Cowardice & Hypocrisy: Pastor Terry Jones Cancels Quran Burning Event

In my recent article for The Seed, I made reference to a “Pastor” Terry Jones, who had planned the infamous “International Burn a Quran Day”. He has decided to cancel this event and is now seeking to have a meeting with the Imam who is spearheading the effort to build Park51, the Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero. He claims that God is telling him to stop and that he has accomplished his mission of exposing the radical element in Islam. Though he made the right decision in cancelling this event, his reasons are rooted in great hypocrisy, does not represent a “change of heart” moment, and as Pastor Jones now knows, has grave consequences. There are two essential interviews of Pastor Jones that shows his hypocrisy. The first is a CNN interview with Rick Sanchez and his interview on the Today Show on September 11. In the CNN interview Pastor Jones declares that “Islam is of The Devil”(which is the title of is new book) and that “there is no such thing as a moderate Islam”. However, is his second interview he says he wanted “to expose that there is an element of Islam that is very dangerous and very radical". So, Pastor Jones went from denouncing the entire religion to saying that there are only “elements of Islam” that are radical. In the CNN interview Pastor Jones said that “there are moderate Muslims” so Pastor Jones already knew this, but that didn’t stop him, so this could not have been his inspiration for canceling this event. What really happened is he over estimated the level of disdain for Islam as well as, the backlash from the Islamic and Christian communities and folded under the pressure.

In the Today Show interview, Pastor Jones was joined by his assistant pastor Wayne Sapp. Mr. Sapp added an interesting point of view, which represents the quintessence of their hypocrisy. Mr. Sapp states that “I believe there are some teachings that are carried on throughout the entire religion, as there in denominations in Christianity… there are facets in Islam that push one element more than others”. This is interesting because though he admits that there are elements within his own religion that are radical, they choose to focus their reformation efforts on Islam. In the bible (Matthew 7:5) Jesus states: "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” This is a quote from the man that is the foundation of Pastor Jones’ and Mr. Sapp’s faith, so how can they try to reform Islam while ignoring the radical elements within their own religion? Let’s just say they were trying to reform Christianity; would they take the same course of action that they are taking with regard of Islam? Would they burn The Bible, would they write a book called Christianity is of The Devil or put a sign in front of their church saying the same thing? I highly doubt it. As the quote from Jesus implies, if they were trying to reform their own religion, they would know that the course that they are taking is very detrimental to all sides. In the final analysis, Pastor Jones and company didn’t cancel this event, because “God told them to stop”, he did it because he saw his plan backfire. With criticism from General David Patraeus saying that it “could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan” and the backlash he is now seeing that includes “over 100 death threats” this is only an act of great hypocrisy and cowardice.