Sunday 12 December 2010

International 'Invite a Wally Day"?

One of the great bastions of all that appears to be wrong with the Christians faith, Terry Jones, has been invited to come to the UK and share his views on Islam by the English Defence League (EDL). Perhaps they'll invite that other great icon of all that is awful and wrong, Fred Phelps, too?

If the EDL are really interested in getting their 'working class' members informed about Islam and the real issues surrounding the radicalisation of Muslims in this country there are a number of places they could go and they would be both nearer to home and would know what they are talking about.

We must not bend to terrorism, but neither must we fuel the idiots who would seek to draw lines and set the conditions for prejudice and aggressive acts against people because of their colour, race or creed. I'm just glad I'm not Home Secretary, Theresa May, because her department will have to decide whether the bloke comes in or not. If he does, I'm sure the person who invited us all to engage in an "International Burn a Koran Day" will find he's most welcome and will definitely get a warm welcome!

And having read the words EDL leader used to defend the dignity of the 'f***ing Bible', to be honest, I don't have a great deal of confidence in the group and think that unless Terry Jones is a bigger fool than he's already made himself out to be, he'd be well placed to withdraw from any engagement with them.

The Galatians six rule applies here: If we (as Christians) see something wrong, then we are called upon by God to offer correction, restoration and renewal, but we have to make sure that we don't let our zeal for the task lead us into doing something wrong ourselves.

This is where Westboro and its pastor, Fred Phelps falls down (as this photograph of him and his missus on a day out clearly shows):

This is where Terry Jones falls down thanks to his ill-advised 'Burn a Koran' day:


We need to live as Christians, especially against those who seek to do evil, not become like them.

Pax

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