Hood River is a city in Oregon of some 7,000 people. It lies upstream from Portland on the Columbia River, where the latter is joined by the Hood River.
The pastor of a Baptist church in Hood River has gotten himself into big trouble by posting the above sign in front of his church. On the other side the sign says, “Allah is not our God, Muhammad not greater than Jesus”. Pastor Michael Harrington obviously didn’t get the memo — he doesn’t know that we are not allowed to say these things. They run contrary to the Interfaith Narrative, and specifically against the “Three Abrahamic Faiths” theme.
Needless to say, the full weight of politically correct opinion has come down hard on Rev. Harrington. So far he is standing firm — he says he won’t take the sign down until the beginning of June, when he would be changing it anyway. However, CAIR is reportedly planning a protest in front of the church this coming Sunday, according to the reader who sent us the tip:
My attention was drawn to this story.
I phoned the church to give my support, and the call was answered by the pastor. In the course of the conversation he told me that CAIR are trying to organize a protest demo at the church next Sunday.
Those within driving distance might like to know.
So if you live not far from Hood River, you might want to show up next Sunday and show your solidarity with Pastor Harrington, and help keep him from being mau-maued into enforcing sharia laws against blasphemy.
Here’s the absurdly biased article from Raw Story:
Pastor bizarrely explains anti-Muslim church sign: I’m not politically correct, but I am biblically correct
Before anything else, the article’s author has to tell his readers that Pastor Harrington and his opinions are “bizarre”, to make sure they know they must never, ever hold those opinions themselves. A straight news report is not enough — the mission of the media requires that they ensure that all news complies with the Narrative. So Michael Harrington is “bizarre”.
The pastor of an Oregon Baptist church is under fire locally for putting what critics call a bigoted message on his church’s sign board, KATU reports.
“Critics” call the message “bigoted” — but the article fails to cite a single supporter of the message displayed on the sign. Presumably there is at least one other person in Hood River who agrees with the sign, but he or she is not quoted. Just the “critics”.
And Rev. Harrington believes in Jesus, so his opinion may obviously be totally discounted.
Pastor Michael Harrington placed the words on the reader board outside Belmont Drive Missionary Baptist Church. On one side it reads, “Wake up Christians, Allah is not our God, Muhammad not greater than Jesus.” On the other side, it says, “Only the Bible is God’s word, ‘holy book,’ Koran is just another book.”
“I’m not politically correct. I’ve never been politically correct, but I think I’m biblically correct, and that’s what matters to me,” Harrington told KATU. “It isn’t against any particular denomination. It’s just the fact that I have taught and will continue to teach that I have one God, one way of salvation and one Bible that’s holy.”
Now come the critics, beginning with the mayor:
But locals, including the mayor, don’t want to see the signs.
“I was really annoyed and sad,” Hood River mayor, Paul Blackburn, told KATU. “I am annoyed that in this political season there’s a solid case of ugly going on. I think it norms up this kind of behavior like ‘oh it’s okay to be a bigot now.’
As a private citizen, Mayor Blackburn is free to hold an opinion about the sign that includes words such as “ugly” and “sad”. However, speaking from the office of the mayor — for which he took an oath to uphold the constitutions of Oregon and the United States — he should have said something like this:
“Regardless of the content of the sign, the words fall within the law and are protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. My opinion about them is not relevant. I fully support the right of Belmont Drive Missionary Baptist Church to display that message on their sign.”
Notice the additional subtext to the mayor’s words: “in this political season”. This phrase can refer to only one thing, and that is the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump. The obvious but unstated message is: We must not allow any opinions that support Donald Trump, because he is an enemy of the Narrative.
Finally, here’s another critic:
Another resident, Eric Cohn, said he was very upset.
“I literally had to stop and back up and make sure I saw what I saw, and I was profoundly offended and upset by it,” Cohn told KATU.
We have free speech in the United States, BUT… not if someone is upset or offended. If Mr. Cohn is offended, just think how upset Muslims must be! They may even be offended enough to start rioting and burning cars and killing people! So the sign must come down.
Harrington told the station he has no plans to remove the sign until the beginning of June, when he was planning to put a new one up anyway.
Good for him. I hope he sticks to his guns.
I am profoundly upset by The Narrative.
I am not just annoyed, I am really, really annoyed that an elected official utters bizarre obscenities such as “norms up”. This micro-aggression against clarity is but another noise generator supplied free of charge (if you don’t count the student loan debt load) by sociology majors whose minds are stuck in grad student-speak.
And that gob-smacked Mr. Cohn? He has to do literal things before he can bring himself to believe his own perceptions. omg.
Whadda meme-breaker, Raw Story! Your courage, guts, and profound grasp of actual deconstruction are displayed in this reportage. What more could we want?
