You're not HELPing....

[Note: I had not heard about the definitive canceling of the book-burning before writing this. I am glad it was canceled, but I think the sentiment in here is important anyhow (because someone else out there is surely contemplating something similar), so I'm leaving this up.]

Dear Pastor Book-burner,

I know that's not your name, and that you, strictly speaking, haven't burned books yet. (Or at least not the books you're getting known for wanting to burn. Who knows what you've done in your spare time before?) But that's what you're currently getting famous for. Whether or not you go through with it, right now what you're mainly known for is: "The guy who thinks burning a religion's holy book will accomplish anything meaningful."

I try to avoid political posts...

Dear Easily Offended People of America,

The words "Muslim" and "American" are not antonyms. There were American Muslims who died at the towers on 9/11. So calling building a mosque in the vicinity of the former towers "an insult to the memories of the 3000 Americans killed" is kinda, you know... stupid. There really isn't another word for it. Well, that's not true. There are lots of other words: short-sighted, hateful, bigoted, insulting, and ignorant come to mind.

"It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero." No, what's insensitive and uncaring is refusing to admit that Muslims are not some monolithic hive-mind where everyone in the religion agrees with the actions of the extremists. Of course, if it were really true that all Muslims should be considered extremists and terrorists because of the actions of a few, than all Christians likewise should be considered extremists and terrorists as well, because it's not as if there has never been an act of terrorism committed by a Christian.

Christians have also stolen, murdered, abused, and otherwise harmed their fellow man. Does that mean that Christianity is to blame for those acts? Or do you accept that in every religion, there are people who are capable of heinous acts, and blame the individuals instead of the religion? Because those are your choices... and if you choose the latter choice, then you must include Muslims in that acceptance as well.

As usual, I am deeply disappointed that some of the worst comments on this issue come from people who claim to be Christian. Jesus would not call that love for your brother, and neither do I.

A couple of links

Via one of my old friends, the moderate voice of American Muslims regarding a recent attempt by non-Muslims to be stupid about how Muslims feel about visual depictions of Muhammad. (No, they didn't call it stupid. I am calling it stupid. Going out of your way to offend people of a specific religion is stupid... and it violates the "don't be a dick" rules of many religions.)

Via another friend, a liberal Christian shared blog, bearing witness (dreamwidth|livejournal). From their profile:

Jesus Christ lived and preached love and acceptance of all, but it increasingly seems like the most vocal Christians are preaching intolerance and hatred. So we, as Christians who believe in Christ's true message, think it's past time for us to exercise our right of rebuttal.

Note that our aim is not to evangelise to non-Christians about our religious beliefs, but rather to evangelise to other Christians about our political beliefs, and to strengthen ourselves in fellowship with others who take these beliefs as not merely compatible with, but actually required by, our faith.

Sounds good to me.

Modest dress and the law

I feel somewhat disturbed by the number of countries in Europe which have banned, in part or in whole, Muslim head coverings.

I am appalled at my own kind

Well, they're not quite my own kind. I recognize them as Christians, but we're obviously very different. It's the ones who, in the wake of the horrendous tragedy at Fort Hood, are saying, "See, Muslims are all terrorists!" Who are, in the main, the same ones who when people, oh, say, shoot an abortion doctor in the name of Christ, don't have anything to say about that, or at best say "But that's not what we believe!"... and then refuse to give the same courtesy to others.

I'm appalled that Christians give other Christians a free pass on such acts, but immediately harp on anyone of any other religion, especially Muslims. We worship the same God. Never mind my belief that ultimately we all do, I mean this one much more literally; Muslims consider Jesus one of the great prophets and believe some of the same things Christians do about him (albeit not all of them). We should get along better. It's one of the shames of religion that we can't. And one of the shames of American Christians in particular that so many of them refuse to believe anyone who says "We're not all like that."

Are there bad Muslims? Yes. But there are also bad Christians. And a lot of them are right here in this country. Condemning the entire religion based on the whack-jobs is really... unChristian. Brotherhood, remember?