The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, through a spokesman, issued the following statement today [9/8/10] in response to news media inquiries:
“A key tenet of our faith is to accord everyone the freedom to worship as they choose. It is regrettable that anyone would regard the burning of any scriptural text as a legitimate form of protest or disagreement.”I also think the following verses are pretty relevant:
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;Matthew 5: 43-44
CLARIFICATION: To avoid confusion, I want the reader to know that my assumption in writing this post was that Terry Jones planned (or is still planning, now?) to burn Korans as a vocal reproach to radical Islamist terrorism. The point here being that, in my view, the best way to fight evil is by doing good. I refuse to call Muslims "the enemy," and think of them as fellow children of God and as my religious cousins, as it were.
5 comments:
I personally don't see how those verses are relevant at all, unless I am misunderstanding the context in which they were shared. Muslims aren't the enemy in any way. I don't feel that we should look at respecting the Qu'ran or Muslims as 'loving our enemies.' They are by no means the enemy.
I could have been mistaken. My understanding was that Terry Jones planned to burn Korans as a condemnation of radical Islamist terrorism.
If my assumption is correct, the point I was trying to make is that, in my view, the best way to counteract evil is by doing good (rather than combating evil with evil). Of course, I believe defending family and country against imminent violence is also well sanctioned (see Alma 43: 46).
I wholeheartedly agree that Muslims are by no means the enemy, and from my limited study of Islam (mainly from my World Religions class at BYU), I believe Latter-day Saints and Muslims have much in common. See this article, for example: Ishmael, Our Brother
Thanks for helping to clarify.
I know you and know that your intentions are good. I realize that your scriptural reference was a matter of perspective. For those, like Jones, who view Muslims as the enemy, the scripture is very fitting.
Keep up the inspiring posts.
Great article too. I hadn't seen that one before.
Thank you, sir!
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