Terry Jones was one of the mainstays of the iconic Monty Python (it needs no object like "gang," "crowd," etc.).He was funny, like all of his compatriots, and he drew his humor from the absurd, as they all did. But now we have something completely different on the scene.
Another Terry Jones, who is not funny and whose absurdity represents the kind of blinkered hatred that may, in the end, doom all of us, has a novel view of the country we live in. I refer to the "pastor" who claims he intends to burn the Koran because it is "full of lies." This has drawn a warning from Gen. David Petraeus, among others, that actions of this sort will endanger our military and give aid and comfort to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. However, as of this morning, the Reverend shows no sign of not putting his zeal ahead of human lives.
This might be the time to ask what could impel someone to do something so damn stupid.
First, of course, is the principle of good marketing: say or do something outrageous and the world will beat a path to your door. Go on a rant in public, have part of your anatomy peep out of your costume, shoot a few people - and watch the headlines pop out of Nowheres like the Star, the Inquirer and often your favorite fair and balanced network. Since good newsgathering costs money, the cheapest solution is to fill the pages (real or virtual) with titillating crap. Voila! Terry Jones.
Another explanation is that the fifty-odd (and I do mean odd) members of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida like this sort of thing. Maybe they feel that when Jesus talked about loving thy neighbor, he was kidding or really meant only those neighbors who believed the same way he did. Perhaps the members of Dove World had something in the communion cup a bit stronger than wine. The question remains "What kind of follower of the Prince of Peace would advocate something as hateful as this?"
I've written about selective Christianity, along with selective democracy, Islam, Judaism and capitalism, but I've never bumped into something this dumb. Burning holy books is not new, but proclaiming it in advance to assure maximum attention is something worthy of Madison Avenue, not a small town in Florida. "Pastor" Jones is more like another Jones named Jim, who led his followers to true enlightenment via a generous mass poisoning. This Jones apparently is choosing to put American troops in additional danger through his love of Jesus and abhorrence of anything that doesn't fit his definition of truth. No matter how thinly you slice it, this is coo-coo land.
If nutcases can fly airplanes into the World Trade Center, I suppose there's no law that nutcases can't burn other peoples' holy books. However, this is a time when Americans should rise up together in a mass howl. This Terry Jones is a danger to everything we stand for, to everything his religion stands for and we should all let him know that this is not the kind of "religion" we want to represent us any more than we think the burning cross of the KKK represents us.
Will we hear, I wonder, from our other gurus - Gingrich, Palin, Beck, etc. - who stage mass rallies to bring America back to God.