In England he’d be in jail but it’s the Pastor’s First Amendment right. If the Leftist and CAIR does not like it too bad. I hope churches across America follow suit.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/05/20/church-minister-investigated-tweeting-pegida-tommy-robinson/
You mean in the UK. You should know by now that you’re not allowed to refer the the UK as “England” under penalty of the UKians getting very steamed at you.
.
It’s important to keep criticizing things that are bad for us. That’s how we got rid of tobacco and drunk driving.
It is not profound.
Only a few miles from me, HR used to be an AG and transport hub but since the advent of wind surfing it has been over-run with Trust-Fund-Babies and Google-ites. The Mayor recently installed parking meters on city streets that are only busy in mid-summer thus driving away customers from the few full-time businesses. It’s no shock that The Mayor is now busy suppressing Constitutionally Enumerated Rights, I hope one of the many lawyers in HR takes him to task
Thanks for the blow by blow deconstruction. It helps.
I have a dream.
I have a dream that Pastor Harrington does not cave in to pressure of any kind, changes his billboard on June 1st to a conventional Christian message, but on July 1st posts another anti-Islam message. A more robust and pungent one that really offends CAIR and every Muslim in the USA.
I have a dream that one day churches, of every Christian denomination, throughout the entire USA begin emulating Pastor Harrington and display anti-Islam messages on their “Jesus Saves” boards. Until they are as ubiquitous as “Stop. Revive. Survive” signs are on Australian highways. The ones that even people like me look at and think “Yeah, driving 110km per hour for over four hours when I’m exhausted at the outset isn’t wise. I’ll pull over, take a breather and stretch my legs.”
I have a dream that the response of Paul Blackburn and of every mayor of every town would be: none of my official business, it’s constitutionally protected by the First Amendment.
I have a dream that the journalist at Hood River’s local paper writes a negative story of Pastor Harrington’s billboard citing imaginary “critics”, but his/her Editor spikes the story unless said journalist actually names the critics and solicits quotes from people who support Pastor Harrington: both those who do so on religious grounds and those that do so on 1st Amendment grounds. And that journalist after doing so, takes a good hard look at himself/herself and says “What the heck, I was just virtue signaling anyway, I think Islam is a terrible religion” and writes a second story about Pastor Harrington’s billboard with a completely different slant. And then Raw story follows suit. And then the radio and TV do too!
I have a dream that one day these displays become so ubiquitous that Eric Cohn (a different one) drives past one of these churches and thinks: my synagogue should do the same! And he suggest it to his Rabbi and he embraces the idea and posts: “The Torah is THE book. The Koran is just another book.” And then every synagogue does.
I have a dream that a handful of Archbishops and Chief Rabbis get together and agree that “interfaith dialogue” is a good thing, but only if the practitioners of Islam are excluded completely. And then invite Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists to join their “interfaith dialogue” meetings.
I have a dream that the original Eric Cohn gets a slight knock on the head, blinks and muses to himself “What the heck was I thinking?Those people from CAIR would kill me and my entire family if they had half a chance!”
I have a dream that, in consequence of Pastor Harrington’s catalysing act, CAIR fizzes and froths at the mouth in impotent fury. And the media ignore them totally. And CAIR shuts up shop for good and its staff go back to their core, covert, business of waging violent jihad against Americans, but get caught in the planning stages of their first operation, charged with conspiracy, convicted and jailed for a very long term. Then stripped of their citizenships and deported if and when they complete their sentences.
I have a dream that what started in Hood River, Oregon in May 2016 gets noticed in Canada, Australia and New Zealand and throughout these three countries churches, synagogues, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist temples start posting “Hood River” billboard signs.
I have a dream that the Hood River phenomenon gets noticed in Europe and, starting in Hungary, Czechia and Poland, it is emulated by every church, etc. And then it spreads westwards, northwards and southwards.
Like the gentleman up this thread stated:
“It’s important to keep criticizing things that are bad for us. That’s how we got rid of tobacco and drunk driving.”
To which I would add “And littering”. In Australia in the 1960’s a high proportion of people unthinkingly littered as a matter of course. They tossed beer and soda cans out of car windows and/or dumped a carload of household waste by a quiet stretch of riverbank. Then a “Keep Australia Beautiful” public-awareness anti-littering campaign began. By 1980 only brainless barbarians would even consider tossing an empty can out of a moving car or leaving their rubbish behind on the beach or in a public park. A beachside park near my home attracts hordes of people on summer weekends, even when the rubbish bins are filled to overflowing, people, including teenagers, neatly stack their refuse next to the bins. If a party of foreign tourists leaves their McDonalds detritus on the sand, they don’t get 3 metres without somebody saying to them: “Excuse me, could you pick that up and take it to the bins over there?” And that somebody is never ignored because everybody around them is supportive.
