"International Burn A Koran Day" is off, says the Florida preacher who had planned the event. In the wake of this good news, however, I've read some unfortunate sentiments online that I want to respond to.
Here are some samples (paraphrased) of what I'll call the "burn it for the sake of the First Amendment" view:
- "The burning should have gone ahead to demonstrate that there's still a First Amendment in this country."
- "Churches should be all-loving, all-forgiving, and model the Golden Rule, so it's wrong for a church to burn the Koran -- but if another organization had wanted to do it, that would have been just fine."
Statements like these boil down to "Don't do hurtful, hateful things -- unless someone tells you not to, in which case, go ahead just to prove you can." A question for those who believe such rubbish: when you were nine years old, you were the one chasing your sibling around with an outstretched finger yelling, "I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you!", weren't you? If your mama
done raised you right, you would know that wrong is wrong, and right is right, and the First Amendment doesn't magically transform the one into the other.
Here are some other responses I've read recently; I'll call this the "sticks and stone" view:
- "A book is just a book, and burning it harms no one. Burning the white pages doesn't kill everyone listed in it."
- "There are millions of copies out there. If someone burns yours, just go get another one."
Surely no one can be this naive; this is willful pigheadedness. This sentiment amounts to "Lighting a campfire and torching a cross in someone's front yard are the same, because both involve burning two sticks in an open space." Words and actions have meanings, and those meanings have power. Even small children know that. Do you?
If you met the guy who posted the "sticks and stones" view, you'd understand. He might just be the most ridiculous person ever. Your comparison to a small child is very appropriate in his case. I had no idea that my celebration of the cancellation of the event with a facebook post could ignite such furor.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was surprised. I really wanted to respond on your thread, but I spent so much time hemming and hawing about "is it appropriate to respond to this seeming crackpot I've never met" and "how do I fit something pithy in a FaceBook post" that by the time I hit Post, you had apparently deleted the whole thread in disgust. :-) Then I did some googling this morning and found some more of the same disturbing thoughts elsewhere, and I decided I needed to restart the conversation myself.
ReplyDelete