Burning the Koran for Jesus

There’s been a whole lot of hoop-la over the Pastor in Florida who has proclaimed September 11 “International Burn a Koran Day.” Terry Jones, pastor of a 50 (yes fifty) member church in Gainesville, Florida announced he would burn the Koran “to bring awareness to the dangers of Islam and that the Koran is leading people to hell.” He appeared recently on the Chris Matthews show last Thursday. All the media have picked up this story--even General Petraeus has commented on the craziness of this idea. Muslims who listen to the news are up in arms. To burn a Koran is serious business for Muslim folk as burning a Bible would be for Christians.

My complain is with the media not with this very disturbed Pastor. 1) He has a church of 50 people and if you know anything about how we count numbers in church--those figures are probably padded. We call that “ministerially speaking.“ 2) When are we going to quit giving power to crazy people? 3) Every religious leader of any reputation has protested this irresponsible action. 4) Why don’t we talk about some of the religious groups that will be remembering 9/11 in some responsible and meditative way?

It is time to put a moratorium on making these people famous. Remember the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas? They parade around with “God hates fags” signs. They picket the funerals of our soldiers killed in the war because we have a don’t ask--don’t tell policy. They say these deaths are God’s judgment on a nation that permits gays in the service. This Church is made up of one minister and mostly members of his family. It is a handful of people. Yet--everybody knows this group--and people everywhere think that because they hang the word Baptist and Church on their shingle that a great many must agree with them. Not so. If we had not turned the spotlight on them--nobody would not even know they are around.

The point of all this? Let’s quit dignifying ignorance. Let’s return to the real news. Let’s focus on what we might do to make this a stronger nation and a healthier place for all to live.

Pastor Jones has a right to spout out his poison. This is part of democracy--everyone can have their say. What is not part of democracy is giving these people a forum and power that they do not deserve and it makes Muslims around the world think we really do feel this way.