Posted on 08/18/2010 8:59:38 AM PDT by americanophile
Greek Orthodox leaders trying to rebuild the only church destroyed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks expressed shock this week after learning, via Fox News, that government officials had killed a deal to relocate the church.
The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, once a tiny, four-story building in the shadows of lower Manhattan, was destroyed in 2001 by one of the falling World Trade Center towers. Nobody from the church was hurt in the attack, but the congregation has, for the past eight years, been trying to rebuild its house of worship.
Though talks between the church and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey stalled last year, church leaders say they've been trying to kick-start discussions ever since. But amid debate over whether a proposed Islamic community center should go forward near Ground Zero, government officials threw cold water on the prospect of any deal with the church -- telling Fox News the deal is off the table.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
WTC site:
For Muslims Only
They were the ones to clear it out, after all.
Two words for the Port Authority: Hagia Sophia.
You better believe the Greeks won’t forgive or forget this one.
Mosque is paying for everything 100%
Church wants more taxpayer money than the Port Authority was originally offering. It seems like they got a tad bit greedy.
“The archdiocese and Port Authority now offer sharply conflicting accounts of where things went wrong. The Port Authority has previously claimed the church was making additional demands — like wanting the $20 million up front and wanting to review plans for the surrounding area. They say the church can still proceed on its own if it wishes.
“The church continues to have the right to rebuild at their original site, and we will pay fair market value for the underground space beneath that building,” a spokesperson with the Port Authority told Fox News”
I understand the outrage regarding the mosque, but wouldn’t you be even more upset if the mosque was demanding taxpayer funds for its inception? I’ve been following this for a few years and it seems like the people behind this Church want the original one to be “Super-Sized” on the taxpayer’s dole. Too bad real life isn’t McDonald’s.
“The church continues to have the right to rebuild at their original site, and we will pay fair market value for the underground space beneath that building,” a spokesperson with the Port Authority told Fox News”
Funny thing is... all the Greek Americans I know are long standing Liberals and positively Ga Ga about “O”
Agreed.
Why was this pulled off the News/ACTIVISM sidebar?
FR has the influence to make this church into every bit as big a story as the Ground Zero Mosque.
It is a perfect symmetry. We should use it.
I agree. We should push it. Good call.
I will join you. The powers of darkness have already lost their battle. Come Lord Jesus.
This is true in my experience as well. Its a big socialist society, some of the most rabid anti-Bush nuts I knew happened to be naturalized Greeks. I don’t think that they’d be much too opposed seeing the US getting as fuxored as their native country currently is.
It’s good to see your post Carry_Okie. Hope all is going good for you and your family.
BTW, CalCowGirl has been around over the last month or so.
I wonder why. He stands against anything Greek, including the Greek underpinnings of the West.
I am surprised - stunned - also. But I also remember reading predictions, Biblical and otherwise, of events such as these.
God is watching, always.
Oh. My. God. I have to go puke.
And these are the good old days. Like the last days of the Weimar Republic. Or Saigon.
The fricgkin musk wasn’t DESTROYED on 9-11. I don’t know if all the arguments add up, but that is an essential difference between the two situations. You can’t compare them in that way.
Not SURPRISED. This is just the continuation of the old Christian East/West battle vs. Islamic East fight, which goes back CENTURIES.
” MUSLIMS MUST ATONE BEFORE MOSQUE IS BUILT AT WTC, WHERE MIRACLES WERE THOSE OF JESUS
It is one thing to respect religious freedom and to nurture relations between all God’s people and everyone, but it is also wrong to forget that two huge buildings fell in New York due to religious extremism built on hatred.
That extremism came not from Christians or Hindus or Buddhists, but from militant Muslims, and before any Muslim center is built in the shadows of “Ground Zero,” Muslims need to atone for what occurred nine years ago next month.
However much most Muslims disdain the actions of radicals (and most do), it is a simple fact that a great tragedy costing innocent lives and untold psychological trauma was done in the name of Islam. The center is planned at the site of a building that in fact sustained damage during the attacks (when the landing gear assembly of one plane fell onto it).
