I had the distinct pleasure of joining a group of over a hundred members of the United Church of Gainesville (home of the “If they can burn it we can read it” campaign in response to the planned Quran burning) who donned blue shirts reading “Gay and Straight Together” to march down University Avenue to the Bo Diddley Community Plaza as part of Pride Parade 2010. It was a spectacular day and the turnout was tremendous.

An article in Thursday’s Gainesville Sun states that Terry Jones (who just cancelled his planned burning of the Quran) owns a number of properties in the Gainesville area, but the article did not have financing information on the properties. I have searched the public records in Alachua County and found mortgage records that are a close match to the information the Sun produced on purchase records. In addition, I found mortgage records on the Dove World Outreach church property itself that show a large mortgage being taken out on the church property just 27 days before the first residential property was mortgaged in Jones’ name. These records create the impression that Jones used the mortgage of church property to fuel the purchase of a large amount of residential property in his own name.

Clergy of many faiths came together in Gainesville, Florida today to speak out about the planned burning of the Quran. A press conference was held on the steps of City Hall at noon. Rev. Larry Reimer of United Church of Gainesville opened the press conference and then representatives of various faith communities came forward to [...]