As anti-Islam bigotry rises in America these days, there are some voices of hope. Two of them are from my denomination, the Church of the Brethren, a tradition that promotes peace and reconciliation in a world of hatred and violence.
As a Pentecostal pastor in Florida in Florida plans to burn Qurans on Saturday in "commemoration" of September 11, two Brethren pastors have made it onto their local news to join many other political and religious voices condemning the burning.
The first Ed Poling, who happens to be my dad, and is part of an interfaith dialog group in Hagerstown, MD. Read the story and watch the video here.
The second Brethren pastor to come to my attention is Ken Rieman in Seattle, WA. here's the video.
The video above promotes everyone purchasing a Quran to read instead of burn, and names Amazon particularly. One translation of the Quran has reached Amazon's top 100 most sold books, and at the time of this posting, sits at number 88. Another translation has reached number 70 in Amazon's Kindle store. Barnes & Noble online paper and electronic book sales have yet to reach Amazon's, but there's still 2 days left. And of course, don't forget your local stores. By purchasing, and then reading, whether in private or public, we can stand up and show the world that one person does not speak for all of America or all of Christianity.
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