Terry Jones, a pastor at a small church in Florida has changed his mind and canceled "Burn a Quran Day".Jones had received pleas from everyone including President Obama to cancel this stupid, dangerous, un-American, and insensitive event.
The cancellation was announced this afternoon. Jones says that he reached a deal by exchanging the "Burn A Quran" scheme for ensuring that the proposed New York Islamic Center will be moved completely away from Ground Zero. (Apparently, this is not accurate and no such agreement has been reached.)
Jones has a congregation of about 50 people, which is considered fairly small by church standards. I wondered why CNN was giving this guy Jones "face time" when I turned on the news last week. Watching the interview, it became apparent very quickly that Jones was not a learned man, nor an informed one.
If just the phrase "Book Burning" doesn't conjure up the ugliest images I can imagine, I don't know what does. I have trouble just blaming Jones, who is obviously lacking in intelligence and misguided. The media who turned Jones into a star shares some of the blame for this situation. Taking a non-story like this "mainstream" and international was irresponsible of the media.
There are preachers who are part of the lunatic fringe. They espouse everything from hatred of homosexuals to bombing abortion clinics. But why does the media choose one and not the other to put on camera. I can only assume the media chooses topics that will bring more viewers and ratings. But at what expense?
Frankly, I would prefer that people who spew hatred not be on television. I would let them and their followers self-destruct in privacy and isolation.
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