It has been an interesting few weeks. Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida threatened to burn the Quran on 9/11. His threat spread throughout the world and Muslims responded with threats, burning of the American Flags and large protests. The world was aghast that someone would even think of doing such a thing. The media jumped on this story like sharks in a feeding frenzy. TV, radio, newspaper - you couldn’t turn around without hearing about this story.
There were many different responses to Pastor Jones plan. One response came from First-St. Andrews United Church. On Sunday Sept 12th they read from the Quran during their Sunday worship service. It was reported that this was their way of showing respect to the Muslim community and their holy book.
In the United Church we have gone to extremes to show our solidarity with the other religions of the world. This raises a question for me and I invite you to respond on the presbytery blog. I have talked with Christian people who have lived in Muslim dominated countries about how they were treated as Christians while living in these countries. For the most part they reported that they could not publically live out or share their faith with others.
I have not heard the Muslim community showing solidarity with the Christian community in these countries. I have not heard of a Mosque reading the Christian Scriptures during their worship services to show respect to Christians and our “holy book”. I have not heard of this being done within bounds of our Presbytery.
I may be wrong about this and I invite people to correct me.
Rev. Dr. Arthur Hiley
