Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville, Florida, and the Gainesville Interfaith Forum will be hosting a Gathering for Peace, Understanding, and Hope on September 10.
Mainline Christian churches join together all the time with Jews, Muslims, and Hindus, as in this interfaith forum for peace and tolerance.
Why, then, do I note this particular gathering? Because Trinity United Methodist Church is right next door to the Dove World Outreach Center, a pentecostal church that is planning to burn the Qur'an on September 11.
I truly hope, as a church elder, that the Dove church changes its mind.
Even if it does not, though, I am glad the good people of Gainesville, through the Interfaith Forum, will be coming together in a gentle counter-demonstration of American decency and tolerance.
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9 comments:
I disagree with the church's decision to do this. It is insensitive and hurtful to a large group of good people but it is their right to do so.
I feel the same way about the victory mosque in New York. Bad idea but It is their right to do so. Seems fair to me.
If I were the decision-maker at Dove, I would not burn the book. However, it is a matter of free speech, protected for all under the Constitution.
"Speech," you say?
Absolutely. Many of the same people who are aghast at this "provocative" act are always ready to leap to the defense of the free speech rights of those who burn an American flag.
Yep, Dove has a clear constitutional right to burn the Qur'an. I haven't actually heard anyone suggest otherwise. The critiques I have heard from across the religious and political spectrum are that they shouldn't exercise that right.
Just as the Imam shouldn't exercise his right either Gruntled.
He said this morning on cable that if the mosque isn't built that the radicals will kill even more innocent people. Will there be an end to their demands?
I don't see any moral equivalence.
Building an Islamic study center for the type of Muslim who wants to build bridges to the rest of American society is a good thing.
Burning the Qur'an is a bad thing.
Why is it that trampling all over Christian symbols (an "artistic exhibit" of a crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's urine, for example) is vigorously defended as a "right" that must be allowed in our free society, but anything that insults Islam (Qur'an burning, comic strips depicting Mohammed) is almost universally condemned?
In other words, if it's a bad thing to burn the Qur'an, wasn't it a "bad thing" to display a crucifix in urine?
Where were you on that issue, Gruntled?
I thought "Piss Christ" was a terrible idea, as well as pretty bad art.
In general I am opposed to art and artistic acts the point of which is to outrage others. They seem to sophomoric.
Well Beau your opinion puts you to the left of BHO. Even he doesn't consider the victory mosque a wise idea.
"Building an Islamic study center for the type of Muslim who wants to build bridges to the rest of American society is a good thing."
If that is the reason you approve of the GZM and not Dove, it is based on the conclusion, that this Imam and this building are for bridge-building and not, a la the Temple Mount and Santa Sophia in Istabul, commemorations of triumph. It is that conclusion that many have disputed based on past statements of the Imam and the mystery about the source of the funding.
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