Is free speech dead? You would think so in the liberal mecca of Hood River, Oregon. A local church is under fire for a truthful sign they posted. We’d love to know what you think-free speech or hate speech?

 

HOOD RIVER, Ore. — The view of Mt. Adams from the Belmont Drive Missionary Baptist Church is beautiful, but many say the messages outside of the church are down right ugly.

The reader board now displays two messages. The first reads, “Wake up Christians. Allah is not our God. Muhammad not greater than Jesus.” The second says, “Only the bible is God’s word. “Holy book.” Koran is just another book.””
“I literally had to stop and back up and make sure I saw what I saw and I was profoundly offended and upset by it,” Eric Cohn said.
Cohn, a Hood River resident, first spotted the message while he was out for a bike ride. He couldn’t believe what he was reading, and he isn’t the only one.
“I was really annoyed and sad,” Hood River Mayor Paul Blackburn said. “I am annoyed that in this political season there’s a solid case of ugly going on. I think it norms up this kind of behavior like ‘oh it’s okay to be a bigot now.'”
Both men are concerned the sign sends the wrong message about their town. Cohn was so worried he even wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper.
“This one guy wrote in here that I’m a terrorists almost. You ought to see what he put in here!” Pastor Michael Harrington said as he read from the letter.
Harrington spotted the letter and is now defending the messages he put on the sign. He says everyone is over-reacting.
“I’m not politically correct. I’ve never been politically correct, but I think I’m biblically correct and that’s what matters to me,” Harrington said.

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