AN UNWISE AND UNCHRISTIAN ACT
9/11 has been remembered this year in a most extraordinary way. A day when many people will be mourning the loss of loved ones, and many others will be seriously reflecting on the state of the world and its uncertainties, has been hijacked and distorted to a total misrepresentation of the Christian Gospel. And this by a Christian Pastor!
It is quite staggering that an unknown pastor of a 50 member congregation in Gainesville, Florida has become the centre of worldwide concern. Such is the eccentricity of our technological age. We now live in a world of Facebook and Twitter and YouTube, where otherwise inconsequential people in inconsequential settings with inconsequential ideas can say and do things that have significant consequences. Today, a man can threaten to burn a book and thereby elicit condemnation from the world. And should the book burning take place, a soldier may die on the other side of the world or a faithful, humble believer in a Muslim land find himself undergoing further harassment and danger. Of course, the Media have given the whole matter far more prominence than it deserves. But it reminds us that ideas and actions have consequences, and our electronic world can shrink space and time to connect the two more closely.
There has been almost unanimous condemnation of the proposal to burn copies of the Koran. So we can all say together, “It’s a very bad idea.” The world seems to be agreed on at least one thing. But, in fact we are not. Hilary Clinton called it disrespectful and disgraceful. General Petraeus called it dangerous. President Obama said it was profoundly un-American. Even Carl Trueman, a leading Evangelical theologian and blog-writer, called it counterproductive. As he says, ”many people would assess it as being somewhere between dangerous and amusing - not in the funny, ‘ha ha’ way, but more along the lines of “look dear, one of those crazy fundamentalists - I had forgotten they still exist.”” And, of course that is where the disagreement arises. Most of the world argues that mainstream Islam is harmless. Christians know that along with all other man-made religions it is very harmful. But the real issue of the danger to men’s souls has been obscured by the ludicrous behaviour of an attention seeking but misguided and bigoted man.
Koran-burning will certainly cause some extreme backlashes in areas of the world where American and British troops are deployed. What might seem like a jolly good idea to Mr. Jones may cost the lives or limbs of young people serving their country overseas. The protests and burning of American flags in several countries in the world does, of course, show the violent reaction of Islamic culture to those who oppose it. But that will not be commented upon. The BBC are happy to show anti-Christian programmes and disgraceful misrepresentations of Christ, and then to ridicule Christians who complain. But when Islamists burn flags and have violent protests calling for death and harm to those who have offended, all the BBC will do is sympathise.
Having said that what Pastor Jones proposed is wrong, provocative and dangerous. The Bible tells us that we are to live at peace with all men, as far as it depends upon us. Jesus told us to be as wise as snakes and as harmless as doves. It is right to speak out against the teachings of Islam and it is right to engage in debate about the false ideas contained in the Koran. We live in a democracy where open and public debate is encouraged – that is a Christian heritage, which is why you do not find the civil liberties we enjoy in Muslim countries. We can protest, and we can seek to persuade. But we must not deliberately provoke anger or violence.
The proposal is also plain stupid. Islam now has a seat at the world table and carries very great weight. That is something that should disturb us. So to attack the revered book of Islam means that heads of states will take time out of their day to condemn publicly this proposal. We may not know how to respond to Islam, but you cannot ignore it. To burn Korans will only make people more sympathetic to the cause we want to see lose its power and influence.
Pastor Jones needs to reread Christian history. One lesson he will soon learn is that book burning has never done anything other than make the object of the fire more interesting and sought after, and make the perpetrators look like mindless reactionary vandals! The Reformation is a great example of this: They burned Tyndale’s New Testament; the Catholics burned Luther’s books. What happened? They became bestsellers, and the Reformers had, at least for a while, the public sympathy that comes with being victims. Book burning is entirely counterproductive because it only ever achieves the opposite of that which it intends. Luther understood this. So, as Carl Trueman points out, “when Prierias published his criticisms of Luther in 1518, Luther did not burn the book; he republished it with a new, witty preface and a refutation. He understood the subtleties of polemic in a way that left his opponents playing catch-up.”
Koran burning is naïve. It will simply allow the enemies of Evangelical truth to slander us more and it will give the name “Evangelical” a further negative connotation. It will almost certainly make it more dangerous for Christians living in Muslim-majority countries. There will be sections of the secular media who will be cock-a-hoop that an “Evangelical Christian Pastor” has made such a huge error of judgement. Let us be clear that in this action Pastor Jones does not represent true Biblical and Evangelical Christianity.
Let me close with another quote from Carl Trueman which I would earnestly endorse – “Christians would be better served spending the time praying for the conversion of their Muslim neighbours and reaching out to them with love and with God’s true word, rather than with a box of matches and acts of counterproductive immaturity.” We should also be sacrificial in our support of Christian organisations, like MERF, who are working so hard to reach Muslim peoples around the world.