{"id":1221,"date":"2010-09-09T13:34:14","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T13:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/theirbadmother\/2010\/09\/why-keep-talking-about-ugly-things-like-terry-jones-because-we-must.html"},"modified":"2010-09-09T13:34:14","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T13:34:14","slug":"why-keep-talking-about-ugly-things-like-terry-jones-because-we-must","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/theirbadmother\/2010\/09\/why-keep-talking-about-ugly-things-like-terry-jones-because-we-must.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Keep Talking About Ugly Things Like Terry Jones? Because We Must"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve heard, no doubt, about that insane pastor in Florida who’s been wanting to burn the Qu’ran<\/a> to protest the so-called “mosque at Ground Zero” project<\/a>. You can’t not have heard about him, and what wants to do. He’s been all over the news. His insane and offensive plan – burn sacred texts, to make a point about hating the faith that is bound to those texts – has been all over the news.<\/p>\n

His being all over the news is a problem, according to some people.
\nWe shouldn’t be giving him any attention at all, say some. We should be
\ndemanding that the media not pay any attention — or any more attention
\n— to Terry Jones and his insane posse of haters and book burners.
\nWe’re just, some people say, egging him on.<\/p>\n

There’s a point to this argument — it’s the same one that bloggers
\nand social media types construct about how to deal with online trolls.
\nPeople who wage public attacks on other people or communities usually
\ndo so because they’re looking for attention; the obvious solution is to
\nwithhold the attention. Terry Jones and his followers are just another
\nkind of troll, according to this argument: We should be denying them
\nthe spotlight. Which, yes, holds a certain kind of logic. If they
\nweren’t getting attention, they might have given up long ago.<\/p>\n

But they did get attention, and that’s the core of the problem that
\nwe’re facing now. As sickening as it seems sometimes to keep hearing
\nabout their story, and about how pretty much everyone in the so-called
\nWestern world has called for them to stop being so freaking crazy and
\nplease, please, please not do this thing, it is a story that we need to
\nkeep our attention on. Because the defining part of that story is<\/em>
\nthat the vast majority of everyone, everywhere, thinks that what
\nthey’ve been doing is crazy, really crazy, and wrong and horrible and
\nbad, and we need to keep that<\/em> story out there. If everyone
\nwho opposed what they’ve been doing stands down now, and goes silent,
\nthe only voices left will be those that are still calling burn, burn, burn! <\/em><\/p>\n

That’s not acceptable. It’s just not. If we let those be the voices
\nthat define this kind of story in the media, then those who take the
\nactions of Terry Jones and his followers as representative of the West
\nwill have all the more reason to cling to that belief. If we do not
\ncounter those voices, and ensure that the narrative that gets heard is
\nthe one that tracks our horror and dismay at what Jones and other
\nwould-be Qu’ran burners are saying and doing, then we give them control
\nof the story. Like I said, that’s not acceptable.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we really do have to fight trolls, and fight them hard,
\nand sometimes that fight involves a lot of shouting, and — yes — that
\nkind of struggle can look and feel ugly. But sometimes it’s necessary.
\nRight now, it’s necessary. Terry Jones is a troll, and we need to make
\nsure that the world knows that we know that.<\/p>\n

(This post has been cross-posted with some revisions at BlogHer.com)<\/i><\/p>\n

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

You’ve heard, no doubt, about that insane pastor in Florida who’s been wanting to burn the Qu’ran to protest the so-called “mosque at Ground Zero” project. You can’t not have heard about him, and what wants to do. He’s been all over the news. His insane and offensive plan – burn sacred texts, to make…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Keep Talking About Ugly Things Like Terry Jones? 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