Pamela Geller Stands by Story Claiming Texas UMC Church Is Embracing Radical Islam
Controversial political activist Pamela Geller is standing by a story on her website that claims a small United Methodist congregation in Texas is aiding Islamic extremism.
Bosqueville United Methodist Church in Waco was recently the subject of a blog entry on The Geller Report claiming that an anonymous church member told the site that their church was trying to spread radical Islam in Texas.
In comments to The Christian Post, Geller is standing by the blogger's story for her publication, stating that she believes the UMC was "spreading ignorance and complacency regarding the jihad threat posed by the Muslim migrant influx."
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Geller also told CP that she did not believe it was possible to help settle Muslim refugees in the United States and not at the same time help advance jihadist ideology.
"To think this would be naive. It would require ignoring the manifest fact that jihad terrorists are entering the West among refugees," continued Geller.
"All the Paris jihadis who killed 130 people in November 2015 were refugees. ISIS has threatened to send jihadis to Europe among the refugees, and they have done so."
According to European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, most of the 2015 Paris attackers were born in either Belgium or France and all were citizens of the European Union.
Last week the Geller Report published a story titled "EXCLUSIVE: Local Texas United Methodist Church In Waco Now Embracing Islam," which claimed that Bosqueville UMC was helping spread Islam in Texas.
"On-the-ground sources in west Texas confirm that the United Methodist Church is potentially engaged in a massive operation designed to reprogram churches as virtual mosques in preparation for a deluge of Muslim refugees," reads the Geller Report story.
"In a special exclusive interview just for the Geller Report, the church member explained that he became aware of the Islamic 'sanctuary' plan after an interim pastor began overtly preaching Sufi Islamic parables and asking the congregation to prepare for Catholic-style 'sanctuary' protections for Muslim refugees, including possible terrorists (ISIS, al Qaeda, etc.)."
In response to the blog entry, local news station KWTX reached out to the church, whose pastor denied the claims of the Geller Report story.
"You know you can't believe everything that you read," stated Pastor Gabe Dominguez to KWTX, adding, "I've just never heard anything like that before."
While the Geller Report claimed an anonymous source told them the church was embracing Islam, another unnamed church member told KWTX that this was untrue.
"On the church campus Wednesday, an elderly member who asked to not be identified said he's been a member of the church a long time and hasn't missed a service in five years. He said he never heard any such message from a pastor," reported KWTX.
Bosqueville UMC falls under the jurisdiction of the UMC Central Texas Conference. Vance Morton, communications director for the UMC CTC, told CP that they learned of the Geller Report story last Wednesday and sent out a statement to press in response.
"The Central Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church declares that there is absolutely no truth to recent speculative accusations that Bosqueville United Methodist Church, or any local church in the Central Texas Conference, is engaged in an 'Islamic sanctuary plan'," read the statement in part.
"The mission of The United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The Central Texas Conference is totally committed to this mission. Any reports to the contrary are simply false."
When asked by CP if there had been any harassment in response to the story, Morton replied that they have gotten "limited feedback," all of which has been "nothing but support and positive comments regarding this article, with most expressing astonishment that anyone would actually believe this report."
"We have heard no reports of any actual harassment beyond some angry comments on the Geller Report and other sites that carried the post verbatim," said Morton.
"According to the Central District Superintendent, there were no incidents during yesterday's worship service and most of the congregation seemed unaware of the situation at all."
