The Southern Baptist Welcome Wagon

Rev. Creighton Lovelace, pastor of the 55-member Danieltown Baptist Church in Forest City, N.C., has posted a sign in front of his church reading "The Koran needs to be flushed."

"My creed is the Bible, which tells me I am supposed to stand up and defend my faith," Rev. Lovelace said, "which includes being deliberately provocative, sunk in ignorance, and dedicated to spreading hatefulness through my corner of the world." Okay. He didn't say the second part of that, but still.

The Rev. Lovelace's cheerful little sign has drawn national attention. "Christians often ask themselves, 'What would Jesus do?' " said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "I don't think Jesus, who is loved by Muslims and mentioned frequently in the Quran, would use such hate-filled and divisive rhetoric."

Charles Kimball, a religion professor at Wake Forest University, called the church's decision to put up the message "highly inappropriate and deliberately provocative."

Even Richard Land, who heads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the minor mullah who came up with iVoteValues last year, criticized Lovelace's decision: "If we want other people to respect our religious symbols and documents we need to respect the symbols and documents that they believe are sacred. What positive purpose does this serve? None. It's not going to make it easier to evangelize Muslims or foster respect for our religious beliefs."