For the sake of research I recently viewed or read dozens of media outlets to determine how they treated religion and people of various faith backgrounds. Obviously the majority were focused on the Ground Zero Mosque issues, which has gone from virtually everyone being in favor of to a grand free-for-all incited by arch-conservative bloggers. Lost in the fray is the reality that the Muslims have been in business on that site for two years. Some sites focused on the intra-Muslim violence that is escalating to historic levels in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa. Muslims have been in a quasi-civil war since soon after the unexpected death of Muhammad. If you’re into math that’s approximately 700 years of in-fighting over which group is truly Muslim. One satirist site offered a video interview of various members of the Arkansas Baptist Church famous for picketing the funerals of soldiers. Their beef isn’t the war in Iraq, it’s homosexuality in America. Go figure. 

Needless to say, faith in general was not looking good after my research. It was hard to find a positive story on the web, even on sites dedicated to religion and faith groups. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Do you know of a major religious group that isn’t fractured, in major flux, about to divide or already divorced? Even Hinduism and Buddhism are splintering! This has to be a sure sign of the apocalypse; or possibly a wake-up call for us, the people of Christianity, to make some positive strides. It’s time for people to know what we are for, not what we are against. If educated, thinking and evaluative Americans hear what Christians are against ad infinitum, but never hear what we are for…our marginalization will continue.

Islam isn’t going away. Whether the mosque/community center is built near Ground Zero or not is not going to effect the growth of Islam here or abroad. America is pluralistic by Constitution and as such won’t have a primary religion promoted by the government. This shouldn’t be a surprise as we broke away from England to get out from under a government sponsored church. The equality movement is growing and like it or not America will be more, not less, inclusive, of people groups. We are also a nation of immigrants and if we closed all borders tomorrow we would nevertheless remain a giant melting pot of peoples. Yell, scream, picket, stew, rant…won’t change any of the above, except for the worse.

What would Jesus do at a time like this? I’m guessing He would be extending a hand of grace and peace to all. From reading the New Testament I surmise he would opt to speak for people and not against them. We would definitely know what He was for, and only in a secondary manner would we know what He was against. Imagine that, people of faith being known more for what they are for than what they are against. This shift alone could change the world as we know it. Oh yeah, and Jesus would do that too…He’d change the world. All in all, Jesus continues to be our best option.

MM