Burning the Quran

Burning the Quran? Now there’s a way to win converts. Let’s show Muslims the love of Christ by burning their holy book. Won’t that make everyone of Islamic faith want to turn immediately to the God of the Christian Bible? Won’t that just warm their hearts with the love and compassion Jesus told His followers to exemplify?

Florida minister Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center certainly has the world’s attention with his planned Quran-burning set for Sept. 11. And that may be all he’s after: attention. It says “World Outreach” on the front of Jones’ center, but World Outrage is what he will reap if he goes through with the barbecue.

Government and military officials warn that if carried out, Jones’ pyromaniacal act could incite violence against Americans around the world. It’s the hit-back mentality we see among small children, and Jones is ramping up the fervor. In Afghanistan, a parliamentary candidate for their Sept. 18 election has been quoted as saying, “wherever Americans are seen, they will be killed” if the Qurans are burned.

Wow. Many dying for the sins of one. And that’s part of the tragedy. I’m an American, and I’m a Christian, but I don’t agree at all with what Jones is doing. Yet I – and countless American soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries – could taste retribution for his act.

There’s not much I can do about Jones’ misguided rampage – one that could happen only in a country as free as America – but, thanks to that same freedom, I can at least voice my opinion. And I can pray.

I can pray that God’s people will step back from such acts and turn instead to the teachings of the Jesus they profess who said to love our enemies and pray for those who curse us.

Does that mean that there is never a time to stand up and fight for what we believe? Not at all. But Jones’ threat is not a fight; it’s a childish insult.

Yes, the tragedy of 9-11 should be remembered. Yes, it was a despicable, murderous, terroristic act perpetrated by Islamic extremists. But does torching a stack of Qurans really show national or religious pride?

No. It simply shows one more example of unclear thinking, and in-your-face radicalism.

Maybe Jones should remove “Dove” from his center’s name and replace it not with "hawk," but "vulture." Better yet, in my disgust of his proposed actions, and as a statement of how much I despise what he intends to do, I think I’ll collect all the doves I can find, and burn them on a symbolic pyre. That’ll show him I mean business.

Take that, Jones, and that!