Thursday, September 09, 2010

Burning Books

Burning books of any sort is a crime against free inquiry.  Burning the holy text of any religious group, no matter the reason, is in addition an act of cowardly bigotry and hypocrisy.  Thus the case of the Right Righteous Reverend Terry Jones and his acolytes in Gainesville, Florida, who prepare to burn Qur'ans on September 11, presumably to show how tough they are.

From all appearances, the Right Righteous Reverend Jones is on a rather large ego trip what with virtually the whole world, including his fellow evangelicals telling him 500 ways this burning  is dumb and bad, as William Barnigin and Michelle Boorstein make clear in the Washington Post.

If religious groups and churches want to make a statement beyond verbal chastisement and arm twisting, why do they not pledge to donate to schools and libraries around the country, starting in Gainesville, 100 copies of the Qur'ans for every one copy that the Right Righteous Reverend--or any one else--burns?