Jesus and Koran Burning

Timothy Birdnow

Frank Tipler has a terrific piece http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/04/what_would_jesus_do_with_the_q.html at American Thinker which dovetails with my own today. http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/immolation_of_the_quran.html

As Dr. Tipler points out:

"Christians are taught to "do as Jesus would do." Many have claimed that Jesus would have never have burned a Qur'an, because Jesus taught that Christians must "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44)."

I beg to differ. In the above passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was referring to one's personal enemies. Jesus had no patience with those he perceived as unrepentant enemies of God. Jesus showed no forgiveness when he overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple, saying as he did so: "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves (Matthew 21:12-13)." And Jesus did not hesitate to say to his opponents: "You are from your father the devil [my emphasis], and you choose to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44)."

End excerpt.

When an atheist professor from Minnesota (P.Z. Myers) desecrated a Eucharist - which to Catholics is the real body of Christ, infused with His Divine presence - no Christians rioted, and nobody was hurt. http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=28561&wf=rsscol This is a worse act of disrespect than burning a Koran, because the Koran is the word of Allah to Muslims, but the Eucharist IS God to Christians. There were many angry Catholics, and some demanded his job, but that is as far as it went. Muslims have the right and even duty to be angry about this, but that is as far as they have any right to go.

In fact, Muslims have desecrated Eucharists with little complaint. For example, in Malaysia:
http://daralmasih.blogspot.com/2009/07/malysian-muslims-desecrate-sacred-host.html

Sauce, geese, and ganders! Some Malaysian Muslims did apologize later, and their apology was accepted - as it should have been. Nobody died as a result, yet let some hick pastor in Florida burn his personal copy of the Koran and Kaboom! Heads will roll - literally! People who were not even COUNTRYMEN of the offending Rev. Jones were murdered in retaliation.

There is something seriously wrong here.

I suspect Jesus would disagree with the Koran burning; he didn't insult people unless warrented. But I also don't think he would condemn Terry Jones while letting the murderers off the hook. Remember the story of the Samaritan woman who gave Jesus a drink at the well? Jesus was kind to her, but pointed out her sins unequivocally. (She repented, by the way.) Dare we do any less? Do we excuse terrible behavior in order to avoid being judgemental? Somehow I doubt it.

In fact, the Bible says that the State is given the power of the sword to punish evildoers, and certainly King David - a man described as "after Yahweh's own heart - slew many men. This was not abrogated when Christ came; he said he came to fulfill the Law, after all. The murder of non-muslim people over a book burning is a crime, plain and simple, and it is our duty to call it that, and demand justice. David Patreus should pay a visit to Muhammed Karsi and tell him as much. Karsi caused this by making a big public announcement, after all.

We have to stop this ridiculous game of kowtowing to any angry impulse in Islam. If they cannot behave in a civilized fashion they should be treated like unruly children and given a time-out. That is what happened to them once the West stopped hiding and started expanding; the Islamic world became a backwater. Were it not for oil they would still be so.

And that starts with demanding at least reasonably good behavior from them. Yes, they can get angry at Koran burnings, but when they start cutting off heads we need to deal with them. They understand strength, and laugh at our weakness.

Jesus understood that sort of thing. When He cast out the demon Legion, He first told the devil that He was come to destroy him. Jesus knew how to deal with beings that understand only strength.