PrintSeptember 9, 2010
The Question Is: Whose Books Are You Burning?
For better or for worse, the Pentecostal pastor sure got the attention of the world. Hillary Clinton, Gen. Petraeus, the Vatican and even Angelina Jolie were outraged at Terry Jones's plan to burn Korans outside a church in Florida.
However, Mayor Bloomberg of New York, who supports the right of Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero, exhibited a consistency in understanding our laws by backing the position of the extremist pastor.
"I don't think he would like it if somebody burned a book in his religion that he thinks is holy. ... But the First Amendment protects everybody and you can't say we're going to apply the First Amendment in only those cases where we are in agreement," Bloomberg said.
Burning a holy book like the Koran is radical; yet, the American Constitution provides for the free exercise of religion in belief and worship. Pastor Jones of the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center says he's doing it because:
"We feel it's maybe the right time for America to stand up. How long are we going to bow down? How long are we going to be controlled by the terrorists, by radical Islam?"
Just like the argument over building the Park 51 mosque in New York has raised the question of propriety as opposed to legality, the desecration of a religious document shows a lack of sensitivity to those who are offended. That doesn't give the offended parties the right to retaliate with violence.
Gen. Petraeus expressed concern because he believes violence will in fact occur:
"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Gen. Petraeus said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."
Are Clinton and the others more concerned with being politically correct or are they justified in assuming terrible consequences could ensue? Whatever the answer, those who oppose the conflagration of Islamic texts don't have a legal precedent to stand on. They also can't erase a long list of anti-Christian activities which have all but gone unnoticed by leftist national media.
In Afghanistan last year, Christian U.S. Army troops engaged in proselytizing the Afghan people by attempting to hand out Bibles written in their native language. The soldiers were stopped, and the copies of the Bible were burned. According to Politico:
Christian Broadcasting's David Brody says "the Bibles were burned because the rules on the base say that all garbage is burned at the end of the day. But just asking here; if the U.S. Military seized a stack full of Korans, would they be burned? You think that might cause a little outrage in the Muslim world?"
President Obama when giving a speech at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, had all images and symbols of Jesus Christ covered so as not to show up in his video frame.
"In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday's event, Georgetown honored the White House staff's request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage," Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at Georgetown, told CNSNews.com."
Muslims burning down Catholic churches in Sudan and Nigeria is commonplace according to African priests who visited my parish this past year. One of the priests said the people had just built themselves a new church, and worshipped in it for a few months before it was leveled. Where is the Vatican's outrage on these horrendous crimes?
So, the issue has nothing to do with whether someone should be allowed to burn a sacred text, but it has everything to do with the group you are offending. If you're Christian, you can forget the powerful elites coming to your aid when your church is trashed or your crucifixes are covered up. Apparently, in present day America, all religions are not equal; as a matter of fact, the scales are tipping toward Mecca.
