Over time, I've become convinced that religion can be responsible for as much harm as good in the world. That is, I suspect, especially true when it's wielded as a weapon in the hands of ignoramuses.
That's how we come to have the spectacle of Terry Jones, the pastor of a tiny church in Florida dedicated apparently mostly to the worship of himself, burning a Koran and setting off riots in Muslim countries that got people killed. Jones's whole approach to Christianity seems at odds with the principles that Christianity espouses, yet his case is far from unique. This happens, I think, because once you accept a few premises "on faith," without challenge, it's easy to come to see the world as a realm of absolutes, a cosmos of black-or-white.
Ignorant too, we must admit, is the reaction of devout Muslims in Afghanistan, who responded to Jones's act with demonstrations that turned to riots that turned to murder. We cannot excuse this behavior either, though we can understand it, as the action of relatively ignorant or unsophisticated people whose religious understanding is limited and who may have been subtly incited by terrorists. Still, the reaction is ignorant, because it fails to understand the Western concept of free speech, it reflects a mistaken understanding of Islamic religious principles (just as Jones holds mistaken views on Christian ones), and it reconfirms the negative stereotypes that uninformed fools like Jones believe.
Overall, it's not quite a "wash," though. Jones, in my mind, bears a heavier burden of responsiblity for fostering hatred. He's an individual actor, responsible for his own decisions about knowingly confrontational acts in a way a mob, even a purposely incited one, is not.
Brilliant.
Posted by: Gabbygeezer | April 04, 2011 at 05:22 PM