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One afternoon last November, as I walked across the campus of the University of Florida, I noticed two women who looked quite out-of-place.  One was pushing an infant in a stroller, and they both appeared to be stopping passing students to hand out literature of some sort.  That in and of itself is not unusual.  Like any college town full of young people experiencing their first taste of freedom, Gainesville sees its fair share of sinning.  And, like any college campus, UF sees its fair share of fiery preachers urging repentance, temperance, and chastity.  What was so striking about these women was their clothing.  They each wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “Islam is of the Devil”.  As I approached them, hoping not to draw their attention as I passed, I heard one call out to me in a German accent, “Do you know Islam is of the devil?”  I said, “I don’t want to hear it”, and walked briskly on.

Those women, who must have harassed dozens of students that day, were members of Dove World Outreach, the ironically-named church in Gainesville whose congregation numbers no more than fifty, and whose pastor, Terry Jones, plans to burn hundreds of copies of the Qur’an this Saturday – the ninth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The attention that those two women drew on a small scale last year has now transformed into something nearly every resident of this fair city finds unwelcome.  The notion that “any press is good press” certainly rings false in Gainesville.  A series of grisly murders twenty years ago cast a dark shadow that had not long been lifted when, in 2007, a highly publicized police incident made “don’t tase me, bro” a national mantra.  Today, reporters from newspapers and television networks around the world are descending on this city to witness a spectacle of ignorance and hate, and many readers and viewers may be left with the impression that Gainesville is a city of hicks and rednecks.  That would be a shame.

Quite to the contrary, Gainesville is a wonderfully open and progressive community: we have a female sheriff; our mayor is openly gay (and our previous mayor was a woman); the city hosts a popular Pride festival; the University draws students of every race, religion, and ethnicity from all over the world.  The idea that a few “Christian” fundamentalists who have completely misinterpreted the teachings of Jesus Christ and desecrate the holy book of one of the world’s great faiths has everyone I know in a state of shock and dismay.  The entire town is talking about it and wants nothing more than to see the hate stop.

UPDATE:  It is being reported this evening that the Qur’an burning has been called off.  Praise Jesus!

UPDATE:  The New York Times has a wonderful article explaining how “aghast” Gainesville is.  The best part:

Mr. Jones has become a reviled figure around the world. But the people of this youthful city in central Florida are taking his actions personally, with anger and heartbreak, as one of their neighbors drags their hometown into nearly nonstop news coverage and infamy.

UPDATE:  Time also describes how Gainesville “rejects Koran-burning Pastor”.

Filed under: Current Events, Gainesville, Religion on September 9th, 2010 | No Comments »

I wrote more extensively about this topic back in March, but an article in yesterday’s Washington Post reminded me of the savvy marketing of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in their effort to convert the world. The Mormons are, like the Roman Catholics and others, focusing their missions increasingly on the developing world, and finding considerable success. Their tactics today are a considerable improvement over the “convert or die” methods of the past, which are certainly a blight on the history of the Catholic Church.

How the Mormons are able to sell Nigerians on a faith that seems on its face to be absurd and bizarrely America-centric is a testament to their marketing prowess. In case you don’t know, Mormons believe some weird things, such as:

• The Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri
• Jesus will personally govern the world from the United States following his second-coming
• Israelites crossed the ocean by boat in 600 B.C. and became the Native Americans we know today
• Proxy baptism of the dead is encouraged, regardless of the deceased person’s faith, including Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and Adolf Hitler
• People live in the sun (not orthodox doctrine, but still the belief of Prophet Brigham Young)

So, what about the LDS church draws so many converts in the developing world? My best guess is this: Mormons are extremely nice people. When I was a kid, during a particularly bad time, a Mormon family helped us in a profound way, and were extraordinarily generous and kind. When I was in Salt Lake City last March, every encounter I had with a LDS member was pleasant. They were all courteous and friendly. The fact that Temple Square in Salt Lake City is staffed by an army of extremely attractive young Mormon women from all over the world is a testament to the church’s geographic reach and marketing prowess.

Filed under: Musings, Religion, Travel on November 19th, 2007 | No Comments »

Back in March I went to Salt Lake City, where I spent several days touring Temple Square, a compound in the heart of town home to the most important sites in the Mormon church. As I wrote at the time:

The Mormons employ a vast army of beautiful and exotic young women to greet visitors to Temple Square. The flags pinned to their coats indicate their countries of origin, and they come from far and wide. I saw girls from Brazil, Sweden, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, the Philippines and, of course, the USA. They are trained to make eye contact, and pleasant conversation. And, in spite of the cult-like atmosphere, I will say that everyone I encountered in Salt Lake City was extremely nice. Suspiciously nice.

Saturday morning I answered a knock at the door to find a young woman and a middle-aged man. She identified herself as “Jessica”, and said the man was her father. She asked if I thought that natural disasters were caused by God or something else. I explained that I didn’t think that God played such a direct role in our lives, striking down populations à la Sodom and Gomorrah, but that bad things sometimes happen to good and bad alike. She left me with some literature to look over, which, upon reading I see squares quite well with what I believe.

But what was most interesting was how flattering Jessica was, and how beautiful. Jehovah’s Witnesses are, from my understanding, supposed to be plain in appearance and dress, but Jessica would have stood out anywhere. She wore clothes any twenty-something might wear to an office, and she had little makeup on, but her hair was arranged just so, and I even noticed that she had a pedicure. And she smiled at the end of every sentence she spoke, and made eye contact throughout. Her father stood a few steps back, and I rather sensed that the message–aside from eternal salvation–was, “join the church, get a hot young wife”.

Well, I’ve got one already, thanks, but I am beginning to see a pattern: churches are putting their best faces forward.

Filed under: Musings, Religion, Travel on September 30th, 2007 | 1 Comment »