I must admit that the proposed building of a $100 million dollar Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque at ground zero of the 911 terror attack has been bothering me. But it has been bothering me for reasons that I have not been able to discern until now.
I live in California which is the ultimate cultural melting pot. On the street where I live there is a Lutheran and Catholic church along with a Synagogue. On my way to work I can see a huge Sikh Temple on the side of a mountain. I attend a 140 year old Baptist church in whose building Hispanic and Chinese congregations also meet. I am friends with two people of the Islamic faith and both of them are very nice people. I would say I am as tolerant of others beliefs as anyone and that is why I have struggled with this issue.
Despite the word's uttered by our President a while back we are, and still are culturally, a Christian Nation. This means certain principles and ideas have been ingrained in us as a people whether we are practicing Christians or not. One of those principles is the golden rule.. The expression "Golden Rule" is not found in the Bible. However, the rule enunciated by Jesus that people call the Golden rule is found in the scripture reference as follows.
"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you," Jesus said, "do ye even so to them..." (Matt. 7: 12).
Christianity adopted the golden rule from two Old Testament edicts, found in Leviticus 19:18 ("Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.", and Leviticus 19:34 ("But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God"). Crucially, Leviticus 19:34 universalizes the edict of Leviticus 19:18 from "one of your people" to all of humankind.
Others will spend a great deal of time discussing the religious and political viewpoints of those who want to erect the Mosque. I say that what the people who want to build the Mosque believe is unimportant as well as are their motives. The most important subject matter in this whole debate is that several hundred families of the victims of 911 tragedy are taking great offense to a Mosque being built at ground zero.
The " Christian thing" to do would be to move the Mosque elsewhere where it did not offend so many. Unfortunately, the people building the Mosque are not Christians and have no respect for the golden rule.
President Obama is not a religious man and to his credit he does not pretend to be one. In his two years in office I do not remember him once attending church services with his family. The only religious event he has attended in the last two years(excluding funerals) to my knowledge has been an annual White House Dinner in honor of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. It is unfortunate that our college-professor-in-chief spent his formative years in the Muslim nation of Indonesia and later on spent a great deal of time with people like Bill Ayers. This is where he developed his opinions on what America and the world should be like. He does not share our cultural Christian values nor does he understand them.
Mr. Obama may not be a Christan, or a Muslim for that matter, but I dare say that he is, in point of fact, culturally a Muslim. This is why he lacks sensitivity to those who lost loved ones on 911 and so strongly supports the the Mosque being built.
A Voice In the Wilderness
Very nicely stated.
ReplyDelete