Holy book burning in America!

In a striking contrast between the astute and the clueless, I give you Sarah Palin and Barack Hussein Obama respectively. Before I ask you which one you’d prefer to invite over to your next backyard BBQ, you might first consider the following:

The US President has recently called Terry Jones’ plans to burn the Qur'an “a “stunt” that threatens the lives of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and violates American principles of religious tolerance. "If he’s listening, I just hope he understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans" Obama said in an interview that aired on ABC’s Good Morning America Thursday. It would have been great if he simply stopped there, but he didn’t. In his tradition of running at the mouth, he continued speaking like one in the bleachers of personal opinion: "Now, on the other hand, we are a government of laws, and so, we have to abide by those laws. And my understanding is that he can be cited for public burning. But that's the extent of the laws that we have available to us. You know, part of this country's history is people doing destructive or offensive or harmful things. And yet, we still have to make sure that we're following the laws" Does the President realize that there are plenty of Americans who do the “right” thing without an accompanying law to prod their conscience? But wait, didn’t Obama say that he was a Christian? Well then, the Bible speaks about this concept: For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves. (Romans 2:14). God has given us a conscience and the mind to know His will from birth. We don’t need the government telling us what is right and wrong in matters of moral behavior. Surly in 20 years Rev. Wright must have brushed upon this subject at least once! Perhaps not.

Likewise Sarah Palin on her Facebook wall wrote: “People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.” A concept which President Obama does not grasp in the least. She continues: "Freedom of religion is integral to our charters of liberty ... We don’t need to agree with each other on theological matters, but tolerating each other without unnecessarily provoking strife is how we ensure a civil society." In the words of Rodney King: “Can’t we all just get along?” Well just what does continued unnecessary strife yield, Sarah? "It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don't feed that fire. If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive" In other words, just because we have the “right” to engage in an activity, doesn’t mean that we automatically should.

Sarah gets it, while our current President appears to be severely lacking regarding matters of integrity, character and original thought.

As to the matter of Pastor Terry Jones: Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs, says Proverbs 10:12. Obviously Pastor Jones is not heeding the commands of the very Scripture he (supposedly) upholds on Sunday mornings. For 1 Corinthians 13:4 reminds us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. God's chosen people are those identified as being clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Therefore it is clear that the intentions of Pastor Jones, which may be appear to be noble, are actually those which go against the very character of God.

So says me, Sarah and God!