Quote from yoohoo:
YOUR SOURCESâ¦
Pastor Maurice Gordon & other traditional Christians
DENVER -- The pastor of an East Denver church has apologized for a "Jews Killed Jesus" sign, following a protest by dozens of people and the intervention of the United Pentecostal Church International
The pastor of Lovingway, Maurice Gorden, said he put up the original message in response to the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of The Christ." He said he did it to get people to think about what is in the bible.
Thursday, the sign was changed to include an apology by Gorden.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/2877421/detail.html
Now for the story before the FORCED APOLOGY:
[I Thessalonians 2:14-15
14For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews,
15who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men,]
DENVER -- A billboard unveiled on Ash Wednesday, the same day that a controversial movie depicting the last hours of Jesus Christ premiered....
The large-size outdoor marquee, which sits on the property of the Lovingway United Pentecostal Church at Colorado and Mississippi, says, "Jews Killed The Lord Jesus" and the word "Settled!"
Loveway pastor. "The word of God is the final word."
The Anti-Defamation League asked for the marquee to be changed because it is anti-Semitic, but the church only amended the billboard slightly by removing the word "settled" and attributing the line to biblical Scriptures.
That, however, is still not appeasing critics.
"Immediately, I picked up the phone and called the pastor and had a spirited but good and respectful discussion with him in which I tried to explain to him that that kind of message is divisive and exactly the kind of message which has fueled anti-Semitism for thousands of years," said Bruce DeBoskey, the Mountain States Regional Director for the Anti-Defamation League.
"If I can get people to rediscover their bible...if I can get people to go back and look...what does it actually say?" asked Gordon.
Jewish leaders say that like Mel Gibson's new movie "The Passion of The Christ" -- which opened Wednesday morning -- the passage will stir up anti-Semitic attitudes and will cause some people to lash out at Jews.
The Colorado Council of Churches also tried to get Pastor Maurice Gordon to change the sign but he refused and wouldn't even answer the phone or answer the door, 7NEWS reported.
Rev. Jim Ryan, a spokesman for the council, was quick to point out that it is a small minority who feel this way about Jews and that most Christians don't share that sentiment. Although the "Jews Killed the Lord Jesus" line comes from First Thessalonians, second chapter, verses 14 and 15, many [apologist] Christian scholars [now] interpret that passage to mean that when Paul refers to the Jews, he is referring to certain Jews who opposed Jesus' teachings and does not mean all Jews.
Gibson's film has been criticized because it depicts the Roman governor Pontius Pilate as reluctant to crucify Jesus, placing the blame more on the Jewish high priest Caiaphas.
Gibson financed the movie by himself because no Hollywood studio was willing to invest. Gibson, a devout Catholic, belongs to a traditionalist sect that rejects Vatican II changes in 1965 as too liberal, changes that include a law that condemned the medieval thinking that Jews were cursed by God.
That so-called "blood libel" is in the Gospel according to Matthew, when Caiaphas says, "His blood be on us and our children," for allowing the crucifixion to happen.
Gibson says his movie is not anti-Semitic. [Well we know better now after his drunken outburst of rage, but his movie depicts the TRADITIONAL New Testament view regarding the Jews.]
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/2873395/detail.html
