Homegrown Terrorism: When Christians Attack, the Press Keeps Quiet

[McCamy Taylor]

On the other side of the world, a group of Muslim doctors in Great Britain staged two amateurish acts of political theater which experts have said would likely have caused little real loss of life (had not one of them managed to set fire to himself. The result? The news media here at home stages a three ring circus of terra.

Meanwhile, at our own back door, in Burleson, Texas, just a few miles from Dallas, several young men were apprehended as they were attempting to detonate a bomb. A real bomb, capable of doing real damage. This all happened on Wednesday. They were also members of a religious cult which advocates violence to purge the world of sin. The difference? These boys are good ol' boys from Texas. They are named Dayton and Michael, and they are Christians--which is why you probably haven't heard a word about them.

http://www.cleburnetimesreview.com/local/local_story_187190847.html

Burleson police arrested two men Wednesday and one Thursday who cited religious beliefs in attempting to detonate a bomb at Victory Family Church in Burleson.

According to reports, the suspects — Dayton Lee Calaway, 19, of Burleson, Michael Philip Plaisted Jr., 18, of Burleson, Jered Michael Ragon, 18, of Burleson, and an underage boy — twice attempted to detonate the device before being interrupted by a deacon. Police discovered the device propped against the church door.

About the bomb:

Although Burleson Police Cmdr. Chris Havens declined to elaborate on the bomb, he said it was a simple, homemade device, the plans for which could probably be easily found on the Internet. Had the device detonated it would have caused a substantial explosion and probably led to a fire in the church, he said.

About the Christian cult:

Although the name of the group the three associate with is unknown, Havens said the men identified themselves as radical Christian activists who oppose government and organized religion.

“They said the act at the church was a test of the device itself and to get the attention of the community,” Havens said.

Group members share common beliefs about the demise of society, which they believe has become too focused on self-improvement and self-gratification and lost it’s focus on the glorification of God, police said. The group is attempting to wake up society by committing destructive acts, according to reports. Group members further believe there are too many denominations and churches, and there ought to be only one.

Today, this story finally filtered into the mainstream media. It made it to the Fort Worth Star Telegram! That is 15 miles in three days. At this rate, the papers in DC and New York may pick up the story some time around 2010.

Why is the mainstream media so obsessed with pretending that religious fanatics are all Muslims? Only two of the terrorist attacks on US soil have occurred at the hands of Arabs. All the abortion clinic terrorists are Christians. The Branch Davidians were a Christian sect. The Oklahoma City bombing was not committed by anyone named Abdul. A Christian recently was caught with napalm at Jerry Falwell's funeral (note how CNN, which loves to magnify the scope of Muslim terrorism, downplays this crime):

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/22/va.bombarrest/index.html

"Mark David Uhl's intended target is unknown, authorities said." Since when has our law enforcement hesitated to assign the most atrocious motives to the terrorists it captures? If this were a Muslim, we would have been told the napalm was clearly intended to murder innocent women and children, "Because they hate us for our freedom."

After the napalm story penetrated the national news, the mainstream media was careful to get the conversation back on the subject of Muslim terrorism by releasing the results of one of the silliest polls ever, in which young Muslim men were asked if they ever felt sympathy for Muslim terrorists. When a small number admitted that they did, this "fact" was circulated all across the country as proof that all Muslim men were powder kegs just waiting to go boom.

I wonder what would happen if they asked young Southern Baptist men the same question.

The Department of Injustice under Ashcroft and Gonzales has done its part to aid the mainstream media in creating the impression that terrorism is a Muslim disease. We are told that Arabs with cameras are dangerous, but anyone else with a camera is just a tourist. We are told that a bunch of guys who videotaped themselves at a rifle range shouting jihad are a threat to our way of life (I think they are a threat to tasteful film making) and that another group of guys were going to blow up the Sears Tower, when in truth they did not even have a clue much less a plan.

Funny thing about the Justice Department. They actually did have one honest to god terror cell that they broke up and prosecuted. You probably can not recall where it was or what happened, because they do not like to talk about this case in east Texas. That is because no one involved was named Mohammed and none of them prayed facing Mecca. They were all home grown American criminals, who had a good old fashioned home grown cyanide bomb.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/tex-d09.shtml

[poverlay]

1. Holy crap... Why isn't the MSM all over this? Oh yeah now I remember:

we're only at war with non-christian terrorists. I'm sure it was somehow patriotic. Here's a little gem for those defending those boys:
"Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself you will escape the judgment of God?" ~Life Application Bible Romans 2:3

[demgirlamerica]

13. ridiculous

i happen to be a christian and this is ridiculous. its just like saying the murder rate in philly is high so we must be on alert for black people. i find your post repugnant. this is why i support mrs clinton because she seems to grasp the threat from radical islam.

[panzerfaust]

17. Could not agree with you more ...

i happen to be a christian and this is ridiculous.

Reminds me of when Bertrand Russell was being locked up during the First World War (for being opposed to killing, since he was not a Christian) when he was asked by the admitting jailer what his religion was and he had replied "I am an Atheist".

