Posted on 11/13/2003 6:54:12 AM PST by Chancellor Palpatine
Religion permeated lives of suspect, family
The man accused of plotting to firebomb abortion clinics is a deeply religious father of four who was kicked out of a Bible school for violent behavior.
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There was no mistaking Stephen John Jordi's religious fervor. He has fire-and-brimstone tattoos on both forearms and gave his four children -- including a daughter born last weekend -- the names Trinity, Charity, Elijah and Noah.
But was Jordi a fanatical antiabortion activist hellbent on firebombing clinics? Those who know him remember him proselytizing, but not about abortion. However there were some hints of a violent nature simmering below the surface.
He got kicked out of the Pensacola Bible Institute for violent behavior, said brother-in-law Rodney Ward of Pensacola. ''Something about a gun and throwing a rock,'' he said.
And there was a string of misdemeanor arrests, including a charge of hitting his young son outside a religious bookstore in Hollywood.
A native of Minneapolis, Jordi was raised in the Catholic faith. He owns a Kawasaki motorcycle, listens to gospel music and abstains from drinking and smoking.
He met his wife Charlotte, 27, about five years ago at a fundamentalist Baptist church in Pensacola, the city that saw Paul Hill gun down an abortion doctor and clinic escort. Hill was executed in September for the murders. While in Pensacola, Jordi worked as a security guard and concrete finisher. It is not known if he was involved in the city's hard-line antiabortion movement, but years later he would become a pen pal of Hill's.
STREET PREACHER
Like Hill, Jordi would exhort strangers to save their souls by heeding the word of the Lord. Jordi would stand on street corners, scream at cars and ''just about knock you down getting his point across to you,'' said Dwight Ward, younger brother of Jordi's wife. Charlotte's family thought Jordi's exuberance was over the top. Reports that she burned a religious tattoo on her left hand didn't go over well.
After landing in Broward County a couple of years ago, Jordi worked at an Amoco station and frequented Daniel's Bible Book store on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard.
Once, he was attending a class on ''witnessing'' when one of his sons started crying. Jordi took the child outside and started hitting him across the face, according to a man who called police on his cellphone to report the incident.
Jordi explained to officers that he was disciplining his son.
Police considered the slapping incident child abuse and placed him under arrest. The state attorney's office declined to prosecute.
The Jordis live in Country Lakes, a clean, stable working-class community of 500 mobile homes in Coconut Creek. A cloth American flag completely obscures the view through the front window of their home.
Religion ''was the center of their lives. The church was their big thing,'' said Pam Sutter, their next-door neighbor.
A bumper sticker on the family vehicle says the Jordis ''eat and sleep Jesus,'' Sutter said. Charlotte would dress in long, beige Quaker-style dresses.
Stephen, who favored fatigues, was an on-again, off-again parishioner at First Baptist of Hillsboro, an independent Baptist congregation that meets at Lyons Creek Middle School. He hadn't been around in several months, according to Sylvia Williamson, wife of pastor Jerry Williamson.
It was about this time that Jordi initiated contact with Hill in the days before his execution. In one letter, Jordi asked Hill if he had any doubts about his actions. Hill replied that he did not doubt the righteousness of his cause.
BECAME ESTRANGED
As Jordi, 35, became more fixated on the abortion issue, he became increasingly estranged from his family. Jordi's transformation was reported to authorities by a brother, Michael Jordi of Bridgeport, Ala. The FBI initiated an investigation that led to Tuesday's arrest.
At the church near his home, Sylvia Williamson was shocked by Tuesday's events and was concerned for the well-being of Jordi's wife and four children.
''We tried to help them. We would give them food. We did whatever we could to be of any assistance to them,'' she said of the family.
When asked whether Jordi was a deeply religious man, Williamson arched her eyebrows and said nothing.
So9
Religion has always been the enemy of true Christianity.
According to the media.
Who are you trying to kid?
Doesn't that give you a bit of pause?
I wasn't disputing any facts or debating the article. I was just pointing out that your typings mimic those of leftists and islamists. You're either one, both or someone that thinks like them.
Do I have to state again that I'm not defending Mr. Psychobrain? I think that he should be taken out somewhere and shot. He perverts and offends Christianity and he's bad for the human race.
The point I was making was regarding the posters agenda. Do you understand my postition now?
I'm guessing that you're probably some pig Islamist praying to the moon. Such would explain your constant disruptive behavior.
I frankly don't see what part of this article isn't news. I thought that was what Free Republic was for.
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