Obama on Burning the Quran

President Obama has opined on the "wisdom" of a Florida pastor burning the Koran this coming 9/11:

President Obama is encouraging a Florida minister to "listen to those better angels" and call off his plan to engage in Quran-burning this weekend.

Obama, on "Good Morning America", said that he hopes the Rev. Terry Jones of Florida listens to people who have asked him to call off the plan. The president characterized it as a "stunt."

"If he's listening, I hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans. That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance."

Wait! Isn't this the same President who championed the legality and right of Muslims to build a mosque and community center in the shadow of Ground Zero, but refused to comment on "the wisdom of it"?

Here we have a Florida pastor, exercising his right of free speech and suddenly, Obama finds his voice? Or did he just get bumped a "pay grade" when we weren't looking?

I'll comment on the "wisdom" of burning the Quran: It's a bad idea. It is, you will excuse the pun, inflammatory. If the good pastor ever hopes to reach out to any Muslims with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he will find even more resistance to what begins as a daunting task.

Aside from the peril it might increase for our troops on foreign soil and at home, it is an unnecessary bit of political theater unbefitting a supposed minister of God.

But, as even a blind pig can find an acorn occasionally, Obama characterized this as "a stunt", and so it well may be. It seems to be one way to make the point, that although some things are legally permitted, they can often be inflammatory or unwise, perhaps the Apostle Paul with his whole "cause your brother to stumble*" message had the right idea after all?

I suspect that at the last minute, with all the cameras rolling and the attention of a news cycle starved media circus attending, that the pastor will refrain from burning any books and declare the principle that just because something is legal doesn't mean you should always do it...like that Mosque at Ground Zero.

Then he could exhort them to use most of the arguments public figures have used against him and apply them to the so called "Ground Zero Mosque" in NYC.

And then, sit back and watch the spin.


*I Corinthians 10:23 "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." -KJV

H/T Rob Port

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Lady Cincinnatus, Say Anything