YOUR BOOK OR YOUR GOD

I wouldn't have guessed that Reverend (and I use that term loosely) Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida could have stooped any lower than announcing to the world that he and fellow Dove Outreach Center members were planning to burn copies of the Quran at their church on September 11th, but he did, and I have to admit I'm dumbstruck by the seeming lack of outrage over Act II of Jones' performance. In fact, I half believe there are actually millions of Americans out there applauding his latest gesture.

On the off-chance you don't know what I'm talking about, earlier this week, Pastor Jones leaped onto the national stage when he announced to the world that he and his 50-member church were going to burn copies of the Muslim Quran on 9/11 as an act of defiance against the Islam religion who Jones says was responsible for the terrorist attacks nine years ago.

Jones' announcement set off an understandable firestorm of anger and outrage in the Muslim world, and the President, the Pope and many other religious and government leaders joined an ever-growing chorus in urging Pastor Jones to cancel the planned event. At first, Pastor Jones stood defiant against the wave of condemnation.

Then, American General David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, publicly denounced Jones' plan and warned that following through with the Quran burning would endanger U.S. troops, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but in other areas of the world too.

Slowly, and in my opinion half begrudgingly, many conservative politicians in this country joined the bandwagon and started denouncing Jones' plan as well. I surmise that slow response was due, in large part, to the fact that they as politicians recognized that most of their followers were secretly hoping Pastor Jones would follow through with the Quran burning. I base that assertion on the fact that I have received no 'anti-Quran burning' emails this week from the folks who flood my mailbox with "Obama is a Muslim" diatribes. I admit my opinion isn't based on scientific polling, but I still think I'm not far off base.

Yesterday, minority house leader Jim Boehner of Ohio, who hopes to take over the Speaker position after this fall's elections, was quoted as saying that burning the Quran was akin to placing a mosque near ground zero, and that's when I knew that Pastor Jones was going to sink to a new low. I only wish I had predicted it in print the moment I read Mr. Boehner's words.

Sure enough, this morning, Pastor Jones announced that he would cancel plans for the Quran burning on Saturday if, and this is a big if, the leaders of the proposed mosque in New York City would agree to relocate their planned facility far away from ground zero. That's the Faustian choice, the perfect blackmail: Your Book or Your God!

Leave it to a politician and a so-called minister to frame the issue in such a way as to leave a Muslim people with a no-win choice, and to allow themselves to emerge in the eyes of many Americans as a champion of all that is good about this Nation.

I must confess I'm shaking my head. I'm looking for the outrage, and all I hear is applause.