Deacon Spencer (left) and friends

It was generally known that Robert Spencer, the rabid Islamophobe who runs the Jihad Watch website, has a background in the Melkite Catholic tradition.

However, all credit to the excellent Loonwatch for pulling the material together and exposing Spencer’s role as an ordained deacon at Our Lady of the Cedars Catholic Church in Manchester, New Hampshire (see also Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion).

In response to the Loonwatch exposé an online petition has now been posted, evidently by a fellow member of the Melkite Catholic Church, stating that it is unacceptable for a hatemonger like Spencer to hold the post of deacon and calling on the US Church leadership to remove him from that position.