Church to Burn the Koran?

I read with interest the article in The Wall Street Journal titled: Petraeus Condemns U.S. Church's Plan to Burn Qurans.

Why?

Why would a church want to make a statement like that--burning a Koran?

The leader of the group, Pastor Terry Jones, is quoted as saying the following in the article:

Mr. Jones, head of the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., said in a statement that "We understand the General's concerns. We are sure that his concerns are legitimate." Nonetheless, he added, "We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats."

Really? That is how you are going to become and live as free people?

By burning a book? Get real.

These "Christian" zealots need to understand that they are putting a lot of Americans at risk by intentionally offending another group of people.

They have the right to burn the Koran--you bet they do. But it is ignorant (my view).

This is a 50-member church that is looking for its 15 minutes of fame. OK--they've had their fame, now they need to wise up and accept accountability for their actions.

I'm having a hard time reconciling what Paul says in Romans 13:8 with what this church wants to do. Paul wrote, "Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." NET Bible.

It appears to me that what they want to do is really torque-off (insert your own stronger word here if desired) a specific group of people which will potentially cause loss of life to Americans, when they should be praying for the very people they are trying to make a statement to.

We Americans are kind of numb and dumb to these kinds of statements. When someone burns an American Flag or hangs a public official in effigy, we just tend to brush it off and respect the emotion and rights of the demonstrators to be obnoxious.

Others in the world do not have this same view--and so we need to understand their reactions may/will be different than ours and consider our actions in view of the probable response.

So when the Commander of US Forces in the region says the following, quoted from the article:

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Gen. Petraeus said in an interview. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

This church needs to ask itself--do they really want all of that blood on their hands and is it what they should be doing? Starting wars that other people will have to fight.

It is pretty easy to stand tall and be brave in sunny Gainesville, Florida.

I wonder how brave they would be standing on the front lines in Kabul?