Despite his beliefs about Islam, [Terry] Jones said: "We're not Koran experts." He added that, "I would not consider myself an expert on the Bible."
Luke Jones, 29, said he and his father are "common people."
"We've not studied the Koran, but we still have an opinion. We're actually not educated. We're common people," said the son, who also is a pastor at the church.
The citation above can be examined in its context via the link provided. What is astounding is the admission that ignorance is no impediment to hate-filled action. They recognize that they do not understand what the Koran teaches, and they state they really do not even understand what the Bible teaches (though they think they are qualified to be pastors of a 'christian' denomination), Nevertheless, they feel justified enough in their ignorance to provoke an international incident.
Thank God I am not (nor do I wish to be) a part of the "common people" described above...
Some Christians doubt that Muslims are truly peace-loving because of the terrorists in the world. Why should Muslims think that Christians are peace-loving when such acts of hatred are perpetrated on what they hold sacred? No, burning a book is not the moral equivalent of blowing up oneself and perhaps 20 bystanders. But the internal attitude of is the same.
At the very least, if one wishes to think a religious text is a justification for intolerance, should not that person study the text to see if the prejudicial conclusion can be validated? In the case of the Dove Outreach Center, the answer is, "Why bother?"
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment