I read a quote once which said, “The problem is not the problem! The problem is your attitude about the problem!” It is food for thought, and thought for consideration and reflection. I’m an Independent. I do not label myself Democrat or Republican. I choose to think on my own and form my belief system based on one of two philosophies: the Golden Rule and what I know in my heart to be the fair and just thing to do. I’m also a Christian, but I am the kind of Christian who respects all religions and the people who embrace them, because I’ve learned that people who passionately [not fanatically] embrace their faith, which may differ from mine, are just doing the best they can in order to find their way in this world, just as I am. I have shared my faith with others and listened, TRULY listened, as others have shared their faiths with me. In the end, I find that we’re all basically looking and heading toward the same thing. I will not tell someone that they are going to hell if they don’t believe as I do, because that is not my place. The Bible tells me that. God will be the ultimate judge. The only direction I am given based on the teachings of the New Testament is to love my neighbor and to love God. I respect others right to view things differently from me, just as I expect others to respect my right to do the same thing. If you lead your life by example, you are making your testimony every day of your life. It speaks for itself.
Jesus Christ, from what I’ve learned and been taught, was a man of peace, love, light, reflection, forgiveness and courage. He didn’t live among wealthy society or hob-nob with movers or shakers of his day. He was not a revenge-seeker. He was a compassionate man who turned the other cheek and espoused forgiveness at every turn. He spent his time with the neediest members of society and those who were outcast, such as lepers. People often ask the question, “What would Jesus do?” Jesus would do the thing that always brings about healing, unification and forgiveness. Doubt me? Read Colossians 3:13 “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” That being said, I must remember that not every person in this country believes in God, and that is there prerogative. I may not agree with it or understand how they can live in this world with no belief system, but I have to accept that religion is not held in the same light for others that it’s held in for me.
Secondly, I believe that extremism in any form is never a good thing. So, with that in mind, I make this statement which I firmly believe, because I’ve worked with Muslims, Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants and Jewish people over the course of my long working life and they are all lovely, good and decent people. Not every Muslim is an extremist, fanatical like Osama Bin Laden just as not every Christian is an extremist, fanatical like Pat Robertson. Yes. I said Pat Robertson, because as a Christian, I’ve found most of the things he espouses to be both offensive and VERY un-Christ like. “Beware of false prophets” is a cautionary warning which includes especially those who say they are “of God”. I believe that if Jesus Christ were walking among us today, he’d take both of these men aside and have a nice, long chat with each of them about the divisive things they say, and the tactics they use which stir the pot of unrest and discord. Until this country learns to distinguish the simple equation, that some sour apples in the barrel don’t make all the apples distasteful, there will continue to be this rabid, vitriolic, demonization of a group of people who are unfairly being branded as something they are not, much like the Puritans did in the 17th Century to those helpless women and a few men alleged to be witches, who could not overcome the charges heaped upon them.
With that in mind, I move toward the debate that’s currently happening within our country regarding whether it’s right or wrong that the Muslim Mosque be built not at or on but near Ground Zero? Please, let’s clarify that point. It’s a sensitive issue, but not one that’s solely black or white, because there is always gray areas within these sensitive issues which seem to have our country in a constant state of uproar. Sometimes, I imagine God’s head shaking and these words being spoken: “Why can’t they just get along?” As a person who supports and believes in The Constitution of this country and is a Christian as well, I do not see how you cannot support this particular religious faction’s right being upheld to build its place of worship where it wants to build it. We are a country of religious freedom and freedom of speech. If you deny them their right, who will stand up for you when others attempt to deny you yours for whatever reason should that time come? As Clarence Darrow said, “You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting others freedom.”
Contrary to what many people argue - that we are a country which is “one nation under God”, the fact of the matter is that our country was not founded on the tenets of Christianity. While that may be a shocking statement to those who believe otherwise, it is a truth that cannot be denied nor debated because the facts speak for themselves. Not one word of our original Constitution or any Amendment thereafter contain the words “God, Creator, Jesus or Lord.” Where it is not specified, implication cannot be inferred. The Framers, our Founding Fathers, intended it that way because the Colonists fled to this country in search of religious freedom. The one thing they did NOT want to establish was a country set as a tyrannical, religious state such as King James demanded to those who lived in England through the/his Church of England. They sought a country where people would not be persecuted because their religious beliefs, whatever they were, were not in line with the governing body. The desire to worship freely and be able to openly choose which religion they wanted to be a part of without reprisal from the government was tantamount to the success of their mission in coming to America in the first place. From the very beginnings of this country, there was a distinct separation between church and state and rightly so.
Likewise, the Founding Fathers were not Christians. Is that a shocking assertion? Yes. But, it’s a true one, nonetheless. It didn’t particularly thrill me to learn that either, but it’s there for anyone who cares to research it. Heed their own words and actions. The source of these quotes cited below are from an article written by Steven Morris, in Free Inquiry, Fall, 1995, whereby he cites the published source of the quotations made by each individual. These are the beliefs of our Founding Fathers:
Thomas Paine: “I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."
George Washington: our first president, never, declared himself a Christian. He championed the cause of freedom from religious intolerance and coercion. Case in point: When John Murray (a Universalist who denied the existence of hell) was asked to become an army chaplain, the other chaplains petitioned Washington for his dismissal because of his religious views. Instead, Washington gave him the appointment.
