Mainstream media has given an unknown religious cult of similar ilk as Westboro Baptist Church – the nut cases who protest homosexuality at our troops funerals more publicity than they rate or deserve.
In fact, the Dove World Outreach Center (DWOC) has endorsed Westboro Baptist Church’s protests against homosexuality at our troops funerals.
Way back in March 2010, the so-called Christian Church in question, Dove World Outreach Center posted a video which decried the possibility of an openly-gay mayor (in this case, current mayor Craig Lowe, who is the first openly gay mayor of Gainesville, FL). So far, so good.
However, it also posted a sign saying “No Homo Mayor”; after Americans United for Separation of Church and State requested the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the sign as an undue participation of a non-political tax-exempt organization in the political process, the church then changed the sign to simply read “No Homo”.
SOURCES: IRS Should Investigate Florida Church For Opposing Mayoral Candidate, Says Americans United”. Americans United. March 26, 2010. http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2010/03/irs-should-investigate.html.
Chad Smith (April 2, 2010). “Church changes ‘No homo Mayor’ sign to read ‘No homo’”. Gainesville.com. http://citylimits.blogs.gainesville.com/10669/church-changes-no-homo-mayor-sign-to-read-no-homo/.
ENDORSEMENT OF WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PROTESTS AT TROOP FUNERALS.
On April 18, 2010, members of the church participated in a joint protest with the Westboro Baptist Church against homosexuality; the protest took place in front of Trinity United Methodist Church and the University of Florida Hillel.
Later, on April 21, Dove World member Fran Ingram published a blog post proclaiming the church’s endorsements of the Westboro Baptist Church’s protests against homosexuality and homosexuals at the funerals of fallen U.S. troops.
In response to a Military Mom concerned about Dove World Outreach Center’s endorsement of Westboro, a representative of the same religious group that wants to burn Korans, Fran Ingram, had this reply in defense of protesting at troops funerals.
The military question, and Westboro: We at DWOC are also pretty wild!
http://www.doveworld.org/blog/the-military-question-and-westboro
“I have…met the Westboro people and do not think they are vile. They are very focused, not ‘religious’ and politically incorrect. We at DWOC are also pretty wild – many say very wild – hateful, evil, dangerous, not Christian, a cult, sick, bigots, intolerant …and much more.
Dismissed so that our message can be pushed away and disregarded. We can be seen as dirt and thrown out.
My point is, what are they getting at?
They [Westboro] don’t say that only to military people. They say it to everyone about everything when they can find any connection to God’s displeasure.
You and Your Son Will Not be Saved Just Being in the Military
You and your son will certainly not be saved just because you are military. You know that too – it is only by grace through Jesus, repentance and forgiveness. But do we do much repenting?
The Military is Necessary HOWEVER
The military is necessary, just as war was necessary in the Bible at times, even commanded by God – to rid some evil, to advance his Kingdom. Yet he said to David when he wanted to build the temple that he could not because he had lived a warrior’s life. There are other references in the Bible to violence of any kind being against plan, or his best plan for us.
War is not Glorified in the Bible
War is not glorified in the Bible, is it? On the other hand, God is called a Warrior, and goes to war in the spirit realm. Maybe violence and bloodshed, even in a just war or in self defense, is something we should all be repenting for more often. Wouldn’t hurt, would it? Or are we a bit like the Islamic jihadists who glorify war to such an extent that they think that is their guaranteed ticket to heaven?
Simply put VT Readers if you support these nut cases burning Korans, you might as well join them and Westboro Baptist Church protest at the next fallen troops funeral.
If you cringe at the thought of anyone protesting at our troops funerals then get on the phone, internet, send smoke signals to mainstream media and our troops in combat that these kooks have ties to Westboro Baptist Church!!!
Pre-WWII NAZI Book Burning Memorial
Empty book shelves beneath the square were thousands of Jewish books were burnt by Nazi students pre WWII
Books published by Jewish authors such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Maxim Gorky and Heinrich Heine were burned in April, 1934, in front of the University of Berlin. One of the leading newspapers, the ‘Vossische Zeitung’ was forced out of business because it was owned by the ‘House of Ullstein’ a Jewish firm. The same thing happened to the German Jewish newspaper, the ‘Judische Rundschau’. The Jewish owned ‘Berliner Tageblatt was forced to close in 1937. The well known and respected Frankfurter Zeitung was allowed to flourish but its Jewish owners were sacked. On April 7, 1933, a Civil Service Law was passed in Germany. This law banned all persons with a Jewish grandparent from public employment, an action which caused great distress in the Jewish community. By the end of the year around 31,000 of Berlin’s Jews were living on charity. (Of the 503,000 Jews living in Germany when Hitler came to power around 319,900 had fled the country by 1939. By the war’s end only about 23,000 Jews were living in Germany)
One need only replace Jews or Jewish with Muslims and Germany with the United States, then ask our troops in harms way IS THIS WHAT YOU ARE FIGHTING AND DYING FOR???
Now let’s take a look see at what General Petraeus has to say about these goofballs and how their dumb ass actions WILL ENDANGER OUR TROOPS in the FIELD.
Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, VT News Network
Gen. David Petraeus: Burning Quran endangers troops
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warned that an American church’s threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.
The comments from Gen. Petraeus followed a protest by hundreds of Afghans over the plans by Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center — a small, evangelical Christian church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy — to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States that provoked the Afghan war.
“Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence,” Petraeus said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
VT Editorial 
Comment: Without having access to the email sent by Petraeus to AP, we can only assume that the general may have mentioned that burning Korans would be an OUTSTANDING RECRUITMENT Poster for Al Queda, the Taliban, plus any other Muslim extremists groups AND could very well drive moderate Muslim into the extremists camp.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen echoed Petraeus’ sentiments saying any burning “would be in a strong contradiction with the all the values we stand for and fight for.”
VT Editorial Comment: In other words, what the General and NATO Secretary-General are most concerned about is the increasing appearance that U.S. Troops are on a Christian Crusade against Islam. Neither NATO nor the United States has enough troops to take on the Muslim world minus conscription (THE DRAFT) for someone else’s Holy Wars. Implementing THE DRAFT for any Judeo-Christian Holy War would make resistance to the Vietnam Draft look insignificant in comparison.
Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.
In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Newsweek later retracted the story.
Responding to Petraeus’ comments, Dove World Outreach Center’s senior pastor Terry Jones acknowledged Petraeus’ concerns as legitimate but said the church still planned to go ahead with the burning.
“We are at this time not going to cancel it. We’re still considering it and praying about it,” Jones told The Associated Press. “We are also just also concerned and wondering, when do we stop? How much do we back down? … Instead of us backing down, maybe it’s to time to stand up.”
DWOC’s rationale for wanting to Burn Korans can be found in their Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran
http://www.doveworld.org/blog/ten-reasons-to-burn-a-koran
The church, which made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said “Islam is of the Devil,” has been denied a permit to set a bonfire but has vowed to proceed with the burning. The congregation’s website estimates it has about 50 members, but the church has leveraged the Internet with a Facebook page and blog devoted to its Quran-burning plans.
Terry Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center: What Is It?
Well besides being allied with Christian religious fanatics who protest at fallen troops funerals, Terry Jones’ Church is one of Hate. DWOC is a small far right-wing fringe church located in Gainesville, Florida. Their website mentions “the end times” in the very second sentence, and the right-hand block of the site is dominated by a link selling Terry Jones’ “Islam is of the Devil” book. A link for “Burn a Quran Day” has been shoehorned below the site’s masthead.
- ‘Burn a Quran Day’ Met with Outrage
- IRS Probe Sought for Dove World Outreach Center
- Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Ronnie James Dio Funeral
Dove World Outreach Center was founded in 1986 by Donald Northrup and Richard Wright, and leadership was assumed by Terry Jones in 1996.
The Gainesville church complex has a religious school, called the Dove World Outreach Academy, whose students are sequestered from the outside world, and work to pack furniture for TS and Company, which is owned by Terry and Sylvia Jones.
Terry Jones’ daughter, Emma Jones, broke with the church, calling it a cult, and accusing her father and stepmother of a series of financial and labor abuses.
Emma Jones and Heinz Koop – a former church elder in Germany – say church members confronted Terry and Sylvia Jones with an itemized list of alleged abuses such as a car purchased by the church for their son, salaries paid by the church for TS and Company employees and donated furniture that was sold for profit.
After the accusations, Terry and Sylvia Jones – who from 2001 to 2008 had divided their time between living in Gainesville and living in Cologne – left Cologne permanently in 2008.
Source: gainesville.com
Calling itself a “New Testament Church”, the Dove World Outreach Center blog is full of posts about what it hates (mainly Islam and homosexuality), all the while saying that it loves people. You be the judge.
We at VT decided to link to their site to allow readers to judge for themselves, however most blogs and forums refuse to link to their site, because they consider the DWOC content to be hate speech, in violation of their Terms of Service. If the VT Editorial Board decides that responses to this post are contributing to hate speech, comments will be removed.
Terry Jones’ organization was last in the news for its series of anti-Islam lawn signs: Jones seems to both really hate Islam, and to really enjoy being on the nightly news.
As a result of its controversies and the ties between the church and TS and Company, the Alachua County Property Appraiser commenced an investigation into the tax-exempt status of the church in March 2010.
Chad Smith (Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.). “County investigating Dove World’s tax-exempt status”. Gainesville.com. http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100325/ARTICLES/3251059?tc=ar.
Local response
The church has been strongly criticized by various local religious and political figures in Florida for its stances against Islam and homosexuality. In response, a Gainesville Interfaith Forum was established in November 2009 with participation from the University of Florida Hillel, Congregation Bnai Israel and individual Muslim residents, and the forum’s request for the declaration of September 11 as “Interfaith Solidarity Day” was honored by current mayor Craig Lowe. The Forum scheduled a “Gathering for Peace, Understanding and Hope” at Trinity United Methodist Church on the day before the planned burning.
In addition, Mayor Lowe has referred to Dove World as a “tiny fringe group and an embarrassment to our community”.
Twenty local religious leaders gathered Thursday, September 2, 2010 to call for citizens to rally around Muslims “in a time when so much venom is directed toward them.”. As well, many of these same leaders and their groups are participating in a petition which can be seen at www.PleaseDontBurnTheKoran.com
Sources:
Chad Smith (Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.). “Mayor Lowe: Dove World is ‘an embarrassment'”. Gainesville Sun. http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100804/ARTICLES/8041009.
Chad Smith (Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 7:02 p.m.). “Local leaders forming response to Quran burning”. Gainesville.com. http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100811/ARTICLES/100819861/1105/NEWS?Title=Local-leaders-forming-response-to-Quran-burning.
Chad Smith (Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.). leaders call for solidarity against Quran burning “Religious leaders call for solidarity against Quran burning'”. Gainesville Sun. http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100902/ARTICLES/100909904?Title=Religious leaders call for solidarity against Quran burning.
Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.
My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.
Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.
I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.
I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.
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