“Them That Begin By Burning Books, End By Burning Men.”

Jewish poet Heinrich Heine wrote 190 years ago, “Them that begin by burning books, end by burning men.“

Has it come to this?  Do we, as Christians and as a when-it’s-convenient Christian Nation, hate Islam and Muslims so deeply that we could tolerate, even for a moment, the burning of their most prized book?

The Dove World Outreach Center and “Pastor” Terry Jones of Gainesville Florida think so.  They’re the ones hosting the Quran burning event.  Love the church name, Pastor; glad to see you finally exposed what you mean by it.  But you should probably remove the “Dove” part.  Doves don’t burn books, and neither did Jesus.

I’m a Christian; prayed the prayer and did the adult baptism in Lake Michigan thing.  I used to be pretty vocal about my faith; but I quieted down when I realized that my actions weren’t an example for my words to follow.  Since that time, I tried to live my life the way I interpret Jesus’ life.  I have made an effort to be compassionate above all; to love my neighbor as myself.  It’s not easy because, although we love ourselves, we tend to stop at ourselves, too.

Sure, I could get all fired up at Muslims and join in the hate-fest, but what’s the point?  More importantly, Pastor Terry, what would Jesus do?  In all of those sacred pages of your most treasured, reverant, Holy Bible, show me the story of Jesus burning a Roman scroll, or a pagan idol.  I’ve read that book twenty times through if I’ve read it once; I know it as well as you do.  It ain’t in there, anywhere in the New Testament, nor is there anything like it.

In fact, you can count the number of times that Jesus was angry at “outsiders” on no hands..because it isn’t recorded anywhere in the bible.  He got angry at his own religion, and at his own disciples, but there is not even one example of an angry Jesus toward another religion.  Not one.

So this is how you set the example for your flock?  This is the meat of the gospel that you are giving to them?  Something that isn’t even part of the Gospel?  A method that has more in common with Nazis than with anything Christian or Holy?

I won’t question your Christianity; we all get sidetracked from time to time.  But one piece of advice I would give you; anything that encourages you to follow your anger is not of God.  Anything that produces destruction is not Holy.  You can deduce for yourself what causes these things.

Living a life of compassion is hard enough for the normal human being.  There is no room to add anger, hate, and destruction to the mix; these things come naturally enough to us as it is.  Why would you go out and seek more?

Pastor Terry, if the light within you has not been bright enough to show your Muslim neighbors the “way”, what makes you think a book-fed bonfire will?  Remember the last commission Jesus left us with.  You can find it at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew.

The last thing America needs right now is to spawn a sect of radicalism.  If we denounce that which we see in certain sects of Islam as radical and hateful, how does answering fire with fire make us any different from them?  “Them that begin by burning books, end by burning men.”.     Ω

Glenn Beck Wants To Know Whatever Happened To The Individual In America

Did I miss something last weekend? Wasn’t Glenn Beck going to announce God’s plan for saving America? We don’t need another stimulus; all we need to know is whatever happened to the individual, according to Beck.

I can answer that question: That individual is named Billy Bob, and he’s been out of work for three years. He once had a great paying job in a furniture factory about 12 years ago, but then the factory moved to some second world country and didn’t take Billy Bob with them. So Billy Bob went back to school, because unlike many of his contemporaries, he could read past a third grade level, which is all it takes to get into college these days. He applied himself dutifully, and earned an associate degree as a tech rep. He landed a job as a technical service advisor and worked there for four years. Then, the company he worked for decided that they could provide just as much quality service hiring citizens of India at forty cents an hour as they could paying Billy Bob $15/hr. Once again, Billy Bob’s job was exported, and Billy Bob was jobless. So he went to work in one of the local textile plants, but that only lasted another year, and they, too, moved to a second world country, leaving Billy Bob jobless for the third time in a dozen years. He has been jobless since.

That’s whatever happened to the American individual

What’s that, you say?

Oh…my bad. I didn’t realize that Glenn Beck wanted to know whatever happened to the wealthy individual in America.     Ω