John Adams: our second president said, “This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!”
Likewise, during his administration the Senate ratified the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, also known as the Treaty of Tripoli written in 1791 which states in Article XI that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
Treaty of Tripoli/ Art. 11. stated in whole: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”
The Senate unanimously voted its support of this principle. There is no record of any dissension regarding the treaty. It was reprinted in its entirety in three newspapers - two in Philadelphia, one in New York City. No record exists showing any public outcry or complaint in subsequent editions of the papers in reference to this very specific portion of the Treaty of Tripoli.
Thomas Jefferson: our third president and author of the Declaration of Independence, said:
“The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained.”
and, further in a letter written to John Adams dated April 11, 1823, he wrote:
“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”
James Madison, our fourth president and father of the Constitution, was not religious in any traditional sense. He states, “Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.”
“During almost fifteen centuries the legal establishment of Christianity has been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”
Ethan Allen: said that “Jesus Christ was not God is evidenced from his own words.” In the same book, Allen noted that he was generally “denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious that I am no Christian.” When Allen married Fanny Buchanan, he stopped his own wedding ceremony when the judge asked him if he promised “to live with Fanny Buchanan agreeable to the laws of God.” Allen refused to answer until the judge agreed that the God referred to was the God of Nature, and the laws those “written in the great book of nature.”
Benjamin Franklin: delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, said:
“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion...has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity; tho’ it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the Truth with less trouble.” Historians consider him, like so many great Americans of his time, to be a Deist, not a Christian.
These men were the framers of the ideals and principles which have governed us in the aftermath of the Mayflower docking at Plymouth Rock. Clearly, their religious beliefs and opinions played no part in dictating anything other than religion not be a part of how this country governed its people.
“In God We Trust” was not consistently on our currency until 1956. It came about as a result of the McCarthy Era of hysteria that resembled much of that which occurred during Puritanical times and the Salem witch hunts/trials. “Under God” was not originally part of the Pledge of Allegiance either, until the McCarthy Era, when it was added in 1954 after Congress passed a bill putting it into law. The Pledge of Allegiance up until 1954 was as follows: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
It is a dangerous thing when one segment of society who does not represent the whole attempts to whittle away at the Constitution–try to alter, amend or change its intent to serve its own agenda. It was designed and written the way it was so that the freedoms we all enjoy remain the freedoms that we all enjoy! The bottom line is that when you start messing with the civil liberties that the tenets and principles on which this country were founded, then you begin messing with all of our civil liberties. We must not allow the freedoms we enjoy to be silenced among any one of us.
Muslim Americans are no better or worse than Christian Americans or any other Americans. There are some good and some bad among every group. It’s just the way it is. Call it human nature but no one can say it’s not so. Muslims in general should not be scapegoated because of the actions of 19 fanatics on September 11, 2001. If that be the case, then how do we justify ourselves with regard to terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier? Our country is better than that! If we condemn all Muslims for the killing of Americans on our soil, do we condemn all Americans for the killing of Americans on our soil? We can’t have it both ways, folks.
We are a nation that welcomes others to come here and pursue the dream of complete freedom. It’s what brought our forebearers here over 400 years ago. It is hypocritical to deny it and any of the rights that go along with it to any individual who seeks it now. It is hypocritical to say that I can worship in my church anywhere I want, but you can’t worship in your Temple; your Synagogue; your Mosque simply because I don’t like it, or I think it’s in bad taste.
Lady Liberty stands for us all. Her creed tells the tale of America: the poem "The New Colossus," by Emma Lazarus contained inside the statue reads:
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
‘Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she
With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’
America does not belong to one segment of society. It belongs to every person who was born in this country as a result of those who “yearned to be free” and dreamed, dared and fought to make it so. It belongs to every person who immigrates here for the same reason.
The God I believe in is a loving and forgiving God not a hell-fire and brimstone one. I am expected to be no less than God: loving and forgiving. As a Christian, God operates in my life in all things. Yet, I do not believe that church and state should be one in the same. The United States of America wasn’t created for that purpose nor should it be changed for that purpose. We are a country that is a diverse melting pot of mixed races, religions and heritages. Our differences are what make us great and unique. We are given the freedom to be who and what we want to be within the laws of this country and beneath the freedoms extolled upon each of us. Our men and women in uniform fight to protect that right for everyone. Stating that, I’m reminded of the poem by Martin Niemoller, who penned so eloquently:
“ First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
Whether you agree or disagree with me, I’m accepting of support or disagreement. It is, after all, your right and mine to do so. However, as a writer, I always try to research my facts before I state my opinion so that I’m as informed as I can possibly be. The things I’ve listed above are not points of fiction, they are facts. I’m comfortable with where I stand, and why I stand where I do.
So here is my position on the proposed Muslim Mosque. I support it because it is a right afforded under our Constitution and because I am a Christian. If we don’t want anyone to tell us where we can build our churches or synagogues or temples, then we cannot deny where someone builds their mosque. If we expect God to forgive us of our sins, then we must forgive others theirs. The government doesn’t interfere with our religious freedom and our religious freedom shouldn’t interfere with our government. It’s really just that plain and simple....
http://youtu.be/aYEFkYtANVg A Letter from God~Paul Harvey
Jhill Perran
August 20, 2010
