has the right to destroy books it paid for, but it will no doubt agitate the nutball members of Islam… Who tend to be armed. And around we go.
Constitutional free speech issue aside, the good Reverend is tickling the tail of the dragon. He does not seem to be taking into account he is agitating a subgroup of people of the Muslim faith that are just as nutty as he is. I speak, of course, of those who are perfectly capable of hunting him down and doing unspeakable things to his neck with some large and very sharp knives.
If extremists are willing to track down and murder a cartoonist and an independent film maker for “blasphemy” what makes the good Rev. feel safe?
In the words of science fiction author Robert Heinlein, “Of all the strange crimes that humanity has legislated out of nothing, blasphemy is the most amazing – with obscenity and indecent exposure fighting it out for second and third place.” [Notebooks of Lazarus Long]
You may want to explore the recent “plank” proposed by the American Principles Project (APP). We have posted a commentary on our blog as well. This proposed plank for the Republican National Committee raises serious questions regarding the plank: http://queerfaithnews.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/they-call-these-american-principles-gop-plank-1-sounds-like-fascism-bring-on-the-scarlet-letters-and-puritan-ministers/
Man where do I sign up….damn….Daniel….play that fiddle….can you get us out of this contract?
or
Some folks have already given and implied contract that they have sold the soul…
or
Could the evil one sue for specific performance….detrimental reliance…..
I have read even some small communities are rallying against the master “de evil”…burning..this book…now never mind…that they also wanted to ban the Madonna book a few years ago….. from school library’s…. I didn’t see no rally’s then….