Pro-Family Spokesman: Anti-Religion Site Crosses Line With Criminal Content
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
September 14, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Christian faith and family research center is calling for action against the operators of a website that advocates an orchestrated campaign of arson and violence against churches and religious people.The Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society is outraged over the "ChurchArson.com" website, which describes Christianity and Judaism as "forms of mind control" and calls for enemies of religious faith to burn down houses of worship. The site's author also advocates the killing of true believers, saying he looks forward to the day when "the executions of die-hard Christians and Jews will commence."
Larry Jacobs, the Howard Center's vice president, says the religion-bashing Internet site is a sad commentary on the state of America and the way that people of faith are depicted by the anti-religious cultural elite. "There's been a number of movies that have depicted Christians as fools, hypocrites or villains," he says, not to mention "the news media telling us that evangelicals are fanatics."
With so much religion-bashing going on in the mainstream press and popular culture, Jacobs says, "It's not any wonder that there are some unstable people who would listen to all this media and go to the extreme of committing violence against Christians." To the family research analyst, it is a clear indication that the "hardcore of militant atheists is getting desperate" because the anti-religion left is losing the public policy debate.
And although some might argue that such inflammatory rhetoric as can be found at ChurchArson.com is protected under the First Amendment, Jacobs says this is not a free-speech issue. He disagrees strongly with those who compare what the anti-religion website does to nonviolent political or social protest, as he says a number of liberal groups have tried to do.
But in the case of the irreligious vandalism- and violence-promoting website, the Howard Center spokesman points out that there is a fundamental difference. "If you conduct a peaceful protest," he says, "even if there's a number of people involved, that shouldn't be a criminal activity. But when you advocate killing people, it crosses the line."
Jacobs believes the ChurchArson.com website is based in Virginia and says the state's attorney general has been asked to investigate. Meanwhile, the pro-family leader asserts that religious America will not be intimidated and will continue to call for a return to "those values and virtues" that made the U.S. a great nation.
