A Burning Evangelical Embarrassment
The difficulty last week of our nation again remembering and honoring the events of September 11, 2001 was made more difficult by a pseudo-scheduled burning of Muslim Qur’an to protest Islam. The Rev. Terry Jones and the purported evangelical Christian congregation of Dove World Outreach in Gainesville, Florida, garnered the overwhelming negative response of almost everyone on the planet including the White House, General David Petraeus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Attorney General Eric Holder, the Vatican, Muslims, the National Council of Churches, and the National Association of Evangelicals, other religious groups and entertainment personlities.
Reasons given for the objection to Jones’s attitude and announced intentions included the probability of our troops in hostile Isalmic regions being unnecessarily endangered; the possibility of acts of terrorism instigated within our national boarders; and the apparent intolerance demonstrated toward those who adhere to a different religion than that of the Florida church.
Writing from an evangelical pastoral perspective, I suggest other reasons Jones should be dismissed as self-deceived and not worthy of consideration.
1) The Bible has been treated with disrespect in Muslim communities. However, it begs the question, “Do Christians respond in kind to what others have done?” While Christians do not revere the Qur'an as holy, inciting people of other religions is hardly a wise and gracious act.
2) We have the freedom in America to burn books. Yet, American freedom and Christian responsibility (motivated by God's love and submissive to God's Word) are not mutually exclusive. A significant statement surfaced in the last few days: “Thankful to live in a country where I can burn the Qur'an, grateful to God for the good sense not to.” Kevin DeYoung (http://thegospelcoalition.org) states, “book burnings have a history of doing nothing but making you look like a crackpot Nazi wannabe and making your opponents look more humane and the burned books more interesting.”
3) A studied and serious evangelical Christian will passionately direct listeners to Jesus Christ. Pastor Jason Ehmann (http://bit.ly/9VQmiI) states, “Distraction from the truth [that God desires to restore a relationship with His creation through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ] by someone who claims to believe truth is the greatest problem with Rev. Jones. This whole controversy has become more about Rev. Jones, toleration, religious respect and cooperation rather than the greatness and love of God expressed to us through Jesus Christ. God, Christ, and the Bible have been relegated to the position of sub-points in an argument rather than the main point of life itself. Man has become the focus rather than God.” The identification of Christianity as a belief system that is driven by what one stands against rather than what is stood for is a frail proposition. Burning a Qur’an unifies people in their opposition rather than their belief. The gospel calls us to “…shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” (1Peter 2:9). Opposition is not a cause. God and His gospel are a cause.
4) According to USA Today (http://usat.ly/cDixGV) Dove World Outreach associate pastor Wayne Sapp indicated the church leadership was following the instruction of God. Question: was God aware of this? Could anything be contrived as from God? God uses his Word to reveal his will. God calls upon Christ followers to be loving toward others (Ephesians 4:32), longsuffering, kind and not rude (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
Discernment is different from judgementalism. Isalmic and Christian theology conflict at the core. Jones’s heart and motives are only known to him. However, it appears many would agree that his actions are not consistent with historical, biblical Christianity or the character of American culture.
Rick Cross is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church and can be reached at .