Hold This Man Accountable

ourCOG November 25, 2022 11:03 am #ourCOG 1

"Pastor" (I use that term loosely) Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida made national and International news several months back for threatening to burn the Quran/Koran (take your pick) at his church in Florida. Yes, this is America and we have the right to freedom of speech, but this is just pure stupidity. This is nothing more than a publicity gimmick and people played right into his game. This was all last fall, around September, if memory serves me correctly. Jones was then planning on burning a pile of the Islamic religions highest book, in order, as he put it, "to stop Islam." Really? Which of us really believes that this action is going to cause people to stand up and say, "I renounce Islam"? This was nothing more than a publicity stunt, plain and simple.

So now, we fast forward 6 or 7 months, and this nut case re-emerges and this time actually burns the Quran. He got his moment in the spot light... and halfway around the world, a group of radical Islamic believers react to his provocation by invading the United Nations building in Afghanistan, killing 15 innocent people. Yes, those radicals are responsible in and of themselves for this barbaric behavior, but there has to be a burden of guilt placed on the shoulders of this whack job who calls himself a man of God, Terry Jones. I really wish people would investigate who this guy is and realize he is a desperate man looking for attention and a way to make a buck. Long before any of this Quran burning issue came up, a friend of mine had sent me a news story and links to a couple of videos on Youtube about Jones. Jones had been the pastor of a church in Germany for many years, and by our standard of judging success by numbers of people and dollars coming in, he was pretty successful. However, the church became known pretty much as a cult, and accusations were being leveled that there was gross misuse of church funds, which led to the church and parsonage being raided by German police in the middle of the night to seize the church books for an investigation. Long story short, Germany expelled Terry Jones and his wife from the country. Jones NOW tells quite a different story, suggesting that he was targeted for speaking out against a Muslim take-over of Germany. Anyone can use Google or a Youtube search to find videos documenting all of this. There are many newer ones, but while I have not searched for them, I am quite sure the old videos, predating the events of the last 7 months by several years, are still out there to be viewed, so it is pretty obvious where the truth lies in all this.

Again, Jones' behavior in no way justifies the behavior of the radicals in Afghanistan, however, he knew full well that his actions were going to provoke a response. He got one. I predict that it is not over. I will certainly not be surprised when we hear of Mr. Jones being killed or at least an attempt on his life. I'm not wishing that on him by any means, but he has asked for it, all so he could get a little press time. I was talking with someone Saturday about this, and I told them, if it were some of my family that was killed in Afghanistan because of his irresponsible behavior, he would not only be worried about a radical Islamic coming after him, he'd better be watching out for me. This guy is a whack job and it offends me deeply that he does what he does, stealing from church people and stirring up hatred, using the name of Jesus as a tool, when he is obviously in it for his own selfish agenda.