Papa Don't Preach

While  the current internet rumors that Terry Jones (the megalomaniac pastor who with fewer than 50 religious followers managed to get thousands of media followers by threatening to burn the Qur'an later today) was arrested for child pornography are not true, it is true he has special, if very different, relationships with his own son and daughter.

Luke, one of the religious of his father's Dove World, is a believer and defender of his dad's ways. Daughter Emma isn't. Still living in Germany — where she moved with her father years ago and stayed after he was kicked out of the church there — she told Der Spiegel of how she split from her father's ways.

Where she didn't part ways, from her father or the path of her brother, is in her love. She felt threatened when, "[my father] called me into his office and said he received a message from God for me: God would take my children and then kill me." Still, she claims that, "As his daughter, I can see the good-natured core deep inside him. But I think he needs help."

When asked what she would tell him if he would listen, she answered: "That he needs help. That he is on the wrong path. But that there are people who love him anyway. I sincerely hope that he comes to his senses."


For all the sins Jones may be ready to commit, there is at least some credit to be gained in noting that at least his kids still love him.