Gen. Petraeus: "It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort"

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/07/florida.quran.burning/index.html Pastor weighing plans to burn Qurans amid U.S. warnings

“We have firmly made up our mind, but at the same time, we are definitely praying about it,” said Jones said.

“We are definitely weighing the situation. We are weighing the thing that we’re about to do. What it possibly could cause. What is our actual message. What are we trying to get across.”

Part of me wants this church to go ahead with the protest precisely because the Obama administration (let us be 100% honest, that is who Petraeus is representing here) is pressuring them not to. Not a Sarah Palin or George Bush supporter, mind you, but where was this same Obama when people were burning Sarah Palin and George Bush in effigy not so long ago? Not a word. And the same Obama who spoke up in favor of the Ground Zero Mosque based on First Amendment grounds is having his mouthpieces pressure a church?

Still, my opinion remains that this church’s proposed protest cannot be reconciled with the New Testament.

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. Acts 19:19

There is a precedent for burning false books. I wouldn’t do such a gimmicky thing, I think it is just to get press, yet I get sick and tired of having it thrust on Americans that we need to prove something to the Islamic world.

What the church is proposing to do is not what is represented in Acts 19. This church is burning copies of the Quran that they have collected from around the world. In Acts 19, new believers were burning the books that represented their Godless past. It doesn’t seem that it’s former Muslims who are planning to be involved with the fire in FL.

JobK well articulated my ambivalence about this book burning. And Jonathan is correct that there is a biblical precedent. BUT… this Pastor Jones is just a glory hound, grandstanding on news shows and basking in the limelight, which lights will surely dim after this coming weekend (unless he becomes another Fred Phelps and becomes a full-time hate-monger).

One question I haven’t seen addressed: where is Jones getting the Korans to burn? Buying them just to burn ‘em? Back in the 60s a lot of people had Beatles records on hand to burn after Lennon sparked outrage, but Korans are hardly a household item. It would be interesting to see where they’re coming from and how many they actually set fire to.

I see this whole media-created event fizzling like Geraldo’s over-hyped opening of Al Capone’s safe back in the ’80s.

[Gary Peterson] JobK well articulated my ambivalence about this book burning. And Jonathan is correct that there is a biblical precedent. BUT… this Pastor Jones is just a glory hound, grandstanding on news shows and basking in the limelight, which lights will surely dim after this coming weekend (unless he becomes another Fred Phelps and becomes a full-time hate-monger).

One question I haven’t seen addressed: where is Jones getting the Korans to burn? Buying them just to burn ‘em? Back in the 60s a lot of people had Beatles records on hand to burn after Lennon sparked outrage, but Korans are hardly a household item. It would be interesting to see where they’re coming from and how many they actually set fire to.

I see this whole media-created event fizzling like Geraldo’s over-hyped opening of Al Capone’s safe back in the ’80s.

So by buying these Korans to burn them, they are actually putting money into the hands of Koran publishers, which of course gives them more revenue and incentives to publish even more Korans, except those will be read instead of burned. Argh. That settles it. Bad idea.

[JobK]

So by buying these Korans to burn them, they are actually putting money into the hands of Koran publishers, which of course gives them more revenue and incentives to publish even more Korans, except those will be read instead of burned. Argh. That settles it. Bad idea.

Right. Can anyone say “William Tyndale?”