The Burning Koran

     KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials say eight foreigners and four protesters were killed at a United Nations office in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when a protest turned  violent in response to a reported Quran-burning in the United States. from msnbc.com

“The Dove World Outreach Center” in Gainesville, FL, headed by pastor Terry Jones, apparently has succeeded in burning a Koran. "Outreach" indeed. This is the guy who tried to have a rally awhile back to do the same thing, but cancelled it when US citizens’ lives were threatened in the Middle East.

Where do Christian leaders get the idea that it’s okay to put other religions down? Is this religious xenophobia something that stems from the Middle Ages when churches were all about property and money? No other religion has run rampant across the globe, killing “savages” whose beliefs are “primitive” like Christianity. I’m sure if a tally is taken, more people were tortured and died in the name of this religion over the centuries than any other.

I remember learning in Catholic school that only Catholicism was the One True Religion and even though other good, religious people walked the planet, when they died they weren’t going to heaven, no sir, because THEY WEREN’T CATHOLIC! And that’s the Big Enchilada – going to Heaven when you die. Being a good person isn’t it’s own reward; I guess that before Christianity it was Judaism and the Greek and Roman gods that kept people in line with the concept of Eternal Damnation. The prospect of sitting on a Bunsen burner forever sure puts a damper on that murder you were planning for next week…

Each religion and/or philosophy has its own unique and beautiful way of making sense of this world and this human life. And each person has the right to choose their own path, or to choose not to walk the path.

These narrow-minded people should read the Koran, not burn it.