To B or Not to B that is the question

To build or not to build. Our president is embroiled in a controversy about developer Sharif el Gamal's plans to build a mosque and community center near the site of the 9-11 tragedy.  At face value, the outrage is understandable, an Islamic center being built near the site where the atrocity of Islamic radicals was evidenced. Some sites in the world where the most evil of human behaviors have been displayed have strangely become sacred places . . . places that give testimony to the brokenness of humanity.

And yet I believe our president has a point . . . one could argue that following the despicable behavior of the Christian church during the Inquisition and the Crusades, that no churches should be built in these particular locations in Europe and the Middle East. Whenever issues of religious liberty are at stake, Christians must be thoughtful, reflective. We must be willing to consider matters from another point of view.  If in today's world a group of radicals who claim to be Christian were guilty of a mass murder, would those of us in the mainstream of Christian faith want attempts to establish a church to provide a place of worship and outreach labeled as unacceptable? In any faith there are moderates, radicals, fundamentalists and secularists. Christianity has its 1001 flavors most of which don't want to be identified with the other 1000. Islam is perhaps not as diverse with the more strict observance of worship practices and texts. In Christian parlance, Islam has a liturgy that is universally practiced and yet there is significant opportunity for interpretation and application of its holy texts. 

Understand as well that the proposed building site is a full two blocks from Ground Zero, which in New York City is practically a neighborhood apart. There has been some political opportunism exhibited by the political right and political expediency by the political left on this issue. One would suspect from the news that the mosque proposed is sponsored by Isalmic fundamentalist who want to build a propoganda center on the "holy site" of the World Trade Center where of course all kinds of God-honoring decisions were made. (This is sarcasm for those of you who take things more literally :) ). The proposed project has been assigned the intent of spitting in the American eye, rubbing in the raw wounds, strutting in the endzone and the like.  

But consider if the shoe was on the other foot. Consider places like Indonesia in which churches cannot be built where a mosque has been established. The U.S. constitution does not establish a theocracy--a government in which God is the supreme ruler and the U.S. as a country is not a Christian nation.  I know that we have that phrase, one nation under God, but even with the founding fathers the identity of that God has been in question. We, by God's grace, have been deeply influenced by the gospel--in terms of our morality, love of peace, freedom and charity-though these increasingly come into question.  In terms of values and worldview, the U.S. is post-Christian.

As we consider issues of religious freedom, we might consider historical precedence for the day when our grandchildren very well may be living in a society that no longer possesses the status of primarily Christian worldview.

This is something to think about.