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Wednesday 18 August 2010
Mosques, Churches, Terror, and Love

As we support and pray for the victims of Sept. 11, we must remember that this was not the first act of terror and evil perpetrated on American soil. The forced removal of Native Americans from their land is tragic, and the consequences of this act are still felt generations later by the remnants of Native American tribes. Some churches and Christians played a part in this tragedy. Could not the same logic be applied to prohibit the construction of churches within a few blocks from the Trail of Tears?

Slavery once existed in every American colony, and persisted in the South until the end of the civil war. Few can argue that the legacy of slavery still marks this nation, and that churches and Christians often supported this peculiar institution. Could not descendants of slaves ask for a moratorium of new Caucasian churches near former slave auction sites, plantations, and even the locations of thousands of lynchings?

Obviously most Christians today are deeply saddened by our historic complicity in the forced removal of Native Americans and the enslavement and segregation of African Americans. To ban churches from sites that once perpetuated these evils would be an absurd response to historic tragedies that instead demand confession, repentance, and transformation.

Is not the politicization of a community center that includes a place of worship in lower Manhattan similarly absurd? While terrorism and violence need to be condemned at every turn, intolerance and vilification of the practitioners of other faiths does not strike me as living out the love of Jesus. Somewhere I can hear Jesus saying, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

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