The Cordoba House, as it would be known, “was supposed to be a monument to religious tolerance, an homage to the city in Spain where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together centuries ago in the midst of religious foment,” says The New York Times.
This is laudable. It is essential. There should be no knee-jerk reactions to that aspect. Do they have a legal right? They do.
“Supporters of the mosque and cultural center in lower Manhattan, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, say its development should stand as a testament to religious tolerance in America,” says Fox News. “They say it would be a mistake to equate Islam as a whole, and its practice in the United States, with Al Qaeda — and remind critics that Muslims were also killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center.”
But meanwhile, New York City authorities have dragged their feet in approving a Christian building, Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church — which was destroyed on 9/11 by the collapse of the Twin Towers. It has spent nine long years trying to get building permits.
How about a Christian center?
For it was Jesus Who was witnessed — His intervention — by many of those who miraculously survived the disaster.
He was even seen (allegedly) by one surviving broker as a apparition.
Other Christians heard voices that guided them to safety. And before September 11 were a good number of Catholics who had premonitions or were miraculously kept away that fateful morning (or prepared for it).
On September 11, a man named Ron DiFrancesco who worked for Euro Brokers in the south tower at the World Trade Center found himself in a horrifying struggle to find his way down and away from the searing flames that would soon collapse the structure after the terrorists’ plane struck just below Euro’s offices.
Blocked from descending by a collapsed wall, a number of others were stretched face-down on the floor, crying and gasping for air, but something remarkable had occurred to DiFrancesco. “Someone told me to get up,” he says. Someone “called” him. The voice was male and insistent but belonged to no human. “Get up!” it said.
DiFrancesco did, with the sensation that someone or something was helping him up (”Hey! You can do this,” he swears he heard), and this terrified man was led to the stairs — where he saw a point of light, followed it, fought his way through drywall and other debris, and was directed through flames that normally would have stopped him.
DiFrancesco descended to safety moments before the skyscraper fell, one of just four people who survived from the 84th floor or above.
These and other accounts are in a book called The Third Man Factor (by John Geiger with Vincent Lam).
Afterwards, debris fell into the shape of a Cross (those two famous beams, a sign if ever there are signs), and clouds or lights shaped like crosses were also spotted in association with the towers.
Considering how many worked in those two buildings and surrounding structures, it’s a miracle many more did not die. But seldom is there talk of a monument to the Lord’s intervention — nor assurance that those two beams will be permanently allowed there.
There was also a mysterious trumpet player spotted in the days after the tragedy, which many felt was the Archangel Gabriel.
If so, we can find common ground here — with Gabriel — with Muslims. We should always do that. We are called to love Muslims. It is crucial to do this — critical. They too believe in the archangels. They honor the Blessed Mother. Jesus loves them. There is no place for hatred.
But to always cow-tow to other religions while ignoring Christianity is beyond unfair and inches toward the realm of persecution. Would a president have okayed a Catholic center at Ground Zero if Catholics had engineered the destruction? Would Mayor Bloomberg?
At the least, those behind the Muslim center should lead in the public atonement.”
http://www.spiritdaily.com/mosquegroundzero.htm
And? The point is that over the past few years the Port Authority has made generous offers to rebuild the church in that location and seeing dollar signs, they turned them down to see how much they could pull from Uncle Sam. You can’t even blame Obama for this because a large part of it was happening during Bush’s second term.
I believe that the church should be rebuilt, however they’re not entitled to excessive taxpayer funding just because they want to make version 2.0 a little bit more luxurious on the backs of taxpayers.
Also, you can do with your property what you want. But only if its a mosque. No Walmart in all of NYC, no Church for you Christians.
Don’t let the media convince you that evil has triumphed. The good guys are about to display their numbers and power because the people who go to work everyday, the ones who make up the military and police forces and the ones who go to church every Sunday have been pushed about as far as they’re willing to be pushed.
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