Kill an American Soldier Day – at the Dove World Outreach Center
Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida is having a special day to commemorate the loss during the horrible attacks carried out by terrorists on 9/11/2001. It's called “Kill an American Soldier Day” ...or wait, I'm sorry, I got that wrong. They're calling it “Burn a Koran Day.” This small church of about fifty members has defied international pleas, including the plea of our own General Petraeus, who has warned that if Dove World Outreach goes forward with their plans, it will likely result in an increase in violence against our troops in the already turbulent Middle East.
Book Burning: A Few Historical Highlights
Though I agree with most Christians that Islam is theologically incorrect and that Jesus is the way to eternal life, I do not believe that book burning is an appropriate way to send that message. The act of torching a bunch of books is nothing new. Let's look at some book burnings throughout history and their effect:
50AD -A Torah Scroll: A Roman soldier in AD 50 decided to burn the Torah to show Jews what he thought of their religion. He was later executed by the Roman government for almost starting a revolt. (the Torah is our Pentateuch – Genesis through Deuteronomy). Effect: Judaism is still around and not suffering any from that burning.
1410 – John Wycliffe's books – An illiterate archbishop burned Wycliffe's books and of course we can see how much good that did to stop him. Effect: Wycliffe's work continued in translating the Bible into English, and he is well known today.
1731 – The Bible and other books: Count Leopold Anton von Firmian who was the Archbishop of Salzburg showed his defiance to the Protestant movement by burning the Bible and other Protestant books. Effect: I have several Bibles in my home, so I think it is safe to say Count von Firmian failed.
1930's – a bunch of books: Nazis burned a very long list of books when they were attempting to gain political influence in Germany. They did this is remembrance of Martin Luther's Twelve Thesis; all the while crying “No to decadence and moral corruption!” Now, those of you who are older, do you remember thinking, “Hitler is burning books. I should become a Nazi because anyone who burns books is obviously right!”? (This is actually a very interesting study as I see many parallels between Hitlers regime and the actions and speeches of the American Christian church. If you're curious, or if you simply do not believe me, you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings)
Effect: The Nazis lost in the end; and many many lives were lost as well.
1940-50's – a bunch of books: Joseph Stalin, of the Communist Party in Russia burned a very large number of Jewish books. Effect: There are still books and some Jews in Russia.
1984 – The New Testament: A large group of Jews in Jerusalem burned the New Testament in their protest of Christianity. Effect: Last I checked, even though this event was during my life time, it didn't do anything to hinder or discourage Christians across the globe; in fact, I myself don't feel the least bit intimidated by their 'strong message.'
2000's – Harry Potter: The Harry Potter series was burned at several churches across America. Effect: I had to include this because I just find it funny. It's still a very high selling book series, and I happen to have all of them sitting on my own bookcase as well (very enjoyable fiction).
2009 & 2010– The Bible, and most Christian literature and music: A local church in Canton, NC, which is literally a few miles from where I live, planned to burn every Bible (except the KJV) and books written by almost every well known evangelical Christian. Effect: Most Christians, including myself, still realize that though the KJV is a good translation, the true original New Testament was written in Greek---not King James. Their congregation of fourteen people plans to hold another book burning this October.
I gathered the above records from a very long list of historical book burnings to make a point: book burning does nothing to stop a movement or persuade people to join your cause. After thousands of years, you would think we would understand that. Burning the Qu'ran will do about as much to stop terrorism as burning the Bible stopped wacko Christians from blowing up abortion clinics or shooting abortion doctors.
Islamic Inspirations
With that being said, there are two important facts that I want to make clear about Islam:
#1 – Islam did not attack America. A few radicals attacked us on September 11, 2001. The rest of Islam is no more responsible than every Christian is for any time an abortion doctor is hurt or killed by Christians.
#2 – Muslims have an even higher respect for their scriptures than most Christians do. Nothing is holy to many American Christians, even Holiness itself (see my blog on that here). I'm reminded of a time that McDonalds was trying to break into the Middle Eastern market. They printed Qu'ran verses on food wrappers, which infuriated Muslims since wrappers are meant to be thrown away. I believe we Christians should be inspired by that attitude and replicate it regarding our own scriptures.
It's a Small World After All...
The sad thing is that Pastor Terry Jones does not understand that we are in the 21st Century; we are living in a time where actions taken in one small place by a few people can often have international repercussions (9/11 is a perfect example of that). The news media is also ratings driven. They love any story that is sensational, which is how this has come to international attention so quickly.
Pastor Jones has heard from General Petraeus about the deadly repercussions this will have. He needs to decide whether he will will bow down to Jesus Christ or his own pride and arrogance. So far, he has shown he will gladly sacrifice the lives of a number of US soldiers so that he can be in the public spotlight and have his little burn party. The Taliban will likely see recruits greatly increase (if they haven't already), and Christianity will be rubbed into the mud even further as a hateful, arrogant, ignorant people.
Please do not misunderstand me. I believe we should take a strong stance for Christ, and that we should not bow down to terrorism. However, book burning, as I have clearly shown above, never accomplishes anything except to infuriate and inspire the injured side to action. It is not that I support Islam, it is that I do not support Christians acting ignorantly.
I do not personally know anyone who has been converted to any religion due to a book burning. A good rule of thumb: If Hitler did it, then it may not be the most Christ-like means of persuasion.
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