The first few times I visited Italy it struck me hard when I saw, eg that every creek as I trekked inland from the Amalfi Coast was strewn with plastic bags: this country really needs a “Keep Italy Beautiful” campaign.
America and the West really need a “Keep Islam Out” campaign. And Pastor Harrington has taken a bold first step in the right direction.
Ensitue, could you please print out and post this story and the responses to it on this thread to Pastor Harrington? Or telephone him and ask him to take a look at GoV? He would be much encouraged I’m sure.
That is one awesome dream, Julius, and I will work on contacting and supporting Pastor Harrington, because of your dream.
Thank you Tina B, Pastor Harrington must be made aware that he is not alone.
Yeah, it is an awesome dream. It puts me in mind of the hit song by the late Hawaiian singer Israel Kawakiwikhole (the correct spelling of his surname eludes me) “Somewhere over the rainbow/What a wonderful world [it would be]”. If only there were a muso out there who would compose “Hood River”.
e-mail contact address:
fbchoodriver@gorge.net
Pastor Harrington,
“Illegitimi non carborundum”
LOL, my dad used to say that.
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”
Indeed! Never in the history of Latinisms has one been so appositely applied.
Apart from watching Anjem Choudary and musing:
“Res ipsa loquitur”: the thing speaks for itself. That is, just watch him and listen to him and the full horror of everything he stands for is abundantly clear.
I have a phrase that these and all right-thinking folks should become acquainted with:
AUSLANDER RAUS!!!
His sign says nothing offensive about Muslims; as in “Muslims have bad breath” or ” “Muslims hate puppy dogs”, his sign is anti – Islam. Some churches have yet to get it through their heads – syncretism is bad and this interfaith stuff is garbage. This pastor is not leading his flock astray, he’s not just “a hireling who cares not for the sheep” Also ( and please forgive me if this Bible reference is incorrect, I think it’s from Colossians 2) but it reads, “be not unequally yoked w/ unbelievers… for what does darkness have to do w/ light…. what does Christ have to do w/ belial?” This pastor’s sign is preaching no hate against Muslims…..but Islam is an evil twisted satanic counterfeit of Christianity and any pastor who doesn’t know that, should get into another line of work!
Actually it is 2 Corinthians 6:14-15, close enough.
It is a clear example of one simple truth: the ideology of political correctness (what should we call it – progressivism? human rightism? don’t know really) is not just an ideology, it is a quasi-religion which does not tolerate competition in the spiritual sphere. Just like Marxism-Leninism in the USSR, which from the very start was unmistakably a Messianic pseudo-religion.
The quasi-religion of PC is proselytic, missionary and as intolerant as any totalitarian cult. Whenever its adepts encounter someone who expresses views that they don’t like they throw up a tantrum. And they do not calm down until their opponent is silenced.
PC moral doctrine is in some aspects diametrically opposed to Christianity. While Christianity regards humility as the greatest virtue and encourages self-doubt and self-criticism, the PC cult demands humility of its opponents but encourages pride, vanity, outrageous demonstrativeness and extreme self-righteousness in its adepts. It also promotes a very simple and comfortable black-and-white picture of the world, in which Good (as understood by PC cult leaders) struggles against Evil (the vilest expression of which is traditional Christianity).
The doctrine of this cult and behaviour of its adepts is rather childish and superficial, but in the modern world where superficiality and eternal adolescence reign supreme, this is a great advantage. PC messages, however absurd and unreasonable, are easy to grasp, memorise and repeat. A PC approach to life is also very convenient for narcissistic persons, and narcissism, promoted by mass culture, has become widespread and popular.
So, the Great Religion of Political Correctness has great prospects. Join it, if you want to be a success and enjoy life! It will help you to climb social ladders, have fun, make glamorous (though somewhat cretinous) friends, lead a creative sexual life of infinite variety (while basking in the sunshine of your own righteousness) and add spice to your pleasures by making life miserable for the enemies of the Great Religion. And, into the bargain, it will relieve you of the hard labour of thinking for yourself – you will get your ideas ready made and served on a nice bright plastic tray.
To be called an Islamophobe is like being branded a blasphemer in a Sharia-compliant country and subject to the death penalty. The conduct can be just as innocuous as here.
How could any free thinking person not voice opposition to imposition of Islam?
I sent this to him and I encourage others to do so likely. It is sad to see the Left ruin Oregon and Washington States. Most of the Left live in the populated areas like Seattle or Portland, exception being Spokane, my old home, which is largely conservative.
Dear Mayor
I am writing you concerning Pastor Michael Harriton use of his free speech rights. Whether I agree with him or not that is not the point. I suggest that you read the First Amendment and think about it. The right to criticize is a fundemental right in America, even if it offends.
