Burn A Quran?

Can you believe the national, rather, international froth whipped up by this Pastor Terry Jones in Florida saying he and his church were going to sponsor a Quran burning day? Unbelievable.

First let me clarify my position. I will address why later, but no, I don't plan on burning any Qurans.

What I want to know is how a church of some 55 people got the whole world stirred up into a frenzy? I mean, how did they find this guy? Seems like the media was looking for a pretext to sell some advertising. Seriously, if all 55 members (and if it is anything like the church I pastor, 20% are going to be absent for one reason or another) burned a Quran what kind of monumental atrocity does this amount to?

I have some observations to make about this whole tempest in a teapot.

1. Why doesn't the media get all upset when Bibles or churches or Christians are burned like in the Sudan or Indonesia or Iran or wherever else real atrocities occur? You never hear a word about it. Things far worse than a burned book occur every day to people who are of Christian faith and suffer injustice and violence with some losing their lives. Why isn't the media frothing about that?

2. This once again shows how INTOLERANT Muslims are. The media reports that large demonstrations in Islamic countries were taking place with threats of violence and retaliation. The top general of the U.S. armed forces feared burning Qurans would further endanger U.S. troops. Why isn't this angle picked up on? Muslims are the least tolerant people on the planet. Islamic countries lead the world in human rights violations. Somehow, Christians look like the bad guys in even this scenario.
Muslims can threaten the world and the media always gives them a pass. The Imam who said if the mosque planned to be built near ground zero was forced to move to another location it would result in increased violence. That my friend is a threat. Why is it never exposed as such? The Muslim can threated anyone and we look intolerant if we stand up to it? Give me a break.

3. Burning Qurans is a stupid idea for a lot of reasons. First of all, it is stupid to go provoking trouble. There is enough trouble out there, why create additional and unnecessary trouble? Save it for something that counts. Burning Qurans proves nothing. You haven't convinced anyone to change sides by burning a Quran, it is wasted effort. It is stupid because it furthers the stigma the media is trying to make stick to Christians everywhere. While Islamic terrorists are only a "few radicals" so we shouldn't characterize all Muslims as such, Christians always get the full blanket treatment. The militia that had most of its members arrested in Michigan some months ago were all characterized as "Christian." Actually none of them were and they didn't claim to be a "Christian Militia." However, the media would like the world to think Christians all play army in the woods and plot to overthrow the government. It's OK to profile Christians but not anyone else. Throw enough mud on the wall and some of it will stick.

4. I don't think Jesus would be burning Qurans. I know everyone has their own answer for "what would Jesus do?" but I don't see Him burning books.

Well, I don't know if you agree with me or not, but that's the way I have read this thing. In this war of ideas that we are presently engaged in, it will take a lot of intelligence, informed dialog, faith and behaving ourselves wisely. We can't play into our detractors hands. We must decide what hill we will die on defending what we hold dearest and let the rest go. There isn't room in our lives or enough resources to go doing and saying stupid things. Live smart. Live in faith.