I write to condemn the act of Qu'ran burning. Public burning of Muslim scripture is not only small-minded and ugly; it is dangerous to our soldiers, our country and our world. Christians need to witness their faith in ways that reflect Jesus Christ, not in ways that represent the increasing violent and mean-spiritedness of our polarized culture.
It is time for Christians to stand up to foolish behavior, especially when it emanates from Christians.
I believe fear and ignorance drive much of our anxiety. There is no virtue in being uninformed or misinformed about another religion or resorting to a crusader mentality that considers every religion other than our own to be satanic. It is not right to point out extremist action on the part of some and claim it for all those who belong to that particular religion.
Let us remember that Christians, too, have extremists, and we would find it inexcusable for Muslims to burn Bibles on that basis.
Our multi-faith culture is not something we have to fear; rather we can learn to "speak the truth in love," as the Bible says. We can learn to dialog with each other, which means both listening and speaking.
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It's easy to light a match to a book or to denounce another faith tradition. It's much harder and, by far, more Christian to take time to understand others, to dialog respectfully, to treat others with compassion, and to love extravagantly as Christ taught us.
Bishop Thomas M. Aitken
Duluth
The writer is bishop of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
