Jerks Still Bent On Burning Quran

Steve Greydanus, as is his custom, has a typically sane take on the whole imbroglio:

You’ve gotta love the information age. Not so long ago, if you were a pastor of a teeny-tiny flock with a name like “Dove World Outreach Center,” you would be doing all right if you landed yourself on page 3 of the local section of the nearest big-city paper on a slow news Sunday. Today, if you play your cards right, you can get figures like General David Petraeus, Robert Gibbs and President Obama discussing the significance and international impact of your actions. That’s because desecrating a Qur’an can lead to threats of retaliatory violence on a considerably larger scale than a blow from a priest, and aimed at innocents, not just the desecrators.

In a twisted way, the whole Qur’an burning controversy might almost seem as if everybody wins. Terry Jones wins because his laughably named “International Burn a Koran Day” suddenly is international news, in a way vindicating his methods by giving him the platform he desires. The mainstream media wins because they get a hot, controversial story spotlighting a poster boy for Christian intolerance. The Taliban and al-Qaeda win because they get a new propaganda talking point for bringing recruits to the cause. And whatever violence and atrocities might follow gives Jones more fodder to defend his attack on Islam, so he wins again.

There will be losers, though. Moderate Muslims pained by the desecration of the Qur’an, along with whatever acts of violence could follow it. Mainstream Christians grieved to see the name of Jesus dragged through the mud yet again. Then there are those whose lives could be lost in despicable retaliation to this shameful act. Finally, those whose souls could be lost to anger, hatred and violence. Of course ultimate responsibility for any such casualties, moral or physical, lies with those who give in to hate and anger and turn to violence. But Jones will not be without some level of culpability, nor perhaps will the media be that lavished on him attention and controversy instead of leaving him to the obscurity he richly deserves.

Just so. It’s like a weird inversion of narcissistic Code Pink jerkishness from 2003, where there is zero interest in actual real world events like regard for the troops that are supposedly being supported and 100 percent interest in preening for the cameras. The pastor and his sect are serving nobody but themselves and their pathetic hunger for attention.

But let’s not kid ourselves: the real providers of liquid oxygen for this conflagration are the Media jerks who have, in the mindless pack journalism way, chosen to focus attention on these little camera whores and give them what they want. It was a complete free and gratuitous choice on the part of a bunch of editors and journalistas. They are the artisans who have created and puffed up this story. Without them, this would be a handful of jerks making asses of themselves in a parking lot. With their help and collaboration, they are, with malice aforethought, laboring to create and international incident and (if all goes well for their ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ ethos) bloodshed. God have mercy on them all.

Jerks still bent on burning Quran