Is the burning of the Quran what we are really coming to as a country? Does this symbolize what America has grown to become? Since the election of President Obama I have seen hatred, anger, and delusion like none other in my lifetime. So many of our politicians are a disgrace to the foundations the United States were founded upon. The “United” States of America; does this really mean anything anymore? Race, religious, and ethnic attacks have intensified since Obama took office. Why? To me it seems like suppressed hatred; racism in its ugliest form. Those who didn’t vote for Obama can’t get beyond the fact that he won the election. The animosity displayed has created a nation of hate and despair.
What does a church burning the Quran say about Americans; about the United States of America; about religion? I see Dove Church as an organization just as radical as the extremist Muslims they state their point is intended to defy. In CNN’s interview with Dr. Jones he stated he was “willing to put his life on the line” in response to the question “are you planning to go forward even though it will put American troops lives on the line?” Dr. Jones isn’t putting his life on the line. Dr. Jones however is putting the life of my son, along with many others, on the line as Americans serving our County in the United States military in Iraq and other Countries throughout the world. What Dr. Jones is doing is self-serving as he draw attention to himself in order to make millions by selling t-shirts, hats, and books that promote hate. The Bible doesn’t speak of hate; it speaks of love and acceptance. Would it be acceptable for Muslims to burn the Bible, for Christians to burn the Torah, or for Jews to burn either?
So how far have we come? In 1970 Five Man Electric Band recorded “signs” on the album Good-byes and Butterflies. Tesla recorded the song in 1990 on their album Five Man Acoustical Jam where the song reached number 8 on the Pop charts. What was this song about? Memberships, trespassing, dressing or looking a certain way… think about the words in this awesome song. “Long haired freaky people need not apply, so I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why. He said you look like a fine upstanding man, I think you’ll do. So I took off my hat and said imagine that, huh, me working for you.” What is it we see? Are all Muslims extremists, are all Jews, are all Christians? There will always be extremists of every walk of life; but that’s not the majority. For me the last verse in the song “Signs” is the one Dr. Jones and Dove Church need to remember… “And the sign said everybody welcome, come in, kneel down and pray. But when they passed the plate around at the end of it all I didn’t have a penny to pay, so I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign. I said thank you Lord for thinking of me, I’m alive and doing fine.”
To each their own – provided it harms no others.
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ReplyDeleteWow Sam, you covered a lot of topics. As far as the anger we are seeing I wonder how much of that is relative to so many other things. Consider that that this is the worst economic time in the history of the country, people loosing their homes, not being able to feed their families, cover medical bills, be humbled in the sight of their friends and neighbors, absurd bonuses for executives of failing corporations, government reduced oversight (previous admin) to allow it, growing global concerns over energy, food, world economy, eco-system, terrorism, religious wars, etc… Then realize we are in the process of addressing some of the most volatile social standards conceivable (abortion, gay marriage, increased social policy, changing foreign policy, potential bankruptcy of various states, a shrinking tax base combined with increasing government spending, etc….). People are on edge, people are scared. People want to have someone who can be in control and make everything all right.
You say “to each their own—provided it harms no others”. This is an impossibility and one that rolls us nicely into the religion issue. RELIGION—A WAY OF LIVING BASED ON MORAL BELIEFS. HOLT SCHOOL DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH, 1981.
In other words, everyone is religious (all have moral beliefs that dictate how we choose to live our lives). Most creatable religions stress loving those that do not believe the same as you. Most people struggle with the ability to show love, grace, and acceptance WHILE acknowledging that there is a disagreement with life style choices based on moral beliefs (religion). Why is this so difficult? I believe it is fear.
This is really interesting because most credible religions stress that we need to trust God in that he is in control and that we need to let go of our worldly desires and our own agendas in order to have a deep and meaningful relationship with Him. Taking that one step further, the fear is a concern that if we do not act, we will find ourselves in a situation where the “way of life” of the culture we are living in is in direct opposition to OUR “moral beliefs”. Is this a real concern? Of course it is, most of us realize that the moral beliefs of the majority lead to the moral beliefs of the society. Without a standardized moral code, what one generation considers as something that can be tolerated, the next generation embraces as acceptable or even righteous. This cycle continues as the moral standards of the society continue to move further and further from a righteous baseline. However, the fact is that by acting through fear we only extend the divide between us and our fellow man. The only possible way to reduce the divide is by showing, by example, that the “way of living” we choose is a “better way”. If we do this effectively, our fellow man will ask us why we seem so full of joy in spite of life’s circumstances. This will pave the way for us to share our “moral beliefs” and the relationship of those beliefs to our “way of living” and how they work hand in hand to provide that joy that is reflected through our day to day living.
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ReplyDeleteSo, here is where we find ourselves. When you break it down FEAR based teachings (or actions) are an attempt to gain control over the actions of others. The thought is that this will somehow influence them to conduct them selves in a more righteous manner that is in line with our “beliefs”, and that this will some how spread out into the society so that we can all live in peace with each other as we all adopt the same “moral beliefs”. The problem is that FEAR based actions (or teachings) do not change peoples “moral beliefs”. It only scares them into a “life style” choice that they find impossible to meet, live, or represent to the world (or even that they claim but have no ownership of).
Here is the kicker—what is this all about. As you told me—this is about man trying to play God. Our actions brought on by our fears are the result of our trying to manipulate others and control their lives, their choices, their beliefs, etc.. so that we can be surrounded by people who have the same “beliefs” as us so that we won’t be subjected to a “life style” that is in opposition to our own. Simply put, this is beyond the capability of man, God is the only one who can bring about that kind of change, and within the context of Christianity he is very clear in telling us what our roll is in bringing about that change. This is the message that the other Christian leaders should have taken to Dove Church. I agree that there are many underlying concerns from terrorist attacks, to putting our soldiers in a more precarious position overseas. But, to imply that the Christian community is opposed to the Koran burning because of these issues is sad. The statement this defense makes is this “we agree with what you are doing, but we are scared of the Muslims and how they may respond, so we are asking you not to do it”. The statement needs to be clear that this is not a “Christian thing to do”, that it is not “biblical”, and that if Dove Church does this it is in direct opposition to the greater Christian community and the basis of our beliefs.