March 2, 2012 (LiveAction.org) – Here are three things that are totally happening. Don’t worry about what they have to do with each other. I’ll get to that. Just bask in the crappiness of these three things:
1. Last month on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, four Korans were accidentally included in a heap of trash that was dumped into a burn pit.
The materials had been taken from a library at Parwan Detention Facility, which adjoins the base, because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. Writing inside a Koran is forbidden in the Islamic faith, although it was unclear whether the handwritten messages were found in the holy book or other reading materials.
Some Afghans saw the Korans burning, and some of them even burned their fingers trying to remove them. Cue pandemonium! Since then Obama has apologized to President Hamid Karzai and the nation of Afghanistan — twice. He has apologized super hard. Protesting Afghans apparently don’t care.
“We don’t care about Obama’s apology,” said Kamaluddin, a 25-year-old Kabul protester who uses only one name. “We have to protest to be responsible to our god. They are burning our Koran. An apology is not enough.” (source: Time)
This of course begs the question: what is enough?
I have a wild guess! Could it be… Death to America?
Despite Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s appeal for calm, thousands of protesters, some shouting “Long live Islam!” and “Death to America!” rallied Thursday in the capital and in seven of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. At least five protesters were killed…
The deadliest protest was held outside an American base in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar province. Two protesters were killed by Afghan police there and an Afghan soldier turned his gun on U.S. troops, killing two Americans. Elsewhere, a Norwegian soldier was wounded by a hand grenade hurled into a coalition compound. (source: Time)
2. In other news, in case you hadn’t heard, Obamacare is going to require many religious employers — such as Catholic schools and hospitals — to provide insurance to employees that will allow them free contraception and sterilization services, not to mention abortion drugs. (Click right here on this link for more information on this.)
3. In other other news, that guy I’ve written about in China — the one Christian Bale tried to go visit – is sick as all get-out. Chen Guangcheng is a blind human rights lawyer who was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for years — without trial — for representing women who had been forcibly sterilized as a result of China’s one-child policy. Most recently, he has been confined to house arrest with his wife, mother, and daughter, denied visiting his cancer-stricken brother or attending his funeral in January, and denied medical care. Recent reports suggest he and his family are ailing badly and possibly going without proper nutrition.
There is nothing anyone can do. As Bruce Wayne found out, if you try to visit Guangcheng, you get beaten up by thugs who try to take away your camera.
Here’s the deal: some soldiers accidentally burn a Koran in Afghanistan and approximately ten people are dead, according to Afghan officials (at the time of this writing).
In the United States, a major blow to religious liberty is struck — a law will literally force Catholics to pay for other people’s contraception, abortion, and sterilization — and how many violent riots have there been? Zero.
Let’s recap!
Afghanistan– Korans burned. Religious liberty legally attacked by this action? No. Death toll: About ten. Violent rioting? Why, yes! Obama apology count: Two!
United States — Obamacare denies religious conscience rights. Religious liberty legally attacked by this action? Yes! Death toll: Zero. Violent rioting? Nope! Obama apology count: Zero!
(By the way, in case you were wondering if the Afghans have apologized for killing people, that answer is no.)
Have you ever heard that saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease?” It’s unfortunately true, and the rationale behind a lot of bad behavior. Does the Obama administration want us to riot in the streets and shoot at people? Then will he apologize to us?
But, see, that’s not gonna happen because Christianity is the most tolerant religion in the history of the world. The founder of Christianity was tolerant unto His own death. Christians of the Roman Empire were tolerant up to and including becoming lion poop. We tolerate a hostile media, a hostile government, and hostile people of other religions who want us all to die and go to Muslim Hell, where we will be forced to, I don’t know, eat bacon and watch Larry David programs. On the rare occasion we get intolerant — Spanish Inquisition, Crusades, some other stuff that happened centuries ago — the stories get blown out of proportion, factually distorted, and thrown at us for hundreds of years as “proof” that we are big mean meanies who want everybody to be Christians or die, even after Popes issue official apologies.When people burn Bibles, we pray for them. At worst, we yell and call them names. When was the last time you heard of Christians rioting and shooting people because some Bibles were burned? Go ahead and try to remember. I’ll wait.
Look, it doesn’t matter if you are a Christian. Look at Guangcheng. I don’t know if he’s a Christian or not, and I don’t care. He lives in a country where he has no rights. No one does. That is where we end up if we stay on this path.
You have probably heard this famous saying of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s before. He survived seven years in a Nazi concentration camp.
First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
The point isn’t religion. It’s freedom. Whether you are a Christian or not, whether you are pro-life or not, you need to be very concerned about this Obamacare mandate.
Not a Christian? You still need to be very concerned that we have a president who cares more about the rights of murderous thugs in another country than his own people.
Pro-choice? You still need to think about Guangcheng, and contemplate what it will be like to live in a country where opposing abortion is a crime.
Reprinted with permission from LiveAction’s blog.