Spirit of Organization

On May 10, 1933, an event unseen since the Middle Ages occurred as Germans from universities, formerly regarded as among the finest in the world, gathered in Berlin and other German cities to burn books with "unGerman" ideas. Books by Freud, Einstein, Thomas Mann, Jack London, H. G. Wells, and many others went up in flames as the crowd gave the Nazi salute.

I suppose you have already heard about it; there's this idiot who calls himself a pastor who is planning to celebrate 9/11 by burning the Koran. The man's name is Terry Jones and he is supposedly the pastor of a 50-member church located in Florida. I am writing this post to express my repudiation of this immensely stupid proposal and to say why I believe it does not represent true Christianity.

One of the most exciting things about Christianity is the way it frees one up to explore the world of ideas. True Christianity does this because it proceeds from the assumption that truth is more powerful than falsehood, just as goodness is more powerful than evil. Christians who really understand their faith should not fear the clash of ideas (though admittedly, they often do). The Bible teaches that Truth is rooted in the God of Creation; consequently Truth is Reality and Reality can only be denied for a time. It must eventually come to the surface and will do so more quickly in a context of open and honest debate. A Christian worldview does not see Truth as merely a human construct; rather, it emanates from the mind of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Burning the Koran says to the world: "My faith cannot withstand the clash of ideas present in the Koran." This pastor is actually saying to the world that the Koran is more powerful than the Bible and, that his only recourse is to burn it because he is incapable of refuting it.

The Bible teaches that Truth will prevail, if it is given the opportunity to do so. I believe that, in an honest and open debate, the teachings of the Bible will prevail over the teachings of the Koran, because: "a false witness will perish, but the man who listens to the truth will speak forever" (Proverbs 21:28).

You never see Jesus, in the Gospels, trying to hush his opponents. Instead, he engages in dialogue with them, sometimes using parables and other times speaking more directly. He never uses force to close the mouths of his opponents. In fact, he turns himself over to them to be crucified. At that point, even his disciples abandoned him and anyone present would have thought: "This is the end of that Nazarene and his followers."

But that didn't happen; why? Because the Truth of His teaching and of his example rose to the surface and people began to see it. Jesus said: "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free" (John 8:32). He had a profound confidence in the power of Truth to speak for itself when given the opportunity.

I am not writing this post to convince Terry Jones or his congregation to desist what they are proposing, because I know you can't reason with people like that. I am really writing to declare that this man and his church do not represent true Christianity. True Christianity is not about cutting off dialog and refusing to expose our people to other points of view. That approach is used by Islam for the most part. All you have to do is go to the Dearborn, MI Islamic Festival and try hold a respectful conversation about the merits of Christianity and Islam and you will see how fast you are arrested (yes, even in America!).

The threat to freedom that Islam represents is clearly a concern of many people. But this pastor's approach to expressing his concern must be repudiated. I consider the practice of book-burning in any form to be disgusting and I want to say to the world that Christianinity is not about burning books. This pastor's actions only communicate that Christianity fears the confrontation of ideas and that simply is not the case. It is the most asinine approach anyone could take for changing attitudes toward Islam. It will only increase sympathy for Islam and raise the mental picture of 1940s Nazism.

I do not believe, however, that this pastor's actions represent even a significant portion of American Christians. To prove this to yourself, just Google it and you will see that Christians unanimously abhor the idea. The main thing I wanted to do through this post was set forth a public record that I, and all Christians I know personally, repudiate the Koran-burning proposal of this pastor.