The jailer looked at him strangely for a minute. Then said. "Well, I'm Catholic me-self, but I guess we all worship the same God".

Russell said that interchange kept him happy for a week.

[depakid]

22. Just don't let those silly facts get in the way

"Christian" fundamentalist groups and cults have both conspired and perpetrated more acts of violence (terrorism?) in America than Muslim groups ever have, yet they've generally received a fraction of the attention.

That's the point of the OP -and one that seems clearly proven by the recent instance that the author cited.

Had that person been a Muslim, just imagine all the outcry....

[jenmito]

24. No it's not.

The point is that there are millions or billions of Muslims who feel misrepresented by the radical Islamists just as you apparently feel misrepresented by these radical Christains, as you very well should. But if this article was about radical Muslims instead of radical Christains, there would be wall to wall coverage for about a week, Faux Noise would be telling us this is further proof of how Muslims aren't peaceful, etc.

[DeadElephant_ORG]

2. but if some Earth-First-types or animal rights activists

damage property without physically threatening anybody, they will be jailed as "terrorists".

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[spoony]

9. Cite for both of those statements?

[McCamy Taylor]

10. The number is probably high. Here are some of the murders

European witch hunts. Wiki estimates tens of thousands killed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt

Crusades. Impossible to know how many died on both sides (Europe sent its unwanted young men and even children off to fight in those wars so they were victims too). I quote the portions about the persecution of Jewish people in Europe, who had nothing to do with the Muslim occupation of the Holy Land and prove that the Crusaders were the equivalent of our modern rabid Christian right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades#_note-8

"The Crusaders' atrocities against Jews in the German and Hungarian towns, later also in those of France, England, and in the massacres of Jews in Palestine and Syria have become a significant part of the history of anti-Semitism, although no Crusade was ever declared against Jews. These attacks left behind for centuries strong feelings of ill will on both sides. The social position of the Jews in western Europe was distinctly worsened, and legal restrictions increased during and after the Crusades. They prepared the way for the anti-Jewish legislation of Pope Innocent III and formed the turning-point in medieval anti-Semitism."

The Spanish Inquisition is supposed to have murdered 5000. I believe that the number should actually be higher since the Spanish Inquisition participated in the murder and enslavement of the Native People of America, where many more than 5000 died, though there was no official decree of execution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition

The largest single act of murder committed by Christians was the Holocaust. While the Nazi leadership had some peculiar almost pagan Germanic notions, they were aided by the people of central Europe which was firmly Christian and whose antisemitism had been taught to them by their Christian Churches. Six million dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

Maybe not hundreds of millions, but millions certainly, as Thomas Jefferson said (this before the Holocaust):

http://www.nobeliefs.com/jefferson.htm

"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity."

-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

As the earth becomes increasingly crowded, desert dualistic cults become increasingly irrelevant. Once upon a time, when there was plenty of room for every tribe to graze on its own land far from its neighbor, it was easy to delineate "us" from "them". If anyone who looked or acted the slightest bit different showed up, we could stone him as an outsider, secure in the knowledge that we were protecting our little isolated enclave. Now, we no longer have that luxury. This is one great big world where every action has a reaction. Dualism is an invitation to war and murder and death and chaos. The only way that people can exist in a crowded planet is to adopt the eastern philosophy of non dualism and polytheism. All religious points of view are respected and no one group is scapegoated.

[spoony]

11. on the Holocaust

You have it right that the Nazi leadership wasn't Christian. Most Christians, as those who supported Bush, were guilty of being gullible and xenophobic, but cannot be singled out as the group responsible for the atrocities to follow. Plenty of people made up Hitler's ranks and you make a grave error in highlighting Christians as scapegoats for the 6 million dead.

And I still demand that the poster I was replying to either cite his sources, amend his post, or have it deleted. I'm frankly quite tired of people feeling free to make up whatever the hell they want in order to slam an entire group of people.

And as an aside, your last paragraph is simply wrong. Killing in the name of religion is not inherent to any of the ideologies you slur as "desert cults." Furthermore, violence and tribalism--and indeed gross inequalities--exist in eastern cultures as well. It's hard to imagine what lead you to romanticising their religions as you did.

[panzerfaust]

16. Cult, or observation based on "That Which is Written"?

I don’t have time to do more than just throw up a couple of quotes from that Most Holy Book. But perhaps you have a point: The Big Guy likes killing Israelites as much as slaying Goyim.

Numbers:25:3-8:
And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.
And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor.
And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;
And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

This following bit takes up right after God helped Josh out by commanding “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon”. Handy, that.

Joshua:10:14-40:
And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.
And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.
But these five kings fled, and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah.
And it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hid in a cave at Makkedah.
And Joshua said, Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them:
And stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter into their cities: for the LORD your God hath delivered them into your hand.
And it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter, till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered into fenced cities.
And all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace: none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel.
Then said Joshua, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave.
And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them.
JAnd Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.
And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening.
And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave's mouth, which remain until this very day.
And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did unto the king of Jericho.
Then Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah:
And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.
And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it:
And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.
Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua smote him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.
And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him; and they encamped against it, and fought against it:
And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.
And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:
And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein.
And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and fought against it:
And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.
So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.

But one of my favorites has to be:

First Sam:15:2-33: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.
And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.
Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.

Amen!

Remember too, that inspired command of the Abbey leading the Albigensian Crusade (against other Christians) who, when asked how to tell Heretic from Catholic in a town of 30,000 that had just been taken replied “Slay them all. God will know his own.” Likely there were fewer than 1000 heretics amoung those ten-of-thousands killed by the forces of the Christian Church.

Praise the Lord!!

Also recall that Hitler, a Catholic, stated in several of his speeches (I think also in Mein Kampf) that he saw himself as “completing the Work of Christ” by exterminating the Jews.

Interesting too that God’s man on Earth, the head of the (only True) Church did not excommunicate Hitler or ANY NAZI. One has to wonder if this had anything to do with the fact that the Third Reich, until the very end, continued to send tithes to Rome?

God Bless!!!

[spoony]

21. What site did you copy and paste that from?

You know it's against the rules to do so without citation, right?

And once again we see a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-theist zealot in a full blown tirade against Christianity without reason, context, nor even accuracy. For to call Hitler a Christian is as idiotically incomplete as to call him an atheist.

[pretzel4gore]

4. the media shout 'fire' in crowded theatre...

used to be agin the law, but today it is the law...what a fricking mess we're in....

[pingzing58]

5. Thanks for the thread. The info is good to know. nt

[Seabiscuit]

Whenever anyone asserts a "one true God", killing in his name inevitably follows.

[Seabiscuit]

6. Whenever anyone asserts a "one true God", killing in his name inevitably follows.

[progressoid]

7. gee wiz, I'm shocked .

[LiberalFighter]

8. Christian activists who oppose government and organized religion

Group members further believe there are too many denominations and churches, and there ought to be only one.

They oppose organized religion but they only want one church or denomination?

[Perry Logan]

12. They don't want us to lose our focus on "Islamofascism"

It would be embarrassing to reveal that the real terrorist threat in America are the white bigots who vote Republican.

[DemBones DemBones]

14. Local news doesn't make the MSM unless it's very dramatic.

The bomb didn't go off and the kids were apprehended with the bomb. If it had gone off, it would have been bigger news. As it was, no one was killed or even hurt and there was no damage to the church. Not much of a story.

Definitely a crime, for which all should go to prison, but not much of a news story. Unhappy teenagers involved in (apparently) a very small cult try to damage a church.

Why all the publicity about London? For starters, people have heard of London. How many people have heard of Burleson, Texas?

London's had subway bombings in the recent past and besides the bombs discovered in cars there, there was the SUV bomb driven into Glasgow airport, which is also in the UK. This all happened as the new PM of the UK took office. It's politically motivated and involves a much larger network of angry men with medical degrees.

You can't realistically expect anyone to regard the boys in Burleson as being as big a threat as the men in London and Glasgow. But go ahead and send the story to Keith Olbermann or anyone else you think might cover it. (Then again, do you want to risk inspiring more angry teenagers to build bombs? That is worth considering.) I wish everyone everywhere would stop thinking about killing people. The world has gone crazy.

[Solon]

15. Not true, another Texan William Krar, had a weapon of mass destruction...

A sodium-cyanide bomb, a chemical weapon that he planned to detonate at a packed sports stadium back in 2002-2003. He was caught, thank goodness, because of some misdirected mail that linked him to a white supremacist group. Yet the case was completely ignored by the national news media, I wonder why?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p02s01-usju.html

[treestar]

18. But that's exactly the point

Muslims who weren't much of a real threat got tons of attention from the MSM.

And the point is that every group has its extremists who will do extreme and violent things. Not just Muslims.

[DaveT]

19. I certainly agree that the world has gone crazy,

but I can't buy the idea that I shouldn't regard the boys from the Dallas Ft.Worth area as being less of a threat than the men in London and Glasgow. They are far more of a threat to Americans -- and far more likely to get their bombs to work on their intended victims.

The news is not tightly controlled by a central authority -- but it IS controlled by a set of editorial policies with a pronounced political agenda set by the corporate management of main stream media platforms. Scaring the piss out of people about Muslim terrorists is on that agenda -- reporting the news that white people commit terrorism is most affirmatively off that agenda.

[TheBaldyMan]

20. a few thoughts occurred to me while reading this,

while you are correct about the truly disgraceful silence from the media, I take it as an optimistic sign that law enforcement agencies actually intercepted these criminals before they could harm anyone. The MSM may be ignoring their duty, at least the detectives are observing theirs.

Secondly the MSM are silent about some muslim terrorists, namely the ones that are working for us. If not silent about the perpetrators they remain silent about our backing, financial and political.

The west is currently giving logistic support and training to several groups that are sympathetic to the ideals of international jihad by terror, some of which are openly extol the professed aims of Al Qaida. Most of the senior figures associated with Al Qaida received their training in terrorist techniques at the hands of the CIA.

[truckerb1968]

23. Don't you know, this is a Christian Theocracy not the United States.