weirder and weirder

via (thanks to Harry Shearer and HuffPost for pointing this out.)

So the leader of the Florida church that is planning on burning Korans on 9/11? Turns out he's more of a cult leader than a church leader (the difficulty of making such a distinction being something I will leave for another time.) From an article in Der Spiegel:

Various witnesses gave SPIEGEL ONLINE consistent accounts of the Jones' behavior. The pastor and his wife apparently regarded themselves as having been appointed by God, meaning opposition was a crime against the Lord. Terry and Sylvia Jones allegedly used these methods to ask for money in an increasingly insistent manner, as well as making members of the congregation carry out work.

Not only that, in Cologne, Germany, Jones was recently kicked out of an evangelical church, the Christian Community, for reasons related to his extremism as well as financial irregularities.

This is just the guy we need presenting an American fascist face to the world when it comes to Islam:

...a 58-year-old former hotel manager with a distinctive mustache, is also the author of a polemic book titled "Islam Is of the Devil."

Where's the right-wing outcry against this idiot? Where's the Christian outcry against this idiot?

Oh, they're probably all working for no wages at his furniture import business, living in sub-standard housing, having already been bullied into handing over all their worldly possessions to Jones. From Shearer's piece quoting the Times of London:

"He (and his second wife Sylvia) left Germany in 2008 after one of their three adult children... along with a former church elder... accused them of financial and labour (sic) abuses... (the Florida church) is funded by TS & Company, a furniture shipping business owned by the church, which buys vintage pieces from Europe and sells them at profit in the U.S. The workforce is comprised of the Jones's disciples, who work for no wages and live cost-free in tatty properties owned by the (Joneses)."

Wonderful. Onward Christian soldiers.

ADDENDUM: As Fred Kaplan of Slate points out here, Republicans being such staunch supporters of the troops (in lip-service, at least) it is strange indeed that there isn't more of a push-back against the Terry Jones from people like McCain, et al.