The Grace Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, Tennessee voted to “welcome” a new mosque opening up next door by pounding thirteen crosses, about ten feet tall, into the ground to ensure their “message” was heard.
Via The Tennessean:
“It was more or less to make a statement to the Muslims about how we felt about our religion, our Christianity,” said Mack Richards, a Middle Tennessee Baptist Church member who built the crosses at the request of Grace Baptist member and friend Bobby Francis. “We wanted them to see the crosses and know how we felt about things.”
“That’s what the church voted to do,” said Francis, a member of Grace Baptist since the 1970s when it was on Dill Lane.
Grace Baptist moved into its current home of about 6,000 square feet two years ago and is currently served by interim pastor Dan Watts.
The mosque next door has been the subject of intense scrutiny and debate in the past two years, including vandalism to its sign, a bomb threat, arson to construction equipmenton site and a lawsuit to block its construction. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully argued in court that Islam is not a religion but won one battle in which the judge agreed that insufficient notice was provided by the county government concerning a meeting over the mosque’s site plans, which is under appeal.
The Church’s website has a scroll that reads:
“There is therfore [sic] now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1″
Apparently, there is for others.
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Are we sure they just put up the crosses? I think they're just waiting for the sun to go down before they put on their hoods/robes and light those crosses on fire…
“We wanted them to see the crosses and know how we felt about things.”
Something tells me they already knew.
Straight, non-religious, staunch supporter of marriage equality here. I don't see a problem with the crosses. Christianity and displays of it are not an issue and are distinct from the threats and lawsuits against the mosque, which are obviously not OK. If the crosses were burning, that's another story altogether.
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