The response to yesterday's STTA, and other statements that recommend respect and restraint when dealing the Muslim community reminds me that I probably need to make the case once more for the Doctrine of Minding Your Own Business.
I have never seen a Theology text where this teaching is explained, yet it is a concept that is found in many contexts in the Bible. It is a prime aspect of the Bible's teaching on the home, forgiveness, doing good deeds, and more. The doctrine counteracts the universal human tendency to focus more on what others should do than my repsonsibility.
I saw a gentleman--I presume Jewish--carrying a sign that read, "You can build a mosque at Ground Zero when I can build a synagogue in Mecca. Christians frequently make the same point. The lands where Muslims are demonstrating, objecting to the burning of the Quran, planned for this Saturday, are almost universally places where the distribution of the Bible is seriously, if not completely, prohibited. The ban is so complete that in some cases our armed forces serving in those countries have had to receive special permission just to have a Bible, and then they are expected to not allow it to be seen in the open.
I could go on. There is no doubt that the Worldwide Muslim community wants to play the game of "How Outraged Are You?" on a seriously sloped field.
They are wrong. Muslims in Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and scores of other Muslim lands should stop persecuting, kidnapping, repressing, and murdering Christians and Jews. But I am a Pastor of a conservative Christian congregation. My thoughts yesterday were addressed to a fellow-pastor, and others who read the open letter. On my side of the piece of paper what does it say I should do?
The fact that many Muslims are not doing what they should, and many more maintain a deafening silence while their fellow followers of the Quran act like very poor neighbors does not change the responsibility that I have. Sure I should protect myself. Certainly I ought to lobby for laws that will enforce a true freedom of religion, but I ought not publicly desecrate what others hold sacred just to make a propaganda point.

It's STTA.