From Gates of vienna .net
“Regardless of the content of the sign, the words fall within the law and are protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. My opinion about them is not relevant. I fully support the right of Belmont Drive Missionary Baptist Church to display that message on their sign.”
If you don’t believe in the constitution as the founders meant it then that is sad. Free speech is fine to the Left as long as it agrees with their agenda. Muslim organization like Muslim Brotherhood connected CAIR want to silence all criticism of Islam no matter how true it is. I taught in Istanbul so I don’t believe all Muslims are evil and out to get us
Sincerely
I fully support free speech for everyone, not just the PC crowd. Give over, already. You people (PC) are making fools of yourselves constantly. and furthermore, you are so self-absorbed you do not realize that the majority of us do not agree with your fatuous baloney. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it, instead of what some of you currently smoke.
Nothing new here.
Evangelical Christians of every stripe have no intention of regarding Muhammad as a prophet or his Koran as holy. We know that for our salvation, God became man, dwelt among us, obeyed the law of God in all its aspects perfectly, and offered his sinless life on the cross to bear the wrath due to us sinners. We know as well that Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, rose from the dead on the third day. He has sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us, working faith in us and enabling us to be renewed after the divine image.
After all this, how can we settle for a “prophet” who apparently didn’t know that close to a millennium and a half separated Miriam the sister of Moses from Miriam (Hebrew for Mary) the mother of Jesus (at least that’s what it seems to imply in Sura 3, Al-Imran)? How can we settle for something that’s just another code, and a code which seems morally inferior in all respects to what we have received in Scripture?
Good for Bro. Harrington!
I talked to the pastor yesterday. We are headed to Hood River this weekend for an interview with him and video the protesters. We want to give him as much good press as we can and expose the lies of the lefties and Muslims. Jesus is the light of the world. May Islam die of exposure.
Islam, Muslim facts
Please watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q-uHZ1WyfA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Fi557RO5c
_____
Muhammad ordered at least 60 raids and wars often involving massacres and personally participated in 27 of them. he massacred, beheaded, tortured, terrorized, raped, and looted in the name of Allah.
Muhammad himself took a beautiful Jewish woman as his own sex-slave and sold the rest of the captives into slavery. He also looted the property of the murdered Jews and took possession of all their wealth and properties.
______
One cannot use terms such as “democracy” and “human rights” in Muslim countries; it is a crime. This is regarded as insulting Islam and spouting such terms can incite a death sentence.
Consider Europe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dw_EWhvhcQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U36fCE_vCE
There are many other videos revealing the violence, but they have some form of immodesty.
Muslims in Europe, America seems to be next. The European news media refuses to show the violence performed by illegal Muslim immigrants coming into their country and the disrespect toward Europeans. Nor will American mainstream news media outlets. This includes the of attacking the police and throwing away the charity offered to these Muslim immigrants—always saying they want money only.
They give them good food and they throw it away and water bottles with fresh water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRPgIYBOzTw
When it comes to rape in Sweden, school authorities, the media and police side with the Muslims. Due to Muslim infiltration in all areas of life, Sweden is now called the rape capital of Europe. Statistics show nearly 100 percent of all rapes are performed by Muslims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCXE3kL81FA
“In Sweden these poor men found shelter in Northern Finland and got a roof over their heads and free meals at the tax payers expense. But this is not enough for them, now they want money because the food, that is the same food served for school kids and at the old folks’ home, is not even for animals, even when it is customized to their needs like no pork etc.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHEAh0LYHSs
80% of Muslims are on warfare in the European West. They demand everything for free. They believe they should not have to work and everything needs to handed to them by the infidels.
Our only hope is Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10 from the Bible: “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
JIHAD – Offensive or defensive physical action conducted during a holy war in the model of Mohammad for the sake of Allah.
MUSLIM – A member of the political/religious system of Islam.
ISLAM – A comprehensive political/religious system modeled after Mohammad’s life.
HOLY WAR – The constant state of warfare required by Islam against others.
Koran chapter 9 and verse 111 is the most violent verse in the Koran calling for killing of Jews and Christians, and sacrificing own life to see others dead. Also verse 5. Chapter 9 most violent chapter in Koran. Also verse 29 on killing Jews and Christians.
Muhammad describes Christians and Jews as “unjust,” the “worst of creatures” … (5:51; 9:30). Muhammad declared, “I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim” (Sahih Muslim 4366).
Why is it not broadcasted that 109 verses in the Koran command violence?
“More than 3,000 Americans on US soil have perished in more than 75 Islamist terrorist attacks over the last 40 years. And Jews are the most targeted victims of hate crimes in America.”
Val Lee of “val lee weblog”