You're burning what?

Haven’t written in a while. Not for lack of desire, mind you, but life has blessed me with other more pressing priorities.

I heard this morning that a non-denominational church in Gainesville, Florida is planning to host a “Burn the Quran Day” on September 11, their reason being that Islam is “of the devil.”

Are we to believe then that Muhammed Ali is evil? His daughter, Laila? Kareem Abdul Jabbar? Shaquille O’Neal? Former NFL star & tv sports personality Ahmad Rashad? Cat Stevens? Jermaine Jackson? And then there’s Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, U.S. soldier who gave his life in the Iraq war. All these people are of the devil?

It never ceases to amaze me, the ignorance that drives some otherwise intelligent individuals. Don’t get me wrong, I was as hurt and angered by the events of 9/11 as most, having both family and friends that work or live in Manhattan. But let’s be realistic. Religious extremism, it turns out, is not the sole property of a handful of Muslims. I say handful, because facts be told, the Muslim religion as a whole is one of peace. Their core beliefs are not so different than those of Christianity, and surprisingly, in many countries, Christians, Muslims, and Jews get along just fine with each other.

And what about Christianity? When other nations and other religions look at us, what do they see? An extremist that calls himself a hero because he murdered a doctor. And he’s especially proud that he murdered him in a Church. A Christian Church. And then there are our “friends” over at godhatesfags.com, actively protesting the funerals of our fallen heroes because they feel the American military condones homosexuality. Patriots, have we expressed our feelings about this? Not that I have heard. And then there was the head of the Evangelical Church preaching the evils of homosexuality and drug use from the pulpit, while buying crack cocaine and “massages” at an out-of-state gay resort. And his equally homophobic associate, traveling abroad with a “rentboy.”

Sadly, these are not isolated, and are only a few such individuals. It’s not just the Christian Church, either, but it seems these days the Christian Church is the most vocal about such things. Imagine how you’d feel hearing that some group was planning to burn Bibles because they think Christians are evil.

What I’m getting at, essentially, is that we should always look at ourselves before we judge others (wait, didn’t Jesus say something like that?). When you preach anger, bigotry, hatred or intolerance, you are not speaking on behalf of Jesus Christ.

And when we take our lessons on morality from folks like Rush, Newt, Rudy, Bill-O, Sarah, and others like them, who do we represent then?

That’s the way I see it.