You don’t have to protect my Bible, Magdalena

Magdalena Anderson continues to think big about burning the Qur’an. Her latest thought is that it should be curbed by law Agitation against the ethnic group. One reason is that bans can then be made religiously neutral. Anderson points out that amending the decree law may mean that in practice it becomes forbidden to burn Qurans, but not Bibles.

And rightly so.

Therefore, it proposes instead a kind of mini-blasphemy law: Bibles may not be burned for the purpose of incitement, and even burned Bibles can be considered as incitement against an ethnic group. It is very similar to the Danish bill, but it is a little less comprehensive.

As a Christian, you can at first get a little excited about the idea that you are classified as an ethnic group and that one’s feelings should be respected by legislation. But after a moment of thought, one still had to beg for concern. Thanks but no thanks!

“In the beginning was the Word…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” the Evangelist John writes about the incarnation, that is, about God becoming a man through Jesus.

The Bible is inseparable from Jesus himself. I try to memorize as much as I can so that I can keep the words inside me when I face life. The Bible is not just a “holy book,” a symbol that I accept, venerate, and look at in processions. It’s the food I eat.

However, I don’t want politicians to stop people from burning it. Nor do I want it to become a criminal offense to immerse crosses in urine, or anything else to me as an expression of mockery of the God I believe in.

In the hands of worldly power, Christianity is distorted into coercion and oppression.

Jesus said: “My kingdom is not of this world” – and many were disappointed: did he not come to liberate Israel from the power of the Roman occupation? No, this was not the kind of king he was. He allowed himself to be caught, insulted, flogged, cursed – literally – and nailed to a cross.

During the early centuries of the Church, Christians were persecuted and killed, and Christianity spread like wildfire throughout the Roman Empire. But when that terrible time was over, it turned into its opposite.

For nearly 1,600 years, the damp blanket of Constantinople covered the West. Although it was not Emperor Constantine’s fault, he gave Christianity the same status as other religions. Instead, it was his lesser-known successor, Theodosius, who made Christianity the state religion in AD 380.

The Crusades and religious wars, the persecution of Jews, free thinkers, homosexuals and Christians of the “wrong” kind practiced by the “Christian” Church and states over the centuries, is a consequence of this. Such as the burning of witches, the Inquisition, the Abbey Poster, and the treatment of unmarried mothers and “illegitimate” children.

In the hands of worldly power, Christianity is distorted into coercion and oppression.

Compared to antiquity, Christian societies became more humane, and there were always Christians who, for Christian reasons, struggled for justice and devoted their lives to alleviating want, poverty, and disease. As a Christian, I also think it has been helpful for people to learn about the Christian faith.

But a commitment to faith in and reverence for the Christian God is the most unChristian thing I can think of.

Increasingly, Muslim countries are still characterized by the compulsion to acknowledge God as the only true God and to submit to religious laws. And from this coercion comes their demand not to desecrate the Qur’an, neither there nor here.

If I acquiesce to this request, at least have the decency to do so without using my Christian faith as a fig leaf.