Opinion: When Pastors Who Would Burn Qurans Become Celebrities

(Sept. 7) -- So, is that what it takes to become a celebrity these days? All you have to do is threaten to burn someone else's Bible, and declare their religion to be satanic, and you are instantly the center of the news?

I wonder who is the bigger fool: Terry Jones, the Florida pastor of the Dove World Outreach Church, who is an embarrassment to loving Christians everywhere with his plans to burn Qurans at his church on Sept. 11 and who is the author of "Islam Is of the Devil," or we the public who gulp down his story as if it's of interest.

There is nothing novel about the existence of religious bigots, and it's certainly not newsworthy. But allow me to teach Pastor Jones a lesson from Jesus' famous pronouncement in Matthew 7:16, "By their fruits you shall know them." The holiness or devilishness of any religion comes down not to its articles of faith but to the deeds of its practitioners.

As a Jew I am trained to judge someone by their actions, not their beliefs.

In that sense, the whole debate as to whether President Barack Obama is a Muslim is ridiculous. Yes, he isn't, and has said time and again that he is a Christian. But what if he were a Muslim? I couldn't care less.

My problem with Obama is not his faith or lack thereof but his policies. If Obama were an Islamic president who berated instead of coddled Arab dictators, promoted democracy across the Middle East, spoke out against the abuses of women in the Islamic world, lectured Hamas and Hezbollah to stop putting all their money into rockets against Israel and instead into universities for their people, he would have my support. But his voice is absent on those critical issues.

I have devout Muslim friends who love Israel and wish Arab countries emulated its democratic institutions, just courts, and freedom of worship and press. Likewise, I have God-fearing Islamic friends who love America, would fight and die to protect her, and believe America is the light in an increasingly dark world.

I would support anyone like this for president any day of the week over, say, Jimmy Carter, a devout and self-declared evangelical Christian who goes against the stalwart evangelical Christian support for Israel and has the gall to call the Jewish state, a thriving democracy, an apartheid state.

In short, I could not care less what a person believes but in what they do.

Therefore, I will reject any pastor who claims to be religious but is a narrow bigot.

I love my Christian brothers and sisters, but not those who deny the essential Biblical truth that every human being -- Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic and atheist -- is equally God's child and that we have a responsibility to encourage people of faith rather than condemn their religion.

I trust that my evangelical Christian brothers and sisters, who love freedom and are disproportionately represented in the United States military, fighting and dying for democracy in Islamic counties, will identify Pastor Jones as the fruit Jesus was speaking of and reject him.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is the international best-selling author of 23 books and was the London Times Preacher of the Year at the Millennium. As host of "Shalom in the Home" on TLC, he won the National Fatherhood Award, and his syndicated column was awarded the American Jewish Press Association's Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. Newsweek calls him "the most famous rabbi in America." He has just published "Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life." Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.