Let me make 2 points, or offer a view without too much flailing and gesticulation.
We live in an age of hyperbole and marginalization, where one side demonizes and makes their opponents and their view as crazy as they can. In this case, that doesn't seem to be too hard. I'm sure there are a ton of viewpoints flying around making the "Dove World Outreach Center" to be insane and haters and a litany of other colorful name giving.
I suppose my first point is - let's hold up a mirror. My reflection is the reversal of what I actually look like - the image of me that I see is flipped. If I were to hold a mirror up to this situation, it seems to me that it would look pretty similar on both sides.
On one side is a minority of believers whose theology is at the more extreme edge of their faith, seemingly full of hate and willing to do hateful acts in retribution toward their enemies. On the other side is a minority of believers whose theology is at the more extreme edge of their faith, seemingly full of hate and willing to do hateful acts in retribution toward their enemies. (is there an echo?) Granted, one side has been willing to do more severely damaging and evil acts than the other. Let's hope that reality doesn't cross the mirror's boundary.
Terry Jones, the pastor of this little church, may argue that he's just trying to purge the world of lies and false teaching, but I have a little trouble imagining Jesus showing up to the book burning, much less organizing it.
I don't think that Islam is true. I think its spread is causing problems around the world because of its large radical elements and percentages who act on that thinking. I think it's oppressive to freedom, to women, to open inquiry - but I also know that my job as a Christian is to take a different tack in opposing it - or any other falsity.
It's pretty clear, if you're at all familiar with Jesus' teachings, that love is the currency of change. That we're to love our enemies. That the approach to change people's worldview is to do so by speaking about and demonstrating to them a better way. That vindictive cycles of hate and revenge cannot bear the weight of forgiveness and kindness and love. Bad worldviews are not dissolved through sheer reason, or bombs or aggrandizement - they are supplanted by better ones.
While Mr. Jones might think he's doing something bold and significant on the side of truth, I think the smoke that rises from those hundreds of burning books will only be seen from the other side of the world as a confirmation and a call. A confirmation of their suspicion that Americans in general, and Christians in particular, are their enemies. And a call to retaliate. Until they're shown something better - why wouldn't they?
And I wonder what the 'World Outreach' is in the Dove World Outreach Center. For Muslims the world over this week, it will be more of a World Outrage Center.
Second Point - and I'll make this one REAL short.
Let's also 'thank' the news media yet again. Being a conduit doesn't mean you're neutral.
When streakers (for whatever reason) cross fields in sports events, the general policy is not to broadcast the stunt. The cameras turn away. Why? Because by sending it out to the world you are rewarding the nut-case and encouraging similar actions for others that I also don't want to see naked.
But not the news media. Their insatiable appetite for 'that which will make you watch us' seems to override what prudence demands. The BBC themselves, in their article on this point out that...
Gen David Petraeus, the top US commander in Afghanistan, said on Monday that the action could cause problems "not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world".
"It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems," he said in a statement.
And they even help us understand the situation by reminding us of previous events....
There were deadly protests in Afghanistan in 2008, when it emerged that a US soldier deployed to Iraq riddled a copy of the holy book with bullets.
And further lives were lost in Afghan riots in 2005 when Newsweek magazine printed a story alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet.
The story later turned out to be false and was retracted by the magazine.Yeah, Newsweek - you can retract an incorrect story, but you can't retract the 'deadly' part of the protests. Too bad. Did you cause the reaction? No. But you happily pumped it out there. So, you're a bit culpable too. You're not the crazy, but you're glad to report it. People will die.
Thanks Newsweek. Thanks news media. While this whole new situation is certainly illustrative of a problem that exists, there is a part of me that thinks the news outlets would do better to turn their cameras away from this streak of naked hostility.
Perhaps I need to know this - but can we report on this after the fact, quietly and with tactful forethought? I'd prefer that to your salivating and showing up early to the book burning with a camera man and several sets of billows.
BBC Article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11223457
I took the liberty of editing the original photo. Hope the Associated Press doesn't mind. Terry might.
