Not the Dove World Outreach Center. It apparently fears Islam more than Leviathan — an opinion as mistaken as the Center’s name. We might think folks calling their church after a bird that symbolizes peace and, in the Bible, the Holy Spirit’s outpouring would aspire to Christian meekness. Au contraire: “Our purpose and our goal here at Dove World Outreach Center is to get people to stand up,” the Center’s website declares. “…We need to speak up against sin and call the people to repentance. Abortion is murder. Homosexuality is sin. We need to … bring the world the true message: that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).”
Amen. But the Feds, not Moslems, are the ones who endorse the murder of unborn children and steal our money to pay for it. Then, as if butchery and theft weren’t crime enough, they lie: the double-talk regarding abortion under Obamacare typifies government’s entire approach to slaughtering babies. It pretends it doesn’t fund the massacre while shoveling our taxes to killers like Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, 17 states directly pay for any and all abortions with the Medicaid our rulers compel us to bankroll.
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Ditto for homosexuality. It isn’t Moslems but American governments that force landlords to rent to sodomites and companies to hire them. Nor does that satisfy either the State or the homosexual lobby: we must agree to both their “marriages” and their pretences that such wickedness is simply a “lifestyle.” And so courts work overtime at obliging us to embrace these deviants socially.
Yet the misnamed Dove Center heedlessly continues, “…we also take a stand against Islam, which teaches that Jesus is not the Son of God, therefore taking away the saving power of Jesus Christ and leading people straight to Hell.”
Amen again. But tragically, like so many American Christians, the Center here succumbs to a religion as false as the Islam it denounces: nationalism. Most of the American Church cheers the Feds’ unjust war on Islam — perhaps in part because politicians lie about it, just as they do about the one on unborn children, by claiming to battle only radicals and jihadists. Yet the citizens of Baghdad suffered from America’s invasion more than radicals did, while villagers in Afghanistan rather than jihadists mourn the victims of our bombings. Regardless, Christians have no business applauding a war of conquest and empire.
Islam isn’t the only faith “teach[ing] that Jesus is not the Son of God, therefore taking away the saving power of Jesus Christ and leading people straight to Hell”: all religions other than Christianity do (and many branches of Christianity heretically preach good works, rather than Christ’s blood, as the way of salvation). But the Center does not post signs in its yard nor produce T-shirts proclaiming “Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism and Witchcraft Are Of the Devil.” Rather, it takes as its enemy the billion souls the American government now demonizes after a handful retaliated on 9/11 for the Feds’ unconstitutional meddling in the Middle East.
Reverse nationalism’s coin, and you’ll see that many American Christians also happen to champion the same nation the Feds fervently foster; indeed, the Dove Center explicitly recites the Federal creed, albeit with biblical echoes: “Islam is Cursed by Cursing Israel; we are Blessed by Blessing Israel.” “Blessing Israel” apparently requires turning a blind eye to violations of the Eighth Commandment, since our rulers steal almost $6 billion annually from us on Israel’s behalf — despite Israel’s spying on them and its appalling abuse of Palestinians. Do Christians who support socialist Zion follow the Lord’s leading or that of the Feds?
So we disagree profoundly with both the Center’s stance and its strategy, but we must vehemently defend its right to its wrongheaded views as well as its beleaguered property rights. Despite the confusion of such constitutional scholars as Lt. Gen. William Caldwell (“…Caldwell said many Afghans do not understand … the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment…”) and New York’s nanny—sorry, mayor, Michael Bloomberg (“I don’t think he would like it if somebody burnt a book that in his religion he thinks is holy … But the First Amendment protects everybody … and you can’t say that we’re going to apply the First Amendment to only those cases where we are in agreement"), burning the Quran — or anything else, including the American flag — has nothing whatever to do with freedom of speech and everything to do with an owner’s right to dispose of his property as he pleases. So long as the Center buys or otherwise honestly obtains its Qurans and immolates them on its own land, no one in a free society may stop it — nor should anyone want to, including municipal dictators who refuse to “permit” the Center’s foolishness. Only serfs and slaves need their masters’ permission before starting fires on their own property.
We must also and just as vehemently condemn the US military’s critique of the Center’s plans. Under no conditions, in no situation, may martial brass — or soldiers in the ranks, for that matter — officially comment on anything any civilian does: we flirt with military dictatorship the instant we tolerate such interference.
That’s not to say the commanders’ dire forecasts are inaccurate, however self-serving, political, or overblown they are: "[The Center’s burning the Quran] could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Gen. David Petraeus told the Wall Street Journal, while Lt. Gen. William Caldwell added, "It is going to jeopardize the men and women serving in Afghanistan.” If so, that’s all the more reason to bring those warriors home rather than turning them loose on yet another country in violation of common decency and the Constitution.
However erroneous its judgment, no one can accuse the Dove Center of hypocrisy. It forthrightly attacks Islam’s “teachings” as “a stronghold of hatred, fear and violence,” and its Quranic bonfire matches those beliefs.
Which is more than we can say for the U.S. government. While its army devastates Afghanistan, its embassy in Kabul scolded the Center whose congregants foot the bill: "Americans from all religious and ethnic backgrounds reject this offensive initiative by this small group in Florida,” it sniffed. “A great number of American voices are protesting the hurtful statements made by this organization.” Yet the Feds dismiss the great number of American voices protesting its hurtful wars in the Mideast.
The embassy hadn’t finished embarrassing itself: the "United States government in no way condones such acts of disrespect against the religion of Islam,” it added, “and is deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."
But not about deliberate attempts to exterminate them while invading their lands.
Becky Akers, an expert on the American Revolution, writes frequently about issues related to security and privacy. Her articles and columns have been published by Lewrockwell.com, The Freeman, Military History Magazine, American History Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Post, and other publications.
