Pastor Terry Jones hangs Obama effigy outside Florida church
Jun 9, 2012 in Politics
Gainesville - Pastor
Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach
Center, Gainesville, Florida
has hanged an effigy of Obama from a gallows in front of his church. He says
his action is in response to Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage and
stance on abortion.
Broward
Palm Beach News reports that U.S. Secret Service is investigating the
incident. According to U.S.Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary, "The
Secret Service is aware of this incident and will conduct appropriate
follow-up."
According to The
Huffington Post, the effigy is suspended from a makeshift gallows with a yellow
rope noose. A doll is in the right hand of the effigy and a rainbow colored gay
pride flag on the left. An "Uncle Sam" dummy stands at the base of
the gallows. A trailer nearby has the printed message, “Obama is Killing
America."
The
Huffington Post reports that Jones explained that he had shown the Obama
effigy hanging "Uncle Sam" when the display first went up about two
weeks ago, but the positions were changed on Wednesday.
Jones said the gay pride flag calls attention to Obama's
stance on same-sex marriage and the doll calls attention to the fact that Obama
favors abortion.
Jones said that radical Islam is "the most dangerous
threat to life and national security in America."
The
Broward Palm Beach News reports that a spokesman of the church confirmed
that the effigy is real and offered printed news releases from Jone's new
movement, "Stand Up America." One of the news releases had the
headline "Terry Jones on Obama -- Hang 'Em High."
According to The Broward Palm Beach News, the
release says Jones will be holding a news conference today to announce that he
is running for president. Broward Palm Beach News reports Jones says
in a YouTube video:
We have chosen to hang President Obama as a symbol of what America
needs to do. We must remove him; we must vote him out of office. President
Obama is killing our nation. We have hung Uncle Sam to represent that....
President Obama's policies on same-sex marriage, his
policies on abortion, President Obama has no problem killing babies. He has no problem
supporting radical Islam, he has no problem supporting and giving financial
support to the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is time for the United States to stand up. It is
why we have chosen the hanging of Uncle Sam to represent how Hussein Obama is
destroying our nation. And that is why we have now chosen the hanging of
Hussein Obama to represent how the American people must, in a peaceful way,
stand up and reject President Obama, reject his anti-American policies. It's
time for us to stand up.
It is time again for America
to become America, for us to
hold our government accountable, for us to resist, for us to send a very clear
message to Washington, D.C.
and President Obama...That is why we have chosen to hang President Obama as a
symbol of what America
needs to do. We must remove him, we must vote him out of office.
This is not the first time publicity-loving Pastor Terry
Jones is courting controversy with his actions. He drew international attention
in 2011 after he burned a copy of the Qur'an in public. His action sparked off
three days of violent rioting in Afghanistan in which, at least, 21
people died, including seven U.N. workers. Jones burned the Qur'an despite
entreaties that he should consider the safety of U.S. military personnel, Americans
living abroad and global American interests.
This is also not the first time an effigy of Obama has been
hanged publicly. According to The
Huffington Post, in March 2010, a teacher at a Rhode Island school hanged an effigy of
Obama in his classroom. Soon after, another dummy of the president was found
hanging on Main Street
in the Georgia
hometown of President Jimmy Carter.
The
Huffington Post reports that in 2009, a Kentucky
grand jury refused to indict two men who hanged an Obama effigy on the campus
of the University
of Kentucky.
According to The
Smoking Gun, the DWOC has come under criticism that its organization has
"cult-like" characteristics. The
Smoking Gun reports that the church's Academy Rulebook, reportedly written
by Jone's wife and published in 2007, instructs prospective ministers to cut
off contact with family members. The rules warns that “Family occasions like
weddings, funerals or birthdays are no exception to this rule. No phone calls.
Exceptions can be made under certain circumstances but only after receiving
permission.”
Critics of Pastor Jones point to the insensitivity of his
action in the context of a long history of extrajudicial mob actions in the U.S.
targeting black people from the late18th century through the 1960s. Most of the
lynchings took place in the southern states from 1890 to the 1920s. Loon
Watch comments that "by hanging his (Obama's) effigy he (Jones) was
essentially provoking comparisons to the lynching of Blacks."
Imani Gandy ("Angry Black Lady"), writing in the The
Raw Story, also criticizes Jones with an allusion to the lynchings. She
comments: "...if there’s one thing that goes together like Twinkies and
cream (in America),
it’s a black man with a noose around his neck"
