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Cause and Effect - Darkness Cannot Produce Light -Reader comment on item: Should We Blame a Florida Pastor for Deaths in Afghanistan? Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Apr 11, 2011 at 13:57 And all the while, the subliminal extremist mentality still pervades. Many arguments, some with sense, others with influences of certain ideologies that are held to (including this one), try so hard to give justification for the actions and reactions of the upholder of the Holy Bible and the followers of the Quran. In these recent instances, there is no real justification, either for the burning or the deaths. If that is the case, then why the incendiary actions on both sides: other than the obvious? Darker powers seem to be at work here. If a person that supposedly is minister of the Gospel (if Pastor Jones does claim to be, his witness is now suspect), then are we to expect that all of Christianity is justified in reigniting the fires of the crusades and expunge the influences of Islam from not only the United States, but of the world? Read the Holy Bible, folks: it is not expected to happen that way. Burning a Quran does nothing more than service the darker powers, to incite more hatred, the fuel of the emotions we are seeing today. The Islamists relish that; they live for it; they make homicide bomber elegies for it; they die for it. Others in this post make Biblically supported appeals for the love of Jesus Christ to be expressed in each reaction; that the intended purpose for everyone who claims Jesus Christ as LORD is to witness that love in the faith and trust placed in the name of Jesus Christ. You will never get that from Islam, nor from a fundamentalist Muslim, as many of the Muslim belief system have attested here. Burning a Quran achieves nothing in the way of a political statement either, except that the government that cannot provide support for its intrinsic belief system will not support the actions of conscience of its citizens, for that requires the conscience to be intact. America's national government conscience has been seared for quite some time. What was achieved? We'll come back to that later. While there is the argument that burning in effigy any article or emblem of a person's discontent is purportedly protected under the Constitutional auspices of American citizenship, it is not necessarily expedient to make such an expression public unless one is ready to take responsibility for that action on themselves, and not expect others to bear the brunt of the consequences. Only One could make that sacrifice, Jesus Christ taking the sins of mankind upon Himself and going to the death on the cross in the place of each of us. In other countries, no such constitutional protective clauses as Americans have exist. In varying places, retributions in official and nonofficial capacities are extant, from treatment in cases of minor infractions to the ultimate payment, death. In America, such is considered barbaric, yet we Americans are spoiled; that so far, while the Holy Bible has been denigrated to second class status in American politics, no one has yet been put to death for upholding its principles. For crying out loud, Holy Bibles have been burned here in America, but who remembers the outcry the last time it happened? It is hard to remember, for no one that I have heard of died in another country for the action. Now here is the distinction to be made. Burning the Holy Bible does not invalidate the WORD of the LORD, for the LORD has been its Author and Protector over the centuries and millennia. Almighty God does not need humans to protect His WORD; He is more than capable to keep its precepts alive over the times and tides of history by the power of His Holy Spirit. In contrast, Islamists feel the need to protect the Quran by bringing the message of death to all who desecrate their tenets of belief. One has to wonder why? So what was achieved? Did anyone come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ on account of the ashes of a Quran? Since it is Biblically correct to understand the Holy Spirit is present at any conversion and rebirth of a new believer and that was not the point of burning the Quran, then all that was achieved in its burning was an increase in the animosity against Christianity for an act that did not have the righteousness or commandment of Jesus Christ in sight. Was that really what the Pastor from Florida really wanted? Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (116) on this item
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