Koran Burning "Minister" Was Booted out of Deutschland Church

By Keith R. Schmitz

Der Spiegel, reveals that Terry Jones, the faux Christian who is seeking to grab attention for his 50 member Florida mini-church got the heave-ho from the house of worship he headed in Germany, for a whole bunch of unsavory reasons.

This megalomaniac badly needs attention, at the cost of American lives overseas. Too bad that George W. Bush, John McCain, Newt Gingrich, Liz Cheney, Mitch McChinless, Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and other Republicans don't have the same common sense that these Germans had to admonish Jones.

In a jaw-dropping turn of cluelessness, Johnny Boehner compares this act with the building of the Islamic culinary center somewhere or other near Ground Zero. Then the ex-plastics salesman goes on to say we have "freedom of religion." Huh?

The media coverage that would ignite radical recruiting in the Islamic world could be curtailed and like so many anti-war protests, we would not know this extravaganza didn't happen. But now thanks to the notoriety images would appear on the Internet anyways. Strong admonishment in this country would prove to the Islamic fence sitters that we don't condone this tasteless nonsense.

There are Christian churches, however, that do practice what they preach.

Still, too many in this country seem to be suckers for bogus revelation, which makes us a laughing stock world-wide.

Half Cocked -- Church Cancels Gun Giveaway

Keith R. Schmitz

Get a gun, get saved.

A small bore idea for gettin' the kids into church.

OKLAHOMA CITY, July 14 (UPI) -- An Oklahoma City church called off plans to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle at a weekend gathering of teenagers, the church's pastor said.

Plans called for Windsor Hills Baptist to give away the weapon as a way of encouraging attendance at the gathering but plans changed when one the event's organizers was unable to attend, KOCO 5, Oklahoma City, reported Sunday.

The church's pastor, Bob Ross, said officials anticipated hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada would attend.

"We have 21 hours of preaching and teaching throughout the week," Ross told KOCO 5.

The church Web site featured a video showing the shooting competition from last year's conference. A gun was given away last year, but this year organizers decided to highlight the giveaway in promotions for the conference.

Ross told the TV station the church was not "putting a weapon in the hand of somebody that doesn't respect it who are then going to go out and kill."

The gun giveaway has been taken down from the Web site, but Ross said the church will give the gun away next year.

Granted, just because someone has a gun doesn't necessarily mean they are going to use it on others, but this move in connection with a faith-based organization has all the cachet of handing out copies of Grand Theft.

WWJS -- what would Jesus shoot?