That's quite an article. I shared a link to it on facebook. One thing I noted in it was this...

"The National Association of Evangelicals, the nation's largest umbrella evangelical group, issued a statement urging the church to cancel the event, warning it could cause worldwide tension between the two religions.

"The NAE calls on its members to cultivate relationships of trust and respect with our neighbors of other faiths. God created human beings in his image, and therefore all should be treated with dignity and respect," it said in the statement."

Wish I had the Picard facepalm pic handy.

This quote in particular irks me:

It is so clearly written by a dumba** who doesn't know a real Muslim from a hole in the ground. The Muslims that I've known personally have been as happy and full of joy as any Christian. Indeed, I've known some pretty dour, joy-less Christians but I do not judge Christianity by them and I certainly don't call for a "Burning the Bible Day".

At least the NAE took a pretty clear stance against this type of hateful behaviour and distanced themselves from this church's action.

Mendalla

Well, you can't inflame hatred and keep the people in line in Amur'ca without a good propaganda campaign, now can you?

Anyone remember the Waltons TV show?

In an episode set during the Second World War, the good folk of the mountain decided to have a book burning of anything written in German.

Which John-boys folks, though not happy, were going to keep quiet about given the hysterical tenor of the times.

The night of the bonfire, John-boy protested and was about to be cast out as Nazi-lover when he plucked a book from the fire and asked if anyone could translate the first few words.  A woman hesitantly came forward, and began "In the beginning..."

Would have been more dramatic if she'd flipped to "forgive them, for they know not what they do..." but the principle was the same.

And still is.

I bet chansen has already booked his ticket to Florida and is sportin' a whole bag of Qurans.

This action proves once again that extreme fundamentalism can occur in any religion. The words 'devotion' and 'idealism' sums up all organized religion, east and west. Sometimes this idealism becomes caught up in a glamour and actions become extreme.

For this particular action alone it's becoming apparent that organized religions all over the world are having difficulty in offering the people what they want. What they really need. And that is the truth, the real and naked truth. Salvation.

The churches and mosques and temples, etc, can offer hope and promise, they've done this for centuries. But do they have the insight and the will to tell the people the real truth? Organized religion today is in need of a reform. Until some real honestly and sincerity is demostrated from all our religious leaders, they don't, I believe, possess the authority to tell the people the truth.

The extremist religions of the world are doomed to be isolated from the world unless they change. They will have no power in the future because the rest of world will ignore them. Meanwhile, millions and millions in the world are continuing to awaken to an inner truth. We are waking up to the "real truth", which is that there is a way for "all people" in the world to find a common ground and move forward with pride and respect together. All religions, all nations, everyone.

The real truth today is the naked truth that we are all One and it is possible for that One to have One voice. And that One voice will express Love for "everyone", thief and saint, sinner and saved. All of us, part and parcel, function as a great Whole.

Seeing me as you and you as me will open the third eye of spiritual sight. This is our second sight. Kind of like being 'born again'.

The concept of "Love" is so important to us because it brings everything and everyone together into One Whole. One Humanity. One God. Anything, whether tangible, philosophical, political or religious, that creates division is doomed to failure because there is only One.

"Everything belongs to the Lord"

It is absolutely the wrong way to go about things. I have always been a big fan of the Mars Hill speech. In it Paul (I think) finds common ground with the Romans he was witnessing to. He didn't bash, insult, or belittle them, he found common ground and from there he told them about JESUS. That is the model for witnessing we are supposed to follow. This "church" is completely ineffective as a witness and even worse will poison the well for others

cf, I think you might have meant this tongue-in-cheek, but either way it might bear looking at it again. Much as I love to needle hansen, I don't see this as his style.

Just a thought.

Well said jon. Mars Hill is an excellent example imho of how a church should operate. I also appreciate the work being done by places like The Freeway in Hamilton, Ontario. http://www.frwy.ca/church/

Just to be clear, I have never seen chansen hateful like this.

Saddened ... yes.

Sickened ... yes.

Surprised ... no.

As the entropy of the universe increases (i.e., the state of disorder, or chaos) we can expect mankind's behaviour to take a downward swing.  Instead of e-volving, mankind seems to be de-volving.  Erich Fromm wrote, decades ago, about man's alienation from his nature, from himself, from others and from his God.  We produce weapons that having ever-increasing 'kill' capacity (okay, so my English is lousy.  Don't kill me)  Just hope they don't have a 'burn an Observer' campaign.  Then the UCC will be really in trouble.

"The darkest hour is just before dawn"

- Proverb

This months article by the Master, as given through Benjamin Creme, is quite interesting, addressing this very problem between religions.

Sorry I don't mean to put the thread off topic but I'm thinking what would happen if  a certain group tried to burn copies of the various Jewish books, the Torah , Talmud etc? The Jewish Congress or other Jewish  organizations would be at the scene in a matter of minutes to put a stop to it.

  There's isn't enough cohesion in the Christian community  in general to enable them to get together when wrong doing such as this is being committed? Its rather a sad commentary on Christianity isn't it?  Exception the NAE.

chansen?  chansen who?

(I sat there, nodding in agreement when, I thought "Wow. I wonder how Neo will argue with THAT..." ....and I bump into:

Eloquence!

Fluent, forcible, elegant  persuasive.

As to your first statement. It sounds like somebody can certainly dish it out, but cannot handle it. You waltz around here giving out the same crap and as soon as somebody does it to you, you stomp your feet.

As to your second statement. Meh. Your opinion of me is of zero concern.  

Where, exactly, have I ever given any indication that I would burn Qurans, with or without a bunch of idiot Christians?

Put simply, I have never advocated burning books of any variety.  Not the Bible, not Mein Kampf, and not the Quran.  I think reading scripture is one of the best ways to find out how nonsensical a religion really is.

Shit, Chansen. I was not serious when I posted that comment. If you cannot take a joke, or see that I meant it in jest, perhaps you should take a look at the comments YOU leave about other people. I am sure however that you will just do your old justification song and dance routine.

If I was serious about my comment and was trying to convince other people that you were going to Florida to burn Qurans, then yes, you would be right. However, the comment in question was not meant as an accusation, nor an attempt to bear false witness. So your application of the 9th Commandment in this regard holds no validity.

Just as I suspected. More song and dance from the hypocrite. You talk down to people on this site like it's your day job. As soon as somebody pushes back a little, you stomp your feet like a child who lost his turn on the merry -go- round.

You cast judgements of self-righteousness on other people, yet fail (either willingly or unwillingly) to see the same reflected in yourself.

What?  If someone says something stupid about me, I don't get to defend myself?  CF was going for laughs - I get that now - but CF can't do funny, so the post predictably fell flat on its face and other people took it at face value - not just me.

If I offend someone with my comments, they are welcome to reply with reasons why I am wrong.  Telling me I shouldn't respond because I've offended others in the past doesn't make any sense at all.

You say stupid stuff all the time. What's your point?

Hard to tell. They both love revel in, and justify their mocking and ridicule of others, but when pushed back, they stomp their feet.

You should listen to besh on this cf, he's an expert on what you said here.