Whilst the liberal arguments against it are pap, it seems to be an action motivated in equal parts by fear and hate, tantamount to a declaration of war. Not a Godly act for a Christian pastor.
I keep thinking of a passage from Strauss & Howe’s Fourth Turning – which I can’t be bothered to look up for the exact quote right now – but the gist is that a principal sign of the shift into ‘winter’ is when people choose extreme rather than moderate reactions to a provocation, and the cycle escalates into open warfare. Oh dear.
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Mental gymnastics can always lead us to support any view we would like to support.
I think for Christians, the main yardstick is “by their fruit shall you tell them” and we have to measure our thoughts and arguments against this.
And in that respect I think the question behind this that would need to be explored is whether we are only responsible for the outcomes of our own actions or whether we are also at least partly responsible for other people’s responses where we can predict them with 100% certainty.
I’m still confused as to why a book-burning should be so horrifying but invading a couple of countries and killing thousands of civilians is merely unfortunate but necessary collateral damage.
(I agree with the person who pointed out that Jesus reserved his deepest ire for those on his own team (the Pharisees) who took things too far and heaped burdens on those least able to cope.)