{"id":72,"date":"2010-09-13T14:16:09","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T14:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/when-pastors-who-burn-bibles-become-celebrities.html"},"modified":"2010-09-13T14:16:09","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T14:16:09","slug":"when-pastors-who-burn-bibles-become-celebrities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/when-pastors-who-burn-bibles-become-celebrities.htm","title":{"rendered":"When Pastors who Burn Bibles Become Celebrities"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/span><\/p>\n

So, is that what it takes to become a celebrity these days? Threaten to burn someone else’s Bible, and declare their religion to be satanic, and you are instantly the center of the news?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder who is the bigger fool. Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who is an embarrassment to loving Christians everywhere with his original plans to burn Korans at his Church on September 11th and who is the author of “Islam is of the Devil,” or we the public who gulp down his story as if it’s of interest.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

There are times when I’m embarrassed to work in media. How did <\/span><\/p>\n

an attention-seeking nonentity with barely enough Church followers
\nto fill a phone <\/span><\/p>\n

booth become an international personality and provoke a global
\nfuror? And who elevated this silly story to global news prominence? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, it has to do with just how inane the media has become. Jones <\/span><\/p>\n

is filler for a 24-hour news cycle which is all scandal all the
\ntime. And if you <\/span><\/p>\n

can’t find a scandal, invent one. There is nothing novel about the
\nexistence of religious bigots and it’s certainly not newsworthy. But allow me
\nto teach Pastor Jones a lesson from Jesus’ famous pronouncement in <\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 7:16, “By their fruits you shall know them.”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The holiness or devilishness of any religion comes down not to its
\narticles of faith <\/span><\/p>\n

but to the deeds of its practitioners. The crusaders who slaughtered
\nuntold numbers of Jews in Europe as they marched to meet the Islamic infidel in
\nthe Holy Land were of the devil, even if Christianity, of course, is not.
\nLikewise, the Spanish Inquisitioners who tortured non-believers and burned them
\nat the stake were satanic, even as their faith, Catholicism, remains holy. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In that sense the whole debate as to whether President Obama is a
\nMuslim is ridiculous. Yes, he isn’t, and has said time and again that he is a
\nChristian. But what if he were a Muslim? I couldn’t care less. My problem with
\nObama is not his faith or lack there of but his policies. If Obama were an
\nIslamic president of the United States who berated instead of coddled Arab
\ndictators, like King Abdullahof Saudi Arabia, he would have my vote. If he were
\na practicing Muslim who promoted democracy across the Middle East, rather than
\nKissingerian real politik, I would endorse him. If he were a devout Muslim
\nfirst magistrate of the United States who regularly spoke out against the
\nabuses of women in the Islamic world and gave a prime time address condemning
\nIran’s plans to stone a woman to death, I would deeply respect him. If he were
\na Muslim who prayed in the Oval Office five times a day and fasted all of
\nRamadan and then lectured Hamas and Hezbollah to stop putting all their money into
\nrockets against Israel and instead into Universities for their people, he would
\ninspire me.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with President Obama is that he does none of these
\nthings, rarely holding the Islamic world accountable for its absence of
\nfreedoms, refusing to personally condemn Iran for its plan to stone a woman to
\ndeath, and putting the pressure on Netanyahu once again to freeze settlements
\nrather than place the blame for the failure of progress squarely on the real
\nculprits: the terrorist organizations of Hamas and Hezbollah, both Iranian
\nproxies.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have devout Muslim friends who love Israel and wish Arab countries
\nemulated its democratic institutions, just courts, and freedom of worship and
\npress. Likewise, I have G-d fearing Islamic friends who love America, would
\nfight and die to protect her, and believe America is the light in an increasingly
\ndark world. I would support anyone like this for President over, say, Jimmy
\nCarter, a devout and self-declared evangelical Christian, who goes against the
\nstalwart evangelical Christian support for Israel and has the chutzpa to call
\nIsrael, a thriving democracy, an apartheid state. I would take a competent
\nMuslim President who believes in lowering the burden of taxation, controlling
\nrunaway spending, and vastly reducing the appalling Federal deficit over a
\nPresident like Carter who ran the country into the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

As a Jew I am trained to judge someone by their actions not their
\nbeliefs. I will <\/span><\/p>\n

Choose an atheist president, who loves and respects all of humanity
\nand would put an end to the genocide in Sudan any day over a religious
\npresident who believes that we Americans have no such responsibilities to
\npeople beyond our border.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If an American president believed in elves and the Easter bunny but
\nfought Taliban misogynists who pour acid on women who attend University, I
\nwould follow him. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

And if an American president spoke Klingon in his private moments
\nand worshipped Capt.James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise as a divinity, but
\nset up an alternative to the United Nations, to be known as the United
\nDemocratic Nations, open only to governments that were of the people and by the
\npeople, I would support him, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In short, I could not care less what a person believes but in what
\nthey do.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, I will reject any pastor who claims to be religious but
\nis a narrow bigot. I love my Christian brothers and sisters, but not those who
\ndeny the essential Biblical truth that every human being – Jew, Christian,
\nMuslim, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic, and atheist – is equally G-d’s child and
\nthat we have a responsibility to encourage people of faith rather than condemn
\ntheir religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I trust that my evangelical Christian brothers and sisters, who love
\nfreedom and <\/span><\/p>\n

Are disproportionately represented in the United States military,
\nfighting and dying for democracy in Islamic counties, will identify Pastor
\nJones as the fruit Jesus was speaking of and reject him.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  So, is that what it takes to become a celebrity these days? Threaten to burn someone else’s Bible, and declare their religion to be satanic, and you are instantly the center of the news?   I wonder who is the bigger fool. Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who is an embarrassment to loving Christians…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-politics","category-religion-and-spirituality","category-values"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Pastors who Burn Bibles Become Celebrities - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/when-pastors-who-burn-bibles-become-celebrities.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Pastors who Burn Bibles Become Celebrities - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  So, is that what it takes to become a celebrity these days? 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Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who is an embarrassment to loving Christians…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/when-pastors-who-burn-bibles-become-celebrities.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-13T14:16:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Shmuley Boteach\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When Pastors who Burn Bibles Become Celebrities - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/when-pastors-who-burn-bibles-become-celebrities.htm","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When Pastors who Burn Bibles Become Celebrities - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed","og_description":"  So, is that what it takes to become a celebrity these days? 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