What was he thinking?

I've listened with morbid curiosity as the story of the Quran burning in Florida has unfolded. Upon my first exposure to the story I remember thinking, "This guy is crazy, but surely he'll stop this nonsense by the end of the week." How wrong I was! As the story has progressed and now played out to an end I've found myself thinking more and more about the situation.

The first thing that really jumped out at me was a very basic fact: Pastor Jones actually has the right to burn the Quran. Hear me on this! I am not saying I agree with his proposed plan to burn the Quran, I am saying that constitutionally speaking he has the right to do so. Just as any Muslim living in America has the right to burn our Bible.

That brought me to another thought. If a Muslim Imam had proposed a Bible burning would there have been as much outcry? I think not. More and more, though protected by the Constitution, it seems Christians have less rights. I am certain there would have been objections from Christians themselves, but I doubt the media would have covered it in the same way as they have covered the proposed Quran burning. And I am certain there wouldn't have been the commentary from top government officials over a Bible burning. This, of course helps me to sympathize in a small way with Pastor Jones, but still doesn't convince me his proposed idea was a good one.

Of course, speaking of the Constitution, I am reminded that Muslims have as much right to worship here in the United States as Christians or Buddhists or Pagans or....whoever. So now we have Pastor Jones with the right to burn the Quran if he so desires facing off against the right of Muslims to worship here. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the Muslims' right to worship trumps Jones' right to burn the Quran. Understand I am in no way basing this on any legal or governmental policy or precedent. This is my own reasoning. I arrive at this conclusion because I hold the right to worship without persecution above many other rights. And because I want to worhsip without persecution, I would extend that right even to those of a particular religion I may not agree with.

And thinking of Muslims in a very general way, it is my understanding that not all Muslims are the fundamental terrorist types. Now I profess no great understanding of the faith and won't say much more on the issue. I know only that as there are some extreme Christians out there, there are also some extreme Muslims, but should we be judged by the extremes of our religions?

Speaking of extremes, does Pastor Jones represent an extreme of the Christian religion? I am inclined to think so. As Christians we are taught to be loving and kind to all. It's the whole hate the sin and love the sinner admonishment. That being the case, shouldn't we strive to live by such an example that others want what we have? When they see our peace and love they will ask questions; they will seek to understand, at that point, we have the opportunity to share with them our beliefs. But no one will ever be swayed to our way of thinking if we attack them!

What has really bothered me about this whole thing is that Pastor Jones has brought the Christian testimony of all Christians into question. As Christians we have to be very careful with our actions as the world judges us by the actions of those proclaiming to be Christians. Is it right? No, we should be judged on the basis of our own actions, but just as we judge Muslims based on the actions of a few, the world will judge Christians based on the actions of a few.

As I've mulled this situation over I've come to one conclusion: We can't control the actions of others and even if we are embarrassed by them, the only thing we can do is keep our own lives as Christ-like as possible.