We’re not positive, but we thought Jesus was love. So it’s a little hard to reconcile the message the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, was sending when it hanged President Barack Obama in effigy holding a rainbow flag on its lawn.
DWOC pastor Terry Jones explained the stunt was in response to Obama’s stance on same-sex marriage and abortion. (In the gruesome tableau, the President is holding a doll in his right hand.)
Ah, yes of course, that makes sense. Well, coming from Jones, who famously burned a copy of the Koran, it does. And let’s not forget DWOC posted a “No Homo Mayor” sign when gay candidate Craig Lowe ran for mayor of Gainsville.
As Huffington Post reports, this isn’t the first time our Commander in Chief has been denigrated this way:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
In March 2010, a teacher at a failing Rhode Island school hanged an effigy of Obama in his classroom. That same month, another dummy was found hanging on Main Street in the Georgia hometown of President Jimmy Carter.
In 2009, a Kentucky grand jury refused to indict two men who hanged an Obama effigy on the campus of the University of Kentucky. The men had been charged with burglary and disorderly conduct, the latter count associated with hanging the effigy. The lawyer for the two men said that the disorderly conduct charge violated his clients’ rights under the First Amendment.
For a little more insight on “Doctor” Jones, here’s a message to America he posted on the DWOC website. (You can also learn about his church’s cult-like practices on The Smoking Gun):
Photo: DWOC
Jay
Please tell me, IRS and DoJ, just WHAT THE FUCK DO THESE CULTS HAVE TO DO TO LOSE THEIR TAX EXEMPT STATUS!? I mean, just where is the bar?? In the Earth’s core? How low do they have to go? Where is the political will to strike back at these horrible people who preach hate and spur others to do horrible things? Why do I have to subsidize these degenerates with my tax dollars and at the same time get denied my civil rights under the tax code?
Jonathonz
@Jay: Well said Jay.
Kieran
In contemporary America the word “racism” is bandied about so often and so frivolously that it has practically lost
all meaning. However, every so often we are confronted with an ugly incident that reminds us of the ugly face of racism. This is certainly one of those incidents.
Clockwork
Sick
Bailey
jay said it best.
Belize
It’s not even a good looking effigy. This is why those people are part of that church. They’re too talentless to find work/involvement in other fields in life. It’s kind of sad and I pity them. 🙂
Belize
@Jay: I like what you said but in all honesty: what will they pay the government with? Copies of the Bible? Majority of these people are poor and simple. That’s why they are so easily attracted by the delusional doctrine that supposedly ensures their “happiness” in the next life while they act like dicks in this one. Again, it is rather sad.
B
Why isn’t the Secret Service paying this guy a visit when they visited people expressing a dislike for George W. Bush for a lot less? Seems like a double standard.
David Gervais
Even in Florida, hanging a person in effigy has got to be illegal. Has anyone asked the FBI if they have started an investigation?
Ruhlmann
@B: Because he is a pastor and religion in America is sick and twisted and untouchable. The only thing that stops a religious fanatic in America is when he gets caught dicking someone other than his wife or lately someone of the same sex. The kind of fanaticism this clown represents is not unusual in American religion.
“Mankind shall not be free until the last king is strangled in the entrails of the last priest.”
Denis Diderot
Steve
It is very clear that many so-called “churches” run by so-called “Christians”, are violating both the spirit and the letter of the law re tax-exempt status.
There are two very specific requirements:
1. The organization may not attempt to influence legislation; and
2. The organization not campaign either for or against any political candidate.
The “church” mentioned in the above article, clearly, has campaigned against Barack Obama. That is a very specific violation of the tax code.
Of course, the LDS, Catholic, Baptist, and Methodist “Churches”, also, have violated the same requirements, regularly, in recent years.
If this administration was wise, they would enforce the law to revoke the tax exemption of a few of the most outrageous, small independent “churches”. The large denominations would probably notice, and voluntarily cease and desist from further violations.
See,
http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html
“To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.”
B
No. 10 · Ruhlmann wrote, “@B: Because he is a pastor and religion in America is sick and twisted and untouchable.”
Being a pastor does not allow you to make threats against the president.
I think the difference is really how much more repressive and paranoid the U.S. was under the Bush regime. It was during the Bush presidency that the term “free speech zone” came into use, meaning an out of the way and out of sight area where protests were grudgingly allowed to congregate. People who merely had signs critical of Bush’s policies were dragged off so the president would not have to see them (and, of course, so that they would not be picked up by TV-news cameras).
