Saturday, September 11

Dove World Outreach Center

Dove World Outreach Center is a small (50 member) non-denominational charismatic Christian church in Gainesville, Florida led by pastor Terry Jones and his wife, Sylvia since 2004. The church, which gained notice during the late 2000s for its public displays and criticism of Islam, and gays is most widely noted for its role in the 2010 Qur'an-burning controversy which ended with Jones announcing on September 11, 2010, that his church would never be burning Korans and that he had reached his goal of exposing elements of Islam as dangerous and radical.

Church history and profile

The Dove World Outreach Center (DWOC) was founded in 1985 by Donald O. Northrup and Richard H. Wright who served as co-pastors. Northrup, who was affiliated with the now defunct Maranatha Campus Ministries (MCM), remained with the DWOC from its inception until he died in 1996. His wife, Dolores, continued to participate in various ministries of the DWOC as Woman's Pastor until 2004;she became estranged from the congregation in 2009 because she was unhappy with the program and thought it was wrong.
Northrup and the church's current pastor, Terry Jones, first became involved with each other as leaders in the Maranatha Campus Ministries. Jones founded and led the Christliche Gemeinde Köln (CGK), a church in Cologne, Germany, from 1981 to 2008 which was initially a branch of the Maranatha Campus Ministries and a sister church to Dove World. For a time, Jones served as the part-time pastor of the Florida church, and as the head of the Cologne church. A leader of the Cologne church said “He (Jones) didn't project the biblical values and Christianity, but always made himself the center of everything." German press agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that church members said Jones ran the Cologne church like a sect leader and used psychological pressure on members, “subordinating all activities to his will. In 2002, Jones, who has an honorary degree from the unaccredited California Graduate School of Theology, was fined $3800 by Cologne courts for using the title “doctor”. Jones was released from the leadership of the Christliche Gemeinde Köln in 2008 due to untenable theological statements and craving for recognition, according to the German Evangelical Alliance. Following Jones' departure, the CGK closed,then reopened under new, independent, leadership.
Jones is a native of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, who was born in 1952 or 1953. By 2004, Jones and his wife Sylvia had become the senior pastors of the DWOC, with Wayne Sapp serving as assistant pastor. Jones assumed full time duties at the DWOC in 2008 after leaving Germany.
In addition to the church, the DWOC maintains a Gainesville boarding school, called the Dove World Outreach Academy. According to the Gainesville Sun, students of the academy are prohibited from outside and family contact including attendance at family weddings and funerals, and work without compensation selling, packing, and shipping furniture for TS and Company, a business owned by Sylvia Jones.
The church reportedly had fifty members in September 2010.
In March 2010 local officials began an investigation into whether the church's for-profit business, TS and Company, which sells donated furniture on eBay, invalidated its exemption from local and state property taxes. As reported by the Gainsville Sun, the county appraiser's office said it was not investigating the church's tax exempt status because of any of its political or religious stances or because of its signs, but instead was concerned with "whether taxes need to be collected."The church has since been assessed some $3100 per year in property taxes.
Jones told the New York Times that following his July 2010 announcement of the book burning event, the bank which holds $140,000 mortgage loan on the church demanded immediate repayment of the balance and Jones had his property insurance canceled. The church campus is currently on the market, with the asking price reduced from $2.9 million to $1.1 million.
In a deposition from a court case in which he was a testifying witness, Jones answered positively to questions regarding whether Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions were of demonic origin.
Anti-gay activities

In March 2010, Dove World posted a video which decried the possibility of an openly-gay mayor of Gainsville, and a lawn sign saying, "No Homo Mayor". The church changed the sign to simply read "No Homo" after Americans United requested the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the sign as an undue participation of a tax-exempt church in the political process.
In April 2010 church members participated in a joint protest against homosexuality with the Westboro Baptist Church, a group known for disrupting the funerals of U.S. soldiers. Church member Fran Ingram posted an article on the church's website affirming the church's endorsements of the Westboro Baptist Church's protests against homosexuality but stated that "[w]e do not agree with all of Westboro's methods".
The church was strongly criticized by local religious and political figures in Florida for its stances against homosexuality and Islam. Gainesville Mayor Lowe referred to Dove World as a "tiny fringe group and an embarrassment to our community". A Gainesville Interfaith Forum was established in November 2009 with participation from the University of Florida Hillel, Congregation Bnai Israel and individual Muslim residents.
Anti-Islam activities

