I am sure by now you have heard of Pastor Terry Jones. He and his church plan on burning the Quran on September 11, 2010 to mark the 9th anniversary of 9/11. He hopes that by burning the Quran that the radical fringe of Islam will know to stop being radical, and that it will show the world just how radical those radical Muslims can be. As we would expect, Muslims all around the world are outraged. Yet they are not alone, many spiritually open-minded people are outraged, too. But how should we respond to this event.
This event raises important questions for us to consider. Will burning the Quran communicate the desired message to the desired audience, and therefore have the desired result? Should Christians burn the religious books of non-Christians? How should we respond to our non-Christian neighbors?
The stated goal of burning the Quran is for Muslim extremists to realize that "we" don't want their kind of Islam in America. However, will burning the Quran make such a statement? No, it won't. It will send a message that says, "Those infidels are worse than we thought." Almost every Muslim will understand the act of burning the Quran to be an act of blasphemy. It is an act that stops ears, not opens them.
Not only will it cut off fruitful dialogue, but it will endanger many lives. Gen. Petraeus has already warned that such action would increase the danger to troops in combat situations. Others have suggested that burning the Quran would endanger missionaries, humanitarian aid workers, and other Americans in Muslim countries, too. Burning the Quran not only endangers lives, but an idea, as well.
It endangers the idea of freedom. Since the foundation of our country, men and woman have battled for this cherished principle of freedom. They battled their enemies at home and abroad to protect freedom. They have battled their consciences and their prejudices until freedom spread to men and women of every race and creed. We are a people proud to defend freedom--even the freedom to be wrong. Burning the Quran not only endangers freedom, it endangers the Bible, too.
There is no doubt that many Bibles will be burned in response to the burning of the Quran. However, that response is not what endangers the Bible. Fear of the Quran endangers the Bible. Why burn a religious book unless you fear it's power? Burning the Quran doesn't send the message that we believe the Bible is superior to the Quran. It sends the message that we fear what will happen if people read the Quran. It suggests that we think that the Quran can lead Christians (and others) into Islam. Wasn't fear of the Bible's power to convert individuals the reason why so many have tried to suppress and destroy it?
Do we need to fear the Quran? As followers of Christ, we are committed to the authority, inspiration, and sufficiency of the Bible. We are people of "the Book," that is, the Bible. We do not recognize the authority of other religious texts. We believe that the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul (Ps. 19:7, KJV). We believe that the Bible is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). We believe that every word was breathed out by God (2 Tim. 4:16). And we believe that the Bible alone contains God's revelation to mankind.
So, while we may disagree with a Muslim about the nature of the Quran, we do not fear the Quran (or any other book). God's will is able to triumph without the unnecessary showmanship of burning a Quran. Pastor Jones is not Elijah on Mount Carmel battling the prophets of Baal. This matter isn't really a contest between the Bible and the Quran. It isn't even a contest between America and radical Islamic fundamentalists. It's most likely the cry of a frustrated and beleaguered people who have mistaken their culture with Christianity. They fear the changes in the culture signal the undermining of their faith. But Christianity is greater than our culture.
So go ahead and burn that Quran, but know it won't send the message you hope to send. As an American, you're free to burn a Quran, a Bible, or an American Flag, but the freedom to do so doesn't make it right. Respect and civility are not a compromise, they're biblical principles, and they used to be American principles, too.
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