t*******n
发帖数: 356 | 1 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/church-that-torched-koran-h
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Long before the Rev. Terry Jones threatened to burn a
Koran, former parishioners say he presided over a church that he treated as
a personal fiefdom, imposing a strict orthodoxy that tore apart one
Gainesville family after another.
Congregants at the Dove World Outreach Center, who have dwindled to 30 or so
in number, are required to vow allegiance to Jones — a pledge that places
restrictions on their diets, their ability to hold jobs outside the church
and their personal relationships.
For Chris Nassoiy, 25, and for most members, the last restriction is by far
the most painful. He has seen his parents only once since they left the
church in 2009, when he gathered his belongings from his childhood home.
“I had to tell them that we won’t be able to communicate until they
apologize, until they accept the Gospel,” he said, his voice cracking. “It
was a little bit wrenching.”
For his mother, Sally Nassoiy, what started as heartbreak has evolved into
anger at Jones and other church officials.
“They take young people willing to devote themselves to God’s word, and
they exploit them,” she said. “It’s a cult. That’s the only word I can
think of to describe it.”
Jones, 59, denies that the church is a cult. Those who leave the church aren
’t doing it because of him. “Their faith just wasn’t strong enough,” he
said.
Jones knows personally how his strict edicts and unconventional leadership
can divide families. Two of his daughters have left the church in disgust.
“I don’t support him, and I don’t want to have anything to do with him,”
Emma Jones said via Facebook.
Her father said her decision to walk away from the church “was the biggest
betrayal.”
For most of the young congregants, membership requires participation in
Jones’s three-year “academy,” which preaches discipline and adherence to
the Bible. It also requires hours of work, almost all unpaid, in the Dove
World Outreach Center’s used-furniture business, which is run out of the
same building as the church.
The young members live in church-owned housing in one of Gainesville’s
roughest neighborhoods.
Willie Irving, who lives in the neighborhood, used to attend services at the
center. He stopped going in 2009, he said, when he realized the church was
“trying to make a living on people’s faith.”
But some of those who have extricated themselves from the church describe
just how difficult the process can be in this tight-knit community, where
roots run deep.
“My grandparents were founding members of Dove. They sold their wedding
rings to buy the property,” said Shane Butcher, 28.
After Jones took over the church in 2001, things started to change. Butcher
recalls spending 60 hours a week scouring thrift stores for furniture to
resell on eBay. His parents became so embittered by what Jones was doing to
the church that they left in 2005.
“It was full of the Holy Spirit,” said his mother, Patty Butcher, “and it
became a laughingstock.”
But even after his parents left, Shane Butcher remained at the church,
severing ties with his family. “I felt like that’s where God wanted me to
be,” he said.
His family wondered whether they had lost him forever. “It was painful to
see my son under someone’s control like that,” said his mother, a former
church secretary.
It took Shane two years to work up the strength to confront Jones’s wife,
Sylvia. “All we do is make you money,” he told her before walking out of
the church.
Within days, his friends and housemates did to Butcher what he had done to
his parents: They cut him off.
The insular world that Jones has created for his followers in Gainesville is
reminiscent of his previous enterprise, the Christian Community of Cologne
in Germany.
During three decades as a missionary there, he recruited nearly 1,000
churchgoers, according to Pro, a Christian magazine in Germany that
interviewed several former members for an article published in September. In
Cologne, the article said, Jones was no longer spreading the Gospel so much
as “creating his own empire.”
Many Gainesville congregants began leaving Dove after Jones launched his
much-publicized crusade against Islam. He held a mock trial of the Koran on
March 20 for “crimes against humanity.” Video footage of the holy book
being soaked in kerosene and set ablaze in a portable fire pit has sparked
three days of protests in Afghanistan, leaving at least 20 dead and dozens
injured.
Church services Sunday — the first since the Afghan protests — drew only
14 people.
Some churchgoers wore a Dove academy uniform embroidered with the church’s
name. They belted lyrics, alternating between the biblical and the patriotic
, with preteen boys on drums and guitar. Outside, one member was on security
detail.
When he took the pulpit, Jones likened himself to Martin Luther King Jr. and
then to Joshua leading his followers across the Jordan River.
Burning the Koran was necessary, he said, even if it led to a dozen deaths,
because it was a part of defending the Gospel. It wasn’t easy, and it’s
something the church should be proud of, he said.
“When they were crossing the Jordan, they put their lives on the line,” he
said.
“There’s only one way to stop me,” Jones told his followers, “and that’
s to kill me.” | y****t
发帖数: 10233 | 2 嘿嘿...
其实,那些为极端Muslim舔PY的主流媒体才是真正的疯子.
as
so
places
far
【在 t*******n 的大作中提到】
: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/church-that-torched-koran-h
: GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Long before the Rev. Terry Jones threatened to burn a
: Koran, former parishioners say he presided over a church that he treated as
: a personal fiefdom, imposing a strict orthodoxy that tore apart one
: Gainesville family after another.
: Congregants at the Dove World Outreach Center, who have dwindled to 30 or so
: in number, are required to vow allegiance to Jones — a pledge that places
: restrictions on their diets, their ability to hold jobs outside the church
: and their personal relationships.
: For Chris Nassoiy, 25, and for most members, the last restriction is by far
|
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