Lawn signs and t-shirts
In 2009, Dove World posted a lawn sign which stated in large red letters "Islam is of the Devil", (and which later became the title of a book published by Jones in 2010). The signs drew protests and picketing by local activists and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).CAIR responded to another sign which read, "Koran 9:5 Kill the disbelievers wherever you find them." saying the quote was out of context, and aimed at antagonizing Muslims.
In August 2009, several children of church members went to their public schools wearing t-shirts reading "Islam is of the Devil" on the back and were sent home for violating the school district's dress code. Legal experts said the policy was likely legal and did not violate the First Amendment. Jones said he had had the t-shirts printed by an internet company because local companies did not have the "guts" to print them.
"International Burn a Koran Day"
In July 2010, the church announced that on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks it would hold an "International Burn a Koran Day", during which church members would hold book burnings of the Qur'an. Even though Jones has admitted that he has not read the Koran, he has defended the plans saying the Koran is "full of lies".
The Gainesville fire department refused to grant the church a burning permit, stating that open burning of books is not allowed in the city due to fire hazard.
Jones attracted thousands of fans and critics on Facebook and said he regularly received death threats after the event was announced.The American Muslim Association of North America condemned the threats against Jones. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community condemned all forms of extremism, stating that it is "never a true reflection of the religion".
On September 8, 2010, Rackspace, the provider of hosting service to Dove World Outreach website, pulled the plug on the site, citing violation of their terms of use policy. A spokesman for Rackspace told CNN that the shut down was not "a constitutional issue", it was "a contract issue".
Criticism
Reactions were widespread ranging from the local level to the international and were largely negative. A sampling of these reactions follows.
Twenty local religious leaders gathered Thursday, September 2, 2010, to call for citizens to rally around Muslims. The Gainsville Interfaith Forum's request for the declaration of September 11 as "Interfaith Solidarity Day" was honored by Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe. and The Forum scheduled a "Gathering for Peace, Understanding and Hope" for the day before the planned burning.
President Barack Obama,[38] called the planned burnings "a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaeda" that could result in serious violence against American troops.David Petraeus, U.S. forces general in Afghanistan, stated that it could endanger troops and the overall effort there and said "it is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "It is regrettable that a pastor in Gainesville, Florida, with a church of no more than 50 people, can make this outrageous and distrustful, disgraceful plan and get the world's attention". The U.S. embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning the plans.Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary, criticized the plans stating "any type of activity like that that puts our troops in harm's way".
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the church's plans would violate NATO's "values" and may have a negative impact on the security of its soldiers.
Sarah Palin said the burning would "feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance."
Other negative reaction and condemnation came from: the government of Canada, the Anti-Defamation League, Al-Azhar University, the National Association of Evangelicals, the German Evangelical Alliance, the International Humanist and Ethical Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and many others.
Protests
Protests have ensued against the church in places such as Indonesia.Indonesians took to the streets to protest the event on September 4, with thousands, mostly Muslims, taking part in events across the country. Rokhmat Labib, chairman of the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir that organized the protests, called the planned book burning a provocation and predicted that Muslims would fight back should it take place. Lahib said that Muslims must not stay silent when their faith is threatened.
On the same day hundreds of Afghans had protested in Kabul against the planned Qur'an burning event, chanting "death to America" and throwing rocks at a passing military convoy. Military officials also expressed fears that the protests would spread to other cities. Military officers at the Pentagon consequently said they hoped the rare incursion into politics by a military commander would convince pastor Jones to cancel his plans. The pastor responded to Petraeus' statement that, "We understand the General's concerns. We are sure that his concerns are legitimate. [Nonetheless] [w]e must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats."
Outcome
In the wake of international condemnation and personal threats, Jones said he would not "back down because of fear." After canceling, then suspending the event in the days immediately preceding September 11, 2010, Jones ultimately said his church would not be carrying out the plan to burn the Korans and that he had attained the goal of exposing the fact that an element of Islam is "very dangerous and very radical".

(source:wikipedia)
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