A Church In Florida Is Going To Do What?

This coming Saturday will mark the ninth anniversary of what has become known in the U.S. as 9/11, when the World Trade Center and Twin Towers blew up and planes were hijacked.

As it turns out that the plans of a church in Florida on that day consist of burning the Quran. Here is one of the various articles discussing this.

My religious background consists of Christianity via a combination of the American Baptist and Disciples of Christ perspectives. I doubt I will ever convert to Islam. Yet, I cannot envision myself taking part of the burning of the Quran.

First off, I have to wonder how the preacher would react if Muslims or any other "non-Christian group" were to announce plans to burn the Bible? Given my aforementioned religious background, I know I wouldn't like it. I also have a feeling that various churches would be up in arms if that happened. (The article I linked to said that "Muslims consider the Quran the word of God and insist it be treated with utmost respect." Do Christians not have the same sentiments about the Bible?)

Second, I don't really condone book burning (unless the book is in particularly bad shape and can't be salvaged or if say, it's a really cold day and you need the fuel for the fire). As a bibliophile, I believe books, regardless of their nature (religious or otherwise), should either be read or left alone. But that's just my opinion.

Third, when it comes down to it, a book is, in and of itself, is basically a bunch of pieces of paper written on and bound together and will pretty much have as much influence on you as you will let it. The reason I bring this up is that, according to Mitch Stacy, the author of the aforementioned article, says that "The [Quran] according to [the preacher], is evil because it espouses anything other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims." If such reasons were the grounds for destroying a book, then there are a lot of books in the world that would need to be destroyed. I've read books where people swear, smoke, and do other things that are often consider sinful to the Christian faith. Just because I read said books (whether it has been on my own or what used to be the case, for class) and they happen to contain uses of the F-word, smoking, premarital sex, pratices associated with non-Christian religions doesn't mean I'm necessarily going to be inspired to do those things.

And one more thing, I know that the First Amendement protects this church's right to burn the Quran, but just because a person has a right to do something doesn't mean others have to like it.

Having said all of this, now that you know where I stand on this issue, I'd like to know your thoughts. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some things to take care of around the house, and then I'm going to sit down and get in my daily Bible reading.