On September 11 the fifty member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL plans on having a Koran burning to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.  As they explain on their website is “we are burning Korans to raise awareness and warn”.  They go on to give ten reasons why the Koran should be burned and then cite Acts 19:18-20 as Biblical precedence to publicly burn “a book that is demonic”.  The reasoning of the leadership of the Dove World Outreach Centers is faulty, unbiblical and their protest is dangerously misguided.

Some of the reasons they give to burn the Koran are premises most Christians would agree are valid such as that the Koran is not divinely inspired or that it teaches that Jesus was not crucified.  But what is missing is any explanation of why a community that considers itself Christian should make the leap from disagreeing, even disagreeing strongly, with ideas to the symbolic attack of burning a book.  By the logic expressed in their reasons they should also burn any of the other competing texts held sacred by religious communities.  In other words, the reasons they have given for burning the Koran are merely reasons they disagree with the book – but it is a dangerous non sequitur that we burn books we disagree with.

Referencing the Book of Acts in support of book burning completely misunderstands the context of the passage.  The story tells of how some, who had previously practiced magic, converted to Christianity and afterwards brought their books out in an act of confession, “divulging their practices” (v. 18) and burnt them, though they had great monetary value, in an act of repentance.  That is they were publicly destroying their own books as a sign of their own conversion – not as an attack on others who believed differently.

Christianity is a faith that has always spread through rational means joined with works of mercy.  That is we believe in the truth of the Gospel we proclaim and present it clearly to others so that they might consent to truths by agreeing with the evidence and reasons for believing.  Book burning is an inflammatory attack that does nothing to proclaim the truths of scripture, the love of God, or invite Muslims to hear the Gospel we present.  The effect will be to alienate those who hold the Koran sacred.  Moreover, it will present Christianity to those outside the Church as an irrational faith.  Burning books gives the appearance that we are incapable of presenting our reasons for disagreeing with Islam and supporting those points with historical evidence and logic.  Rather than showing that Christianity  invites others to test all things and come to receive truth; those who support this protest reveal a belief system that is based on power, coercion, and force; it is indistinguishable from the images I see in the news of protesters burning American flags and calling the United States “the great Satan”.

I wish the leaders of the Dove World Outreach Center would obey the Bible on which they purport to be based, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” (I Peter 3:15-16)  By hosting a book burning I believe the Dove World Outreach Center will do more harm to the faith of the Holy Bible than to the Koran.