Lending credence to cranks
Published 1:41 pm Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Usually, the phrase “Never underestimate the power of one person” is applied to endeavors considered admirable, courageous or selfless. These days, however, it’s just as likely to mean, “Never underestimate the power of one nutjob.”
Only in our modern “all ‘news’ all the time,” YouTubish, social networking society could a complete crank like The Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., command the attention of the world’s most powerful religious and political leaders.
Before everyone had a video camera and website to promote their beliefs, people who wanted to get their message out to many were forced to buy space on a billboard along a highway somewhere or put leaflets under windshields and on doorsteps.
Now, instead, any given lunatic’s ravings can suddenly become “newsworthy” and the “story” goes “viral,” which just means it spread like wildfire, but in many cases, like this one, the “disease” connotation is quite apt.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described, and illustrated, the problem by saying she wished the preacher’s plans to burn the Quran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks had not attracted so much media attention. But sadly, “that’s the world we live in right now.”
Whether it’s all the media’s fault or not, the world we live in right now is also one in which the White House, the U.S. Secretary of State, the top military commander in Afghanistan, and the Vatican, among others, are compelled to publicly address the ignorant talk of a Gainesville pastor, lending him a seriousness that would never exist no matter how much news coverage he garnered.
As Clinton pointed out, the Rev. Jones reportedly has 50 members who belong to his Islam-is-the-Devil church. Statistically, he represents no one. It’s not even a respectable Twitter following. Yet, he has the world’s attention, now holding it hostage, another publicity-hungry American enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.
We are now to wait with hopeful, bated breath as the Rev. Jones says he still is praying on the subject, holding out the possibility that God will change his mind. (And possibly instruct him to at least read the book first?) But the church, which quickly dismissed Gen. David Petraeus’ concerns about endangering the lives of troops in Afghanistan, is leaning toward the religious book bonfire, a member said, because “we are convinced this is the direction God wants us to go.”
Spoken with the confidence of a true zealot with a personal hotline to God, the very kind those Dove World Outreach Center folks fear so much.
