The Army burning Bibles and a Pastor burning Korans. This has been talked about a lot for the last week and it all drives me crazy. I hear over and over from the pundits the questions of why it is ok to burn Bibles but not ok to burn Korans. These are 2 different issues for me because they are 2 different situations.

First off, the Bible situation was complicated. A soldier had a bunch of Bibles sent to him in the local dialects. He wasn’t aware that proselytizing is forbidden, for any religion, by the Military. They (being the local officers in charge) didn’t want to have these sent home just to have them redistributed in the area. The biggest fear is that it would look like the US government was trying to convert the locals. So they trashed them and when overseas, garbage is burned. Best choice? I don’t know but it wasn’t some big “We Hate Christians” ceremony. The followed Military procedure, which is there to protect the soldiers. Like I said. I don’t think this was the best choice but…

Now skip over to a crazy pastor who wants to have a “Burn Koran Day”. I have issues in 2 ways. As an American and as a Christian. First, we have the issue of Petraeus saying it could be dangerous to soldiers overseas. Duh! Did everyone really need to told that? I mean our soldiers are overseas with a highly over reactive, violent group that might take offense to “White Satan” purposely disrespecting their religion so is the warning so far fetched to the short sighted among us? I haven’t heard of any threats of arrest or anything like that. It didn’t sound like anyone was legally stopping the idiots. They have a freedom and were being warned what the consequences could be of exercising it.

Now as a Christian. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. This pastor is angry and I understand that. But we are called to a higher standard. The idea of doing something solely to show your anger and to disrespect someone’s religion is not furthering the gospel! And our purpose here as Christians is to bring glory to God and they will know us by our love. Giving someone the proverbial bird isn’t showing them the love of Christ. And I am pretty sure there are some verses about the fact we are to love those who hate us. I am not saying to ask them to beat us but…

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.