Sarah Palin encourages the Pastor not to burn the Quran:
Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.
I would hope that Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters will consider the ramifications of their planned book-burning event. It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don’t feed that fire. If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive.
Our nation was founded in part by those fleeing religious persecution. Freedom of religion is integral to our charters of liberty. We don’t need to agree with each other on theological matters, but tolerating each other without unnecessarily provoking strife is how we ensure a civil society. In this as in all things, we should remember the Golden Rule. Isn’t that what the Ground Zero mosque debate has been about?
– Sarah Palin
The other day I said that this action of burning the Quran doesn’t represent how Christ has called us to act in love. And I am still firmly against it, as I don’t think it will accomplish anything positive. It would be different if the citizens of Iran were burning them in protest of the Islamic theocracy that keeps then oppressed, which is based on the Quran. So yeah, I certainly oppose the burning.
That said, I’ve found myself in some way supporting the idea of sticking it to the Islamic fear mongers. No, I don’t mean Islamic haters. I mean the Muslim fear mongers who threaten free speech because they are ‘offended’ – because of their intolerance. Like when South Park ran their show on Muhammad, shown as a bear, and then the death threats starting pouring in. Like when the danish cartoonist drew a cartoon of muhammad and has to live his life on the run. Like when the Taliban killed Christian missionaries because they were supposedly carrying Bibles. And on and on and on. It’s this kind of intolerance that makes me want to say to them ENOUGH! So yeah, on that level, I can see burning the Quran as a show of protest.
But it is provocative and I just don’t see the ‘Christ-like’ love in the middle of this. I understand what they are going for, but I just think this is the wrong way to do it. Christ talked about turning the other cheek, not striking back in the same manner that we were struck. The Bible also talks about answering anger with a soft response. And instead of destroying us, which is what we deserved, Christ instead took on our sin and died for us so that we could be free of death and be in covenant with Him. Again, I’m just not seeing how burning the Quran fits into this. So yeah, I’m against it, but I don’t want to lie and say I can’t identify with it on some level.
Well that’s my 2 cents for the day.