If we let them squash dissent when there is a right-wing government and allow dissent when there is a moderate or left wing government, the net result is a drift towards the right wing.
Rev. L K
Any “church” that takes a political stand loses its tax exempt status. Since this leader’s congregation has a history of acting politically, not theologically, I hope the city, county and state (and if possible, national) governments go after them for back taxes. Seize their property if they can’t pay.
Anyone looking for a welcoming church where everyone is a beloved child of God, please try a United Congregational Church or Ev. Lutheran Church in America congregation and talk to the pastor. In most of these you will be warmly welcomed.
Ron
I think SMBC sum up the whole religion thing quite nicely:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1tg46ScP8w
Daez
@Steve: Actually, Obama is playing it very smart. When Clinton revoked the tax exemption of a church most churches in this nation went berserk, even if they did not at all agree with the church in question they still felt they should not be attacked for stating their opinion. Like it or not, church members vote more regularly than pretty much everyone else, and attacking churches is not at all politically savvy.
vdanker
Those darn Christians; they’re such a fun group.
Dennis Velco
Thanks for reporting on this Dan.
I posted it to my LGBT Group on LinkedIn and also made a comment there to spur members to read your article and to make comment. I also scooped it at Scoop.It on my LGBT Times news mashup.
Link to group >> http://www.linkedin.com/groups/LGBT-Gay-GLBT-Professional-Network-63687/about
All LGBT+ and community allies…. please come join me and 14,000 of your soon to be great friends on LinkedIn. The member base represents 80% of the world’s countries.
It is strictly professional office friendly dialog, posting and profiles / profile images. I’ve been told by many that it may well be one of the best run / managed groups on LinkedIn. It even has several LinkedIn top executives as members.
You can be as out or private as you like and I provide instructions on how to set those preferences (In the Manager’s Choice area).
EVERY new member is placed automatically and systematically on a temporary 100% moderation to ensure that Right Wingers don’t join and immediately spew forth their garbage. I have the ability to place individuals on 100% moderation at any time and can remove and ban people from the group as necessary. If removed for hate speech I report them to LinkedIn.
It’s core value is – Visibility can lead to awareness which can lead to equality. Come stand with us and increase our visibility on the globe’s largest professional networking site. Be a professional who just happens to be LGBT – or a welcomed community ally.
jj
This piece of shit should be in prison for inciting violence. How many innocent people in the middle east were killed because of his burn a Qur’an day? disgusting…
Bob
This man is a Terrorist. He is terrorizing any African American, especially young men, passing this, for his own Religious and Political beliefs. He should be treated as such.
RUSH L.
OK its official
FLORIDA IS AMERICA’S TOILET
drums
WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK. You can’t have an HOMAGE TO LYNCHING on your front lawn! Holy shit! Can’t they treat this as a threat to the president’s physical safety or something and arrest them? I know these types of fundamentalist churches are crazy but this is genuinely shocking me. This goes far beyond their “religious freedom” or “stating a dissenting opinion”, they need to be put away.
JayKay
I assume you were all equally outraged and offended when liberals were doing the same thing with George W. Bush.
Dirty Ole Man
@RUSH L.: No Rush, its only Northern Florida that never found out they lost the civil war. The Southern Fla is a whole other animal. When you finally get to Key west, its gay paradise. Guess that makes it a swing state.
Ugh
God damn it, Gainesville. Just… god damn it. This church is making it really hard to be proud about being born where I was.
Michael DeSelms
@B: y thoughts exactly. I thought it was illeagal to do or make threats to a President?
Red
They were probably going to hang him for being black anyway, bigoted twats.
Gay Bacon
Oh I’m sure the secret service will be paying a visit. Just wish I could see the expression on the douchebags face when they do
Aussie Col
Agree with everyone about the tax exempt status. I also wonder about their spiritual status *philosophically* Jesus is nowhere to be seen in this picture.
And does freedom of speech really cover an effigy of the President being strung like the Good Old Boy days of lynching? Isn’t that a threat, albeit implied?
janice
Odd that he would go to a park with a 30 yr old male friend to celebrate his eighteenth birthday…
janice
How did my my comment get here? lol
Kazak42
@Jay:
I hear you. Where to now? Tax them all…Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Scientologists, Mormons, etc.