Some Thoughts

Disclaimer: I don't claim to know a whole lot about much of anything.  Particularly politics.  Or, really, religion.  I don't claim to be well-read.  (I wish I was, but I'm not.)  What I do know, however, is that Jesus calls us (His body, His church, His followers) to love...to love without limits...to love without consideration for political or religious affiliation.  To forgive.  To turn the other cheek.  And, perhaps the most difficult of all, to NOT defend ourselves with words, but to let the way we live our lives be our defense.

Now, with all of that disclaimed (is that a word?  See?  Not well-read.), just a few thoughts on this whole discussion of building a mosque/Islamic cultural center "at" Ground Zero.

A: The proposed site of the mosque is not AT Ground Zero...or on the grounds of the former World Trade Center.  It's down the street.  They are not asking to build a worship center on top of the hallowed graves of our fallen heroes, of the ordinary, every day American who went to work one morning and didn't come home that night.  It's down the street.*

B: We (Christians) are outraged when rumors fly about people not being legally allowed to have church meetings in their homes.  We go crazy with email chain letters and petitions.  We champion freedom of religion and separation of church and state when we feel threatened.  We need to remember, this was land was NOT colonized and this country was NOT founded to be a Christian nation, but one of religious freedom.  The first men and women who landed here fled the forced church allegiance and religious persecution of England to find a place where they had the right and freedom to choose what they believed and how they worshipped.  It is rather bigoted of us to claim these rights only for ourselves; to say that we are only free to worship when/where/how we choose IF we are "Christian."  This is a country of equality (do I really need to quote the Declaration?).

C: All of the above said, I do agree that it is in poor taste to build a mosque - particularly such a large one - in such close proximity to Ground Zero.  Poor taste, not unconstitutional.  Quite frankly, if they own the land and hold the right permits, I don't think there is a legal leg to stand on to stop the construction.

D:  Moving on to our response as Christians.  We have only one option: Love.  Really, think back to a time before you were a Christian.  If someone came to you in the name of the their god, ridiculed you for what you believed, shouted about how evil you were simply for what you believed...how willing would you be to listen to what they believed?  Why is that our first course of action when Jesus simply loved?  Across the board, He loved.

When Jesus met the woman at the well He knew her culture, He knew her story...and by knowing these, He knew her need.  And He answered her need...her specific need, with Himself.  My question to you is this: when we meet someone on the street, how can we possibly know her need if all we do is shout about who she is without Christ?  None of us, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu...none of us are any better than she is simply because she is Muslim.  I am no more worthy of Jesus because I was born in America than she is because she was born in an Arab country**.  God doesn't make mistakes.  He doesn't view her as a lost cause for the Gospel because she was born to an Arab family.  We'd be wise to remember that it was the zealots who yelled the loudest in the New Testament, not the One who was right.  The One simply invested in lives.

We simply cannot change the religious or political climate in this country by kicking, screaming and attacking the government.  Change happens in the roots.  We need to learn to love; to teach our children to love.  Love is every bit as passionate as anger and can spread with the same epidemic force.  We live in a culture (or, at least, I do) where loving our neighbor quite literally means loving the nations.  We don't have to go overseas anymore to encounter someone with a vastly different religious and cultural outlook.  She is right down the street, maybe even literally, next door.  Love her enough to know her story, know where she comes from, know her need.  And meet that need with Jesus.  We are His hands and feet, we can very practically show her who He is and how He loves.

No, I don't know a whole lot about politics, but I know Jesus...and He is a whole lot bigger than America's political system.  I know His voice, and what His prodding feels like.  I just wonder, if Elijah heard God's still small voice in a gentle wind, why do we feel like we need to be loud on God's behalf?



*Just for the record, given the metropolitan nature of NYC and the sheer number of people who died, there is no doubt in my mind that there were ordinary, every day American MUSLIMS who had nothing to do with the group responsible for 9/11 who were killed as well.  They were American.
**From my very limited research, it appears that only 15% of the world's Muslims are Arab - however, we tend to assume the two are synonymous.