"Everything about the proposed Koran-burning points to the problem of a maverick church group utterly ignoring the authority of the Scripture it purports to follow.
"Pastor" Terry Jones of the the "Dove World Outreach Center" in Gainesville, Florida is doing this profoundly stupid act apart from any clear directives from God's Word (though between his title and the name of the group, I have no clue why this should surprise me).
The New Testament does not promote inter-religion warfare, only the preaching of the Gospel. The ONLY time the burning of books occurred was when the Ephesian Christians repented of their occult involvement and chose to burn their own sorcerous tomes.
Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.
And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. (Acts 19: 18-19)
That is some serious repentance. They repented of their own sins, and chose to destroy the implements thereof. I am leery of church-related practices that hearken back to the German book-burnings of WWII. It's just bad form, and the press it receives serves to further inoculate the world against hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul did not lead the believers to hang the Emperor in effigy, nor to burn his latest best-seller, nor even melt down silver statues of Diana. Jesus, who warned against the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, did not encourage the faithful to stone little models of it. Jones is taking it upon himself to behave badly in reaction to the 9/11 bombings, never mind that it will infuriate millions of adherents of Islam, and render them even more difficult to reach with the Gospel.
Great job!
The church, the "Dove World Outreach Center" is acting against its own name, unless it wishes to reach out with unreasoning hatefulness. There is no love of God evident in this dog-and-pony show, just a little man giving the digitus sinistrus to a rival religion, and thereby trading a ministerial collar for a Star Trek red shirt.
The better to be a martyr with, my dear.
3 comments:
I've mused at how he would react if I chose to burn a New Testament is reaction to his protest. If he would be so generous with my right to protest as the liberties he is taking.
This is attention-whoring, plain and simple. (Note: I'm speaking of the "pastor", not you 'Vark.) There are certain vocations that seem to attract this type. Unfortunately preaching is one of them.
Which is not to say all, or even most, preachers are attention-whores, but this one is.
And look how easy it is, just mention burning one book, and the whole worlds talking about you. Now if he was actually focusing on tending to his flock and being a good pastor, virtually no one would know his name.
So the circus is over and no hateful Koran burning took place to the horror filled world view sensibilities.
But it HAS served a useful purpose for me, at least, in that the whole HORRIFYING global extravaganza regarding this one threatened act perfectly displayed the prejudicial hypocrisy that the world at large seems to exhibit daily against Jesus Christ and His Followers and including those of God's chosen people ...
No global outcry a few years back when an artist, female, masturbated on stage with a Crucifix. Instead it was defended as "art". (wink, wink ... he he he!).
No global outcry a few years back when another "artist" tore apart a bible and laid the pages on the floor of his "exhibit" with urine and excrement.
No global outcry when Christians are murdered for their faith and their churches and bibles burned.
So it doesn't take much imagination to wonder the world outcry if Muslims were murdered and their mosques demolished and Korans burned.
There isn't even much outcry by the world as Muslims kill each other daily in the name of their "god fearing faith".
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