Saturday, September 4, 2010
Religion Let freedom (for people like us) ring
Posted by Max Brantley on Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 6:20 AM
As opposition to mosques spreads across the United States, hundreds of miles from ground zero, opponents are running up against more than the nominal protection afforded religion in the Constitution. There's also the matter of federal land use legislation to heighten protection for religious institutions passed by the good Mormon Orrin Hatch. You can bet protecting Muslims wasn't part of the mission back then.
At the core is the old desire of a fervent belief in religious freedom unless it's a religion we distrust.
Opponents of new mosque construction often cite factors other than religion, like parking and traffic, when houses of worship expand. But religion often remains part of the mix. In a statement on the mosque protest in Temecula, [Calif.] William Rench, the senior pastor of the nearby Calvary Baptist Church, said, “Our primary concern is that the land adjacent to our property is wholly inadequate and unsuited for the proposed 25,000-square-foot Islamic worship center.”The rest of the statement concerns Islam itself. “It seems logical to me that we would be opposed to Islam based on its fundamental teachings and on documented stories of the terror that radical Islam promotes,” Mr. Rench wrote.
In an interview, Mr. Rench said that questions of national and local security should override land-use rules, though in the case of the mosque next door, “I don’t think they represent the more extreme elements of Islam.” Still, he added, “how are we going to get assurances that it’s never going to be an issue?"
Comments (11)
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I'm sure you didn't miss this but just in case.
Judge Overturns Nebraska Ban On Flag Mutilation, Siding With Westboro Church's Right To Protest Military Funerals
TIMBERLY ROSS | 09/ 2/10 07:58 PM |
It seems that one of the most urgent issues facing the country is "freedom from religion".
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Say, what does the Law of Max say about commercial use?
(Not that anything listed above tempts me; now if it were, say Enterex Diabetic . . . )
Oh, yeah, the mosque next door . . . Preacher Rench is just about as smart as he has to be, isn't he? Actually he sounds kinda radical to me. I don't think I'd want his church to move next door to me. Probably have to listen to him screeching about the wayward ways of Catholics and Jews. And Mormons. And Episcopalians and Methodists. And all those other brand of Baptists. Where would it stop?
Max, if you find the above bum, you're welcome to borrow my double barrel. Yeah, I think I got up on the wrong side of the bed. I'm going back and try it again. Maybe I'll do it right about noon.
"“I don’t think they represent the more extreme elements of Christianity.” Still, he added, “how are we going to get assurances that it’s never going to be an issue?"
See how easy it is to turn that around when one considers all the violence over the centuries committed in the name of "Christianity". Even in the last 50 years one only has to look to Ireland and the troubles and the Americans who still support IRA terrorists.
Though currently ensconced half a world away, I still think of home. That's America, to me. Land of the free. Home of the brave. (Not a tee-pee / papoose kind of brave. More like Mel Gibson in that movie that time kind of brave.)
An America to whose open arms I will one day soon return.
At least, I hope its arms are still open because here's an article that pretty much sums up where things are at regarding your tired, poor, wretched huddled refuse:
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.…
Catchy pull quote?
"The entire Republican Party of No and their Tea Party spawn, are pulling off one of the biggest political coups in history."
I'm not paranoid, mind you, but I keep half my guns pointed at Oklahoma and the other half pointed at Friendly First Baptist Church. If them New York Muslims do like the churches near me, Ground Zero will just be another church parking lot in the end. Church Cancer I call it! A little church sprouts up a couple of block from yer house and in 20 years all your neighbors are gone....replaced