Idjits on all sides.
Terry Jones, down in Florida*, plans to burn a big stack of Korans (Qur'ans) on Saturday, September 11, 2010.
This man purports to be a pastor. Apparently, he meets the definition, as he's created a spectacle in two churches, now. (The last one kicked him out for being sticky-fingered with the till.)
Makes you want to go check again what it takes to get bona fides to become a person of the cloth.
This man claims that Islam is the religion of Satan, and will prove that his own religion (a brand of Christianity) is the true religion of Love, by burning the holy books of the other brand of religion.
This bears attention: He claims his brand is better, but needs to burn the instruction books of the other brand, to make his case?
This also bears attention: Most pastors get their divinity degrees through hard study. Several graduate students that I attended Graduate Statistics with were getting their divinity degrees, and they had enormous stacks of books with them. (The Kindle is catching on fast among them.)
If this guy is a legit scholar of religion as he claims to be, he's had to do some reading in his time. What true scholar of anything is a book-burner? Most pastors that I know keep copies of other holy books in their office for reference.
So it's gratifying to see people point out that, while our First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects Mr. Jones' rights to freedom of religion and free speech, he's a fool to do this, and by extension makes our nation look foolish.
This story lists a lot of folk who say as much.
But they lost me at Angelina Jolie. (Dance, monkey!)
EDIT: The foolish pastor has since said that he will cancel the burning, and since then, has said that he doesn't plan to cancel the burning.
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*Oh, you can bet they're proud he moved in.
Labels: in the news, People Who Need Pianos Dropped On Them, Religion
posted by Matt G @ 4:14 AM
6 Comments:
Hey Matt, I gotta card from the Universal Life Church, that proclaims me to be a minister, even let me into the lawyer area, rather than the regular family cage, when a friend was in jail. Of course had I handed him anything, they'd have cavity searched both of us. The guy who serves my car's fuel spent two semesters short of a full-ride at LSU. Our corrections system's criteria, is credentials, (even ULC) and verifiability that I preach to a congregation. My name in the yellow pages attached to a church would be verification enough. A cop seeing me speak at a service would be enough.
I guess as an Imam, you have to slap women around, accept public assistance, and have enough education to say "Death to America" in at least 2 languages.
Dude in Florida, I swear he was a Spokane Cab Driver 5 years ago. I don't know his educational standard.
I had more trouble with the chastity than poverty oath. But then I'm more tempted by Hotties, than Dollars anyway.
In related news, Waashington State, Write-In Gubernatorial candidate John B stated "This Fool and his 50 person church sure managed to get their selves a lot of attention from folks who should know better. By the way, write me in in 2012!"
I find the proposed actions by this pastor to be offensive and hurtful, and even destructive, but it is protected speech, so anyone calling for the government to stop this guy needs to check themselves (not saying you are Matt, but I've heard others say it).
That being said, one has to wonder, if the Muslim faith can not abide by free speech without resorting to violence, then why are Muslims coming to America? Jews & Christians have to put up with religious desecration all the time, and even us non-believers are the target of a lot of bile, yet we seem to all avoid violence (for the most part).
Regarding my earlier comment, it has been brought to my attention that places like Dearborn, MI are something like 30% Muslim, yet they seem able to avoid rioting and other violence in the face of free speech they find objectionable, so it seems that Muslims can square themselves with a free society.
Unfortunately, there is no set standard for what qualifies a person to be a minister/pastor/etc. Denominations tend to police their own, and may require at least a bachelor's or master's degree. My own brotherhood is full of independent churches, but a bachelor's at least is the custom. If you open your own church, no education at all (not even a GED) is necessary.
Personally, I have a Bachelor of Arts in preaching, a Master of Divinity in Contemporary Theology/Philosophy, and about 65% of a Doctor of Ministry in Preaching (only partway through the program at the moment).
Needless to say, I take offense when folks who are not only uneducated but also vehement in their ignorance and arrogance go around giving the rest of us a bad name.
He may have the right to burn whatever he likes, but the rest of us have the right to call him an unrepentant moron for doing so.
If Park 51 (or whatever they are calling themselves these days) have the right to build a mosque two blocks from the WTC site, then this guy has the right to burn Korans. You can't have one without the other.
That being said, just because you can doesn't mean you should.
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