Terry Jones Can't Burn My Blog

Warning: The Following is Not a Funny Blog Post

In the last couple of days 16 people have been killed and nearly 100 injured in protests in Afghanistan because of the imbecilic actions of a Yosemite Sam look-a-like “pastor” from Florida. As someone who hopes to make a living studying and teaching about religion I find myself wholly incapable of approaching this situation with anything remotely resembling “scholarly distance” (if there can be said to be scholarly distance in the field of religion…but I digress). It makes me mad. It makes me upset. It makes me want to throw heavy things at inanimate objects. There isn’t one part of it that particularly interests me or makes me want to learn more about the nuances of the religious belief structures of the instigating party – due to the fact that the Manichean, us versus them, nonsensical mentality being displayed leaves no room for nuance. Here is what is going on in this situation that I disagree with.

Response. I’m writing a response to Terry Jones. He is an imbecile and doesn’t deserve anyone’s attention and I don’t like having my emotions manipulated by stupidity. 16 people are dead and counting because a pastor burned a holy text. My attention is here. I am upset that a lunatic standing on a soapbox spewing excrement has elicited anything more than a passing eye-roll from me. However, while I claim that he doesn’t warrant a response here I am…because he does. I have just finished being annoyed with Rep. Peter King’s xenophobic hearings titled “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response.” So the shoe is on the other foot – Here is my response offering a testimony of “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Christian Community and that Community’s Response.” Everything Terry Jones did was wrong and he can’t light my blog on fire.

First, he announced “International Burn a Qur’an Day” to commemorate the anniversary of the world trade center attacks of 2001. This was met with disgust by most and condemnation from local pastors, from Obama, from General Petraeus and many, many others. Terry Jones is exactly like Osama Bin Laden and Fred Phelps in that his extreme words and actions garner attention disproportionate to his influence, thereby creating an illusion of widespread influence. There are better ways than terroristic threats to commemorate the anniversary of terrorist attacks.

Second, after he rescinded his terrorist threat to burn the Qur’an, he made an announcement that the Qur’an would be put on trial. I did not read this because I do not frequent the web site of the dove world outreach center. (Caveat – also thoroughly annoyed with his use of the words “international,” “world,” “outreach,” and “dove”…henceforth I’ll refer to his “church” as a “center”) A Trial. Jones was the “judge,” center members was a “jury,” and “lawyers” put the Qur’an on trial. I don’t care about the specifics of this “trial” because the entire thing is a mockery of the US judicial process as well as any interpretation of Shari’ah and doesn’t warrant close examination. I am left to wonder whether the 12 person – all center “church” members – were a jury of the Qur’an’s peers. Who, or what, is a peer of the Qur’an? Did the Qur’an speak in its own defense? Was the book called to the witness stand? The entire process is silly and I believe that Terry Jones the terrorist would disassociate with any peers of the Qur’an if they didn’t now make up 40% of his center’s membership. This “trial” was an exercise in bigoted stupidity.

Third, the punishments for the Qur’an, should it be found guilty, were limited to death by burning, death by firing squad, death by drowning, or death by shredding. This begs the question whether it was only this particular Qur’an that caused all of the misfortunes Terry Jones the Terrorist was accusing it of or if every Qur’an and every translation should be held liable – this “trial” was a farce. Back to the original point of this bulletpoint – death was the only option for something that the fu Manchu terrorist disagreed with or didn’t understand. What a fantastic approach to the world.

All of these aside, what upset me most was the act of holy text burning. As a future scholar in the field of the interpretation of holy texts, their purposeful destruction is an intellectual travesty. It says “I don’t care what is in this book.” “I don’t care that it influences people.” “I don’t care that I may learn something from it.” “I don’t care that some people view it as the word of god and model their lives after their interpretation of it.” It says “not only do I not care, I actively want to destroy this book so that there is no way anyone will ever be able to form their own opinion about it as I have made up their minds for them.” Dialogue is gone and replaced with destruction. Everything about burning a holy book – symbolically, physically, ecumenically, and educationally – has no place anywhere.

I could continue, but the bottom line is that Terry Jones is a Terrorist and does not speak for America or Christianity. But to much of the world, right now, he does. While he shouldn’t warrant a response, here is another one, because closing our eyes and ears to this type of action doesn’t make it go away. While everything he has done exudes asininity it has had significant consequences – 16 dead and counting – and must be dealt with by those who think about religion. Dialogue doesn’t work when one conversation partner burns another one to death. Growth doesn’t happen when an “other” is forcibly silenced. Ideological dissonance has the capacity to foster growth and debate has the capacity to expand one’s own mental horizons. Perhaps the situation was best summarized by Terry Jones the Terrorist’s son: “We’re not big debaters. We’re not very well-educated,” Luke Jones said. “We’re just simple people trying to do the right thing.”

Debate isn’t bad. You don’t have to be educated to listen. You didn’t do the right thing.