God Loves, Man Misinterprets

When I tell people where my parents live, I am quick to tell them, “That’s not where we’re from.” My parents live just outside Greenville, SC, not an area known for its progressiveness. They’re about 50 miles from Jonesville, SC where just last Thursday Pastor Roger Byrd put up the following message on the sign at the Jonesville Church of God: “Obama   Osama, Humm, Are They Brothers”

I am still stretching my brain to figure out just how that could have been interpreted in a positive manner, or what he thought he was doing. I’m used to church signs having messages that instill a little hope or a little guilt into the passerby, nothing that gives rise to these types of thoughts.

From the article:

Byrd said that the message wasn’t meant to be racial or political.

“It’s simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ,” he said.

When asked if he believes that Barack Obama is Muslim, Byrd said, “I don’t know. See it asks a question: Are they brothers? In other words, is he Muslim? I don’t know. He says he’s not. I hope he’s not. But I don’t know. And it’s just something to try to stir people’s minds. It was never intended to hurt feelings or to offend anybody.”

–NBC, WYFF: Small Church’s Obama Sign Causes Big Controversy

Some news station should send a mole into this Sunday’s service to see what his sermon discusses. I’m pretty sure that it would only take a few minutes online to determine not only the senator’s religion and home church, but also to see just how many idiotic rumors and stories are flying around all stemming from the name similarity. This isn’t a political endorsement, I just hate ignorance and frankly this is the kind of thing you’d examine closer and expect to see Karl Rove’s hand in, or more lately just an overzealous member of the other Democratic camp.