Thankfully, he decided not to go through with it. Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center, made headlines for threatening to lead his congregation in burning copies of the Quran this weekend.
For good reason, he received some pretty stern warnings from government and military officials.
Although the tragedy has been (at least temporarily) averted, Pastor Jones’ actions, coupled with other recent tensions connecting religion and public life, prompt some reflections.
These few days right now are like a perfect storm of commemorable events. At almost exactly the same time, Muslims mark the end of Ramadan, Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) and others are remembering 9/11, which made Pastor Jones’ Quran-burning plan all the more agonizing.
As a pastor, I cannot tell you how troubling it is that a religious leader would seriously consider burning the holy books of another faith. I know exactly how Pastor Jones would feel about a Bible-burning rally.
Of course, burning things – government leaders’ effigies, the American flag, or some other symbol – is a well-known form of political theatre around the world. But for a pastor, who of all people should understand the sacredness of sacred things, to burn someone else’s holy book makes me want to rend my garments.
Pastor Jones has called Islam “a dangerous religion,” which, he asserts, justified the threatened action. But “Islam” is an abstract word, just like “Christianity” or “Judaism” or “religion.”
We need to remember that religions are practiced by people. Pastor Jones would have been doing nothing to “Islam” in the Quran-burning. Even now, without carrying out the act, he has frightened, offended and insulted people. Pastors should never do such things. We’re sinners, so we do, on occasion, but we can never vindicate such behavior.
Most troubling, perhaps, is that Pastor Jones was making a political statement as a religious leader. Even though the burning was ostensibly about religion, it relates directly to geo-political issues. In the United States, religious leaders walk a very fine line: we are citizens with rights and responsibilities, but also representatives of religious communities. We have to pay exceedingly close attention to what we’re doing and where and when we do it.
Controversies about what people hold dear are age-old. In that sense, that Pastor Jones and his congregation came close to engaging in agitation, is not new or surprising, but this kind of action? From a pastor? As a pastor myself, I found it particularly ominous. The challenge, however, is really for all of us. Living in a religiously diversifying country requires willing efforts on all our parts to understand one another’s cherished beliefs. It takes work, more than the snap decision often given these things. But it’s utterly necessary work. Let’s get to work.
Stephen Rankin is the Chaplain and Minister to Southern Methodist University. He can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].
