Thank goodness the Rev. Terry Jones came to his senses.

The Florida minister said Thursday that he won’t burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, citing a claim that the leader of a proposed Islamic center has reconsidered a plan to build near Ground Zero.

If Jones’ is true to his word and he forfeits his planned protest, much of America and Americans around the world will breathe a sigh of relief.

Jones’ proposed protest was nothing short of a blasphemous twist of our right to freedom of speech, and an act of disrespect and hatred that propagates the notion that Americans are intolerate of religions other than their own.

And, if he were to go through with his planned protest, church leaders and military leaders alike have warned that he would be putting the lives of thousands of soldiers in danger, as Muslims in places such as Afghanistan react to the act.

Just because we have the freedom to speak our peace, to burn the American flag or to burn the Quran, doesn’t mean we should do so.

America was founded on the ideals of respecting religious freedoms, and we must hold to those ideals today even more tightly than our forefathers did more than 225 years ago.

And acts such as Jones’ proposed protest are nothing more than incendiary events, designed to fuel emotions and anger, without regard to reason or respect.

Quite frankly, there’s enough of that in the world.

We don’t need bigots in America, of any kind.