I received an email recently from Dove World Outreach Center, a Florida church known mostly to the unbelieving world not for its proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but for its stance on Islam, most notably for its call to burn copies of the Qur’an on September 11 this year. The email states:

International Burn a Koran Day

Dove World Outreach Center needs your support!

City of Gainesville denies burn permit – BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS

RBC Bank calls in mortgage – BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS

Cottons All-Lines cancels insurance – BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS

We will proceed with the Koran Burning Event, Saturday 9/11, 6-9pm, as planned.

RBC Bank called in our mortgage with a limited time to pay it off. Now Cottons All-lines Insurance has also cancelled our commercial insurance on our property putting our mortgage in immediate default. We need to raise the $140,000 to pay off the RBC loan immediately.

We need your help!  Please send as generous a donation as possible.

Make checks payable to Dove World Outreach Center, 5805 NW 37th Street, Gainesville, FL 32653 or use our Paypal donation link on the main page of our    http://www.doveworld.org/    website here.. If you would like to mail us a Koran we will add it to the fire. We invite you to sign up for our newsletter at http://www.doveworld.org/ top of the main home page.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Call or send us an email at [email protected] with your thoughts and questions. Stay in touch!

Sincerely,

Dr. Terry Jones – Senior Pastor

Dove World Outreach Center

5805 NW 37th St

Gainesville, FL 32653

(352) 371-2487

Dr. Terry Jones and his church have every constitutional right to carry out their outing at his church, unless of course they are evicted. If their objective is to reach Muslims for Jesus Christ or expose the teachings of Islam, they are totally clueless. Sad how confused some Christians are when it comes to outreach to Muslims! Do we have to be this irresponsible and flagrantly confrontational?

Why in the world would they burn some else’s religious book? Where did they get this idea? The Bible? I doubt it. Saint Luke reports in Acts 19:19:

Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.

These new believers burned their own books. Why is this church asking people to mail copies of the Qur’an to be added “to the fire?” I hope no one complies with this request. Please pray for Dr. Jones and his congregation so that they jettison the idea. Their planned outing will be counterproductive. Its publicity has generated positive public relations for Islam. Pastor Jones and his church should abandon their idea because it would farther alienate Muslims. Instead, they should visit mosques and engage Muslims in meaningful discussions. Muslims are observing the fast during Ramadhan. Most of them spend time at the mosque after prayers especially on weekends.