Wasatch's Quaran Give-Away
Book fair: Utah Presbyterians counter Qu’ran burning by giving away free copies
As featured on the Presbyterian Church USA website, July 25, 2011
Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of stories on congregations committed to “Grow Christ’s Church Deep and Wide,” and emphasis of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to grow the church in discipleship, evangelism, servanthood and diversity. ― Jerry L. Van Marter
“What’s so funny ‘bout peace, love and understanding?” Nothing, really, members of Wasatch Presbyterian Church here believe.
When Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center, a fundamentalist Christian church in Florida, burned a copy of the Qur’an, an action that led to the killing of 20 people, including several U.N. aid workers in Afghanistan, the elders and pastor of Wasatch Church determined that there would be greater understanding of Islam in their community.“What’s so funny ‘bout peace, love and understanding?” Nothing, really, members of Wasatch Presbyterian Church here believe.
When Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center, a fundamentalist Christian church in Florida, burned a copy of the Qur’an, an action that led to the killing of 20 people, including several U.N. aid workers in Afghanistan, the elders and pastor of Wasatch Church determined that there would be greater understanding of Islam in their community.
The Rev. Scott Dalgarno, pastor of Wasatch Presbyterian Church since January, and the Session partnered with a local bookstore and bought 50 copies of the Qur’an, which they gave away free to the public. Each book contained a bookmark that said, “This book was donated by the leaders of Wasatch Presbyterian Church who are not afraid of truth wherever it can be found.”
“We didn’t vote (as a congregation),” says Dalgarno. “What we wanted to do was lead and so this was an action of the leadership of the church, not the church itself, though many, if not 99% of the congregation was entirely behind it.”
Dalgarno says the point they were trying to make was not about promoting Islam or the Qu’ran. It was a statement about burning books generally, particularly out of ignorance. Church leaders also saw it as the kind of Christian action that was appropriately Presbyterian.
“We believe as Presbyterians that conscience that’s not guided by reason and most especially education can easily go awry and in this case it led to the deaths of people in Afghanistan ― U.N. aid workers we thought were innocent, so that’s why we did what we did,” Dalgarno says. “Had Terry Jones or anyone else burned a copy of the Book of Mormon, then we would have done the same thing, we would have bought copies of the Book of Mormon and made those available.”
The gesture did not go unnoticed. On Good Friday an article was published in the Salt Lake City Tribune announcing the giveaway. Reuters also covered the story and in the age of Twitter, within a day it had made it all around the world. The gesture also did not go unremarked.
“I got some pretty strong reactions right away. The first phone call I got after the appearance of the article in the newspaper announcing the books would be given away the next week was from a Mormon lady who said that I’m a Mormon lady but I think this is great, this is just what we need to do,” Dalgarno says.
An Act For An Act
By Scott Dalgarno as reported by The Salt Lake Tribune
On April 22, Good Friday, under the headline “SLC church distributes copies of the Qur’an,” The Tribune reported on our church’s decision to respond to Pastor Terry Jones, a Florida clergyman who, along with his church, burned a copy of the Qur’an. That act led to the deaths of 20 people in Afghanistan, including a number of U.N. aid workers.
As the pastor of Wasatch Presbyterian Church, I’ve heard from many people who understand and appreciate our small gesture. I’ve also heard from others who are either confused, disturbed or at times totally appalled by what they think the leadership of Wasatch Presbyterian has done.
I’ve been called many things in the last few weeks. The most vivid among them was “surrender monkey preacher.” That’s not all. The day after the article hit print, our church’s computer system was hacked. The F.B.I. investigated. They were great, and fortunately the mischief did not lead to huge losses of information.
I was pleased to see that the copies of the Qur’an we purchased were given away, one–at-a-time, in 90 minutes, by King’s English Bookstore.
In doing this we were not, as some people thought, promoting Islam. We were simply funding a project to enable people in our town who are unfamiliar with the book to read the Qur’an and decide for themselves whether it’s message incites people to violence, as some believe. If the people of Salt Lake read the Muslim scriptures and decide they do that, so be it. If they read them and decide the Qur’an has many different messages, some in keeping with our Western values and some not, so be it.
Some claim that we have fallen away from the faith. I respectfully disagree. In fact, it is because our faith is so firm that we aren’t afraid to fund this project. Like many Christians, we believe that people should follow their consciences. But as Presbyterian Christians, we also believe that conscience uninformed by facts and untethered by reasonableness can do very wrongheaded and wronghearted things.
Pastor Jones followed his conscience and his act, inflamed by unfriendly rhetoric abroad, led to the deaths of many innocent people. We hope our action might, in some small way, help to protect lives, and the mail I’ve received from service personnel and civilians in Afghanistan who support our troops tells me we are doing just that.
Our military personnel are apparently eager to report examples of religious tolerance to moderate Muslims, the only people who have the power to rein in those who advocate terror in the name of Allah. As I write this it is being reported that these moderates are glad Osama bin Laden is now gone because he was an embarrassment to true Islam.
A number of people contacted me to say that they see nothing at all wrong with burning the Qur’an. They call it an American right. Well, it may be a right, but burning books is always a lousy idea. Heinrich Heine, the 19th century German poet, was prophetic on the subject: “Where they burn books, in the end they will also burn people.”
How tragically correct Heine was. Less than a decade separated the Nazi book burning of 1933 from the crematoria of the Final Solution.
This is not to equate Pastor Jones with Hitler. Not at all. My point is simply that education is critical to taking any effective moral stand. Had someone burned a copy of the Book of Mormon we would have bought copies of that book, too. We take the Bible very seriously. It’s our prime guide for life. But wisdom can be found in many books. We are not afraid of finding some of it anywhere. It doesn’t make the truth we find in our scriptures any less critical to our living.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is worth quoting here: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.”
The Wasatch church is simply seeking to hold up some light.
The Rev. Scott Dalgarno is pastor of Wasatch Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City.
Utah church offers free Korans in Easter gesture
(Reuters) - A Utah church is giving away free copies of the Koran in an Easter season ecumenical riposte to the recent burning of the Islamic holy book by a controversial Florida pastor.
The Wasatch Presbyterian Church has ordered 50 copies of the Koran to be distributed at a local bookstore starting on Monday.
"We're not promoting Islam, we're not saying the Koran is the Bible," said Scott Dalgarno, the church's pastor. "We're just saying that if people are curious, if they want their consciences informed on this issue ... then let them pick up a copy on us and read it and decide for themselves what to think." link to the full article..
Salt Lake City church distributes free copies of Quran
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Wasatch Presbyterian Church pastor Scott Delgarno and the board are buying dozens of copies of the Qur'an and having them placed at the King's English Bookstore to give away for free. This is to counter the message of Florida pastor Terry Jones, who burned the Qur'an. In each, they're putting a book mark that says "This book was donated by the leaders of Wasatch Presbyterian Church, who are not afraid of truth wherever it can be found.”
As reported inThe Salt Lake Tribune:
"Leaders of a Presbyterian congregation in Salt Lake City have an answer to the Florida pastor with a penchant for burning the Quran.
Wasatch Presbyterian Church is giving Islam’s holy book away for free.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to know how to push back against the lunatic fringe,” said Russell Fericks, a member of the session, or governing board, of the 350-member church on the city’s east side.
So when the new pastor, the Rev. Scott Dalgarno, asked the board last week to join him in opening their wallets, the reaction was swift...." link to the full article..
