DOVE CENTER A HAVEN FOR HATE

DOVE CENTER A HAVEN FOR HATE

Posted on 01 September 2010

Brandon Thompson / Contributing Writer

Bringing a new meaning to the phrase “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida seems to thrive off of its controversial slogans and slander. Hiding under the title of “church”, this center does not display the values that a church would normally teach its members like unconditional love, kindness and obedience.

Their most recent act of controversy was the announcement that on September 11, in honor of 9/11 victims, they will be burning copies of the Qu’ran at their center and encourage others to do the same. The Qu’ran is the holy book in Islamic religion; it is equivalent to the Bible in Christianity.

Rev. Terry Jones, the head of the Dove Outreach Center has preached to his congregation that the Islamic religion “is of the Devil”, and by burning the Qu’ran they are ridding the world of “darkness”.

Though many religions beliefs may not be the same, this does not give anyone the right to burn the others holy literature The Nazi’s burned non-German and Jewish literature to express their superiority over other religions and suppress all other non-Germans. That is exactly what this center is trying to do, but instead to those who follow Islam.

By burning the Qu’ran, Dove World Outreach Center is trying to spark fear into those who follow the Islamic faith and convert them to Christianity. When asked about this event Rev. Jones replied,” “The goal of these and other protests are to give Muslims an opportunity to convert”. This is hypocritical for a so-called Christian “church”, because the Bible teaches that we are to love our neighbors like we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

Another incident that the center was involved with was the posting of the sign, “Islam is of the Devil” on their front lawn in July 2009. They also produced t-shirts printed with the same slogan, which are still for sale. Taking freedom of speech too far and turning it into hate speech is what this center is doing. It seems provoking those around to riot and protest is what brings satisfaction to this congregation. Someone actually tore down the sign, but the church quickly reposted it.

I am of Christian faith as well, but I do not believe what this center is trying to do is right. Nowhere in the Bible does it state that if we don’t agree with another religion or practice to hate them, post hateful signs and burn their literature.
The Bible teaches Christians that we should do unto others, as we would have them do unto ourselves (Luke 6:31). If another religion stated they would like to burn the Bible I’m sure that there would be a world-wide protest in efforts to stop this event.

The Dove World Christian Center should remove their label as a church, and replace it with hate center.

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Student Media at Florida University

http://fiusm.com/2010/09/01/dove-center-a-haven-for-hate-2/