Burning the Koran

By now you know that Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL, plans to lead his 50-member church in burning copies of the Koran to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this Saturday. News of Pastor Jones' plan has gone viral, as have outcries and condemnation from everyone, including our own President and Secretary of State.

So what do I think? For starters, I think Pastor Jones needs both his head and his heart examined. If ever there has been warrant to call someone a publicity-seeking nut case, this looks like a freebie. Pastor Jones has to know that news of his plans has not and will not result in any conversions of Muslims to Christianity. He has to know he is fomenting nothing but vitriol and hatred. He has to know he has become a poster child for all that Muslims believe is wrong with America.

Some argue that in burning copies of the Koran Pastor Jones will not be doing anything different than our first-century forebears, who in Acts 19, for example, gathered their books on magic arts and burned them before a watching community. The critical distinction, in accounts such as Acts 19, is that the people doing the burning were new converts to Christianity. They were the ones who had been practicing the "magic arts" taught by the books. But they turned to Christ and thus away from their evil practice. To give testimony of their conversion, they "brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all." If Pastor Jones were following the New Testament model, he would be down on his knees praying for Muslims he knew. He would be reaching out to them with truth and not threats. And when one did choose to convert of his own free will, Pastor Jones would extend the grace to him to respond to the Lord's leading in how best to show his renunciation of the old, coupled with his confession of his new heart-deep faith in the Lord Jesus.

Others may ask, "What about Old Testament Gideon? Didn't God tell Gideon to break down the idols and Asherah poles of Midian?" The answer is, Yes! But the story of Gideon proves the point I just made. Gideon's destruction of the Baals and Asherah poles was not an attempt to convert the Midianites, it was a literal call to arms. Gideon was the man of the hour, the man of God's choosing to lead God's people to a literal military victory. Could Pastor Jones be a modern-day Gideon? I seriously doubt it, though we could put that question to the test. All we need is a threshing floor and a fleece of wool. You know the drill, and if it works, then Pastor Jones gets to pick just 300 others to head to Afghanistan with him.

So why is Pastor Jones doing this? Who knows exactly? Maybe he is smarter than we think and he is intentionally trying to spark a much larger conflagration than the flames of a few burning Korans. Whatever his motive, Pastor Jones has become sideshow to a much more legitimate debate over what place in the world is to be given to a religion such as the one set forth by the Koran. Moreover, Pastor Jones has given the Muslim world, along with far too many in the media, exactly what they want: an ugly caricature of those of us who are truly Christian and who care deeply about the souls and eternal destinies of people of other religions, including Islam. He has given the Muslim world and the media an ugly caricature of the decent citizens in our country who wish to remember the hideous attacks on 9/11, the subsequent loss of life and property, and the brave and heroic responses of so many. Pastor Jones has given an ugly caricature of decent, fair-minded people who question the building of a mosque so near the Towers by a man who refuses to renounce the terrorist organization Hamas and a man whose religion seeks the destruction of Israel, a man whose religion routinely builds mosques on the sacred ground of other religions (for example, The Dome of the Rock built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem), and a man whose religion denies civil liberties and freedom of religion wherever it becomes entrenched.

I am not for Pastor Terry Jones and his group burning the Koran on 9/11. I am also not for the ugly caricature Pastor Jones and his group represents. Should Pastor Jones follow through on his fool hardy plan, my best advice to the Muslim world, the media, and the rest of us is, Pay no attention to the man behind the smoke! Then let's have an informative discussion of the differences between Islam and biblical Christianity, followed by a legitimate debate on the serious challenges Islam poses to the freedom of religion worldwide.