AMBIVALENCE

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

As most of you probably know by now, a tiny Florida church plans to commemorate September 11th this year by burning Korans. This has caused an international firestorm of controversy with everyone from General David Petraeus to Hillary Clinton to Christian leaders of all denominations falling all over themselves to condemn it.

What do I think? I’m not at all sure just what it is that I think. On the one hand, in 1 Corinthians 8, Paul explicitly lays out how Christians are to respond in situations like this so it’s worth quoting in full:

Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whomare all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.

But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

Basically, what Paul is saying here is that just because you have the right to do something doesn’t mean that you ought to do it. In this country, I have a right to say, do or write things that might deeply offend many of the people who drop by here.

But why on Earth would I want to? I want people to listen to what I say so poking fun at or insulting something people revere is the quickest way possible to get those people to quite properly ignore me. Similarly, if others want to convince me of something, villifying something I cherish will only get me to completely tune them out.

As Americans, this church has the right to deeply offend not only radical Muslims but non-radical, peace-loving Muslims as well. But if it goes through with its plans, does anyone think the latter group will be open to the Good News of the One this church claims to represent? If so, why?

Oh come on, Chris. This church contains has a membership of around 50 people. It’s a fringe group and has nothing to do with the Christian religion. Careful. Your non-radical, peace-loving Muslim friend will tell you that the radicals of his religion are also a fringe. And if you don’t make the distinction, you have no right to expect him to.

But Chris! The Muslim world has probably burned more Bibles today than this group will on September 11th! And the Islamic world regularly burns down churches and kills Christians! What about that?!

What about it? If you kill my family and I kill yours in response, do you know what that makes me? A murderer. Granted, Islamic societies are some of the most bigoted and barbaric in the entire world. But “He started it!” is not a legitimate defense. Barbarism is never justified by somebody else’s barbarism.

Oh, so dunking crucifixes in urine or making pictures of the Virgin Mary out of dung or producing blasphemous plays or movies about Jesus is okay but burning Korans isn’t? Who said any of that was okay? There are a lot of things in this country that are or have been legal but are not right. Chattel slavery, abortion, gambling and prostitution come to mind.

Once again, we get back to the basic principle. Just because you have the right doesn’t mean you have the obligation. But I’ll let this divisive, hate-mongering reactionary sum up the first half of the equation:

We must be the better person. We must be bigger than our problems. Bigger than the times in which we live. Burning the Koran is like burning the flag or the Bible. You can do it, but whose heart will you change by doing it? You will only harden the hearts of those who could be moved. None of those who are thinking about killing us will be affected, but our good Muslim friends and neighbors will be saddened. It makes the battle that they face inside their own communities even harder.

Let us rise above the current levels and elevate ourselves and our country. The only thing this act would prove is that you CAN burn a Koran. I didn’t know America was in doubt on that fact. Let’s prove to each other that while there are many things we can do, there are maybe many more things that we choose not to do.

That’s one side. Here’s the other.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectorsdo so?

Let’s say you’re working the circulation desk of your local public library and a woman comes in who is absolutely irate. Seems that her account still shows an item out that she claims she returned and that item has rather large fine on it.

You check the shelf and find that the library has, indeed, made a mistake. You check the item in, remove the fine and apologize to the woman. Her response is to yell at you for several more minutes for a mistake that you did not personally make before finally storming out.

A few days later, a man comes in with the same problem. He calmly informs you that he’d checked his account on the computer last evening and saw an item listed as still checked out that he is certain that he returned.

Once again, you check the shelf and once again, you discover that the item didn’t get checked in. So you take the item to the desk, check it in, remove any fines and apologize to the man. The man smiles and tells you that mistakes happen, he makes quite a few of his own and not to worry about it.

Question: the next time you see both these people approach the circulation desk, which of the two will get the minimum amount of service necessary? And which of the two will you go the extra mile for, bending the rules if need be?

Thought so.

Let’s face it. If we were talking about Buddhists or Taoists or Sikhs, this would be a slam dunk. But we’re talking about Muslims, probably the touchiest people on the planet this side of Anglican homosexuals.

It’s tough to care much about the feelings of people who couldn’t care less about your feelings. And if Muslims in this country and around the world give a damn about the feelings of non-Muslims, they have yet to demonstrate it.

The Ground Zero Mosque must be built at its developer’s desired site; to display the spiritually-exalted quality of magnanimity and move it someplace else on a very small island would be to give in to “Islamophobia.” And to tell Muslims that aspects of their culture, like their treatment of women and homosexuals, honor killing and all the rest of it, are completely unacceptable is to be labelled racist or xenophobic or something.

Once again, the distance between what we should do and what we want to do is not a crack but a chasm. But Jesus never promised us that any of this would be easy.