I'm perfectly fine with someone burning the flag, the Bible, or Koran. I wouldn't do it myself, but I'm fine with someone else doing it. Think about it: the flag REPRESENTS our nation. Our nation is founded on liberty. The First Amendment guarantees us the right to free speech. Burning the flag is a statement that one disagrees with this nation in some way. It is only a piece of cloth. If you take away the right to make that statement you have done more damage to liberty than the burning of that piece of cloth. What it represents is intangible. You can't hurt liberty by destroying a symbol of it.
Same with the Bible or Koran. I don't care if someone buys a copy and burns it. Doesn't matter. What did they do? They burned paper, ink, and possibly a leather binding. That's it. Christians claim the Bible to be the Word of God. It is a holy book. What makes it holy? That particular copy, or what the words represent/say? Would a copy published by a Christian company be any more holy than one published by a secular one? The Word of God is not so fragile that it will fail if a copy of it is burned. Same with the Koran. Muslims believe it is a holy book as well. Why do they get so upset if a physical copy is burned? Don't the words live beyond the printed page? Would deleting the Bible or Koran app (is there such a thing?) from your iPhone be considered the same thing as destroying a physical copy?
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Emittravel 2011
Sure, but if one exercises their right to be insulting and disrespectful, the other has the right to choose to dislike that person.
ReplyDeleteI think if one takes extreme measures to burn any of those symbols, they have a lot of hate in their bellies. I wouldn't feel comfortable around people with that kind of demeanor unless I did it to them first.
Good point Karen. You nailed that.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Is it okay to express that hate with killing over the burning of the Koran?
The Pakistanis have been burning our flag in protest of our getting rid of bin Laden. Should we attack them for burning the flag? I don't think the ends justify the means. I DO suggest we stop sending billions of dollars to them though . . .