A voice of reason

[Stan]

The Liberty Blog

Why I Would Not Want To Burn A Holy Book

By Barry Bussey

There is growing angst about a small Florida congregation that plans to make a spectacle by burning the Qur’an this coming September 11. The stated purpose of this showmanship is to maintain their right of religious expression and to send a message to the Islamic fundamentalists that they – this one, small Christian church in America – is not going to be intimidated.

“We feel it’s maybe the right time for America to stand up,” says Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. “How long are we going to bow down? How long are we going to be controlled by the terrorists, by radical Islam?”1

Few in the United States would dispute the right of this religious group to freely express themselves as they see fit. There are limits of course – Oliver Wendell Holmes’ proverbial adage that people do not have the right to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater – is one such limit. Holmes was very much of the view that one’s freedom of speech was limited by the circumstances So given the circumstance of America being at war – the mounting tensions between Islam and the Christian community in the West does that axiom apply here? Perhaps it would take all the constitutional lawyers and judicial opinions from Cape Cod to Laguna Beach to answer that, and even then we would have a different view from every legal authority who would venture such an opinion.

I happen to think there are a number of valid arguments against a church carrying out such an inflammatory act in the given environment. Some are legal, but I am going to venture to explain what is for me the most persuasive – the religious arguments.

First, the Lord Jesus noted that “whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”2

It is simple yet profound. Not complicated but deep. The truth is that I would not appreciate one whit if someone burned the Holy Bible as a means of expressing their religious right to do so or to express their disdain for the Scriptures. It would indeed be offensive to me. Similarly, I would not want to so offend another religious community by burning their holy book.

I happen to believe in Truth. That there is a right and a wrong. Things are not equal. It is not a matter of preference – it is a matter of objective, unadulterated, clear, and authoritative reality. I do not, in my personal understanding, claim to know it all – but I have no doubt that such Truth exists. Such Truth is found in the Holy Bible. Therefore I hold Scripture in great esteem.

Yet I also appreciate that though I have such an elevated concept of the Holy Bible I would not want to have any person suffer persecution of any sort for their misuse, defamation, burning or destruction of a physical copy of the Bible.

That may seem strange but it comes from the authority of Christ – who suffered horrible abuse from pagan Rome. He stated, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.”3

The point is my God is able to look after Himself. He does not need me to punish the blasphemer – He may do that in His sovereign time if He desires. It is not my role.

Second, Jesus suggested that we are to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”4

Praying for our enemies prevents us from becoming like them – having hearts filled with hate. Ironically the burning of a holy book as proposed by this Florida church is what an Islamic fundamentalist would be expected to do. Thus the church runs the risk of taking on the very characteristics of those to whom they are directing this protest. The alleged persecuted becomes the persecutor. The very mischief that praying for our enemies was meant to solve. Such activity only fuels the perverted mind that Christians are indeed at war with Islam.

So then I would not want to burn a holy book of any religious community because I would not want my Holy Bible burned nor do I want to adopt the mindset of my enemies. I’d rather hold a prayer meeting and pray that the Lord will soften their hearts and that they eschew hatred. It is a simply principle of reciprocity.

1 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/...-koran-burning/

2 Matthew 7:12, KJV

3 Matthew 5:11, NKJV

4 Matthew 5: 44,45, NKJV

[Dottie]

When I got this in my e-mail I forwarded it tl everybody on my list. It makes so much more sense than anything else I have heard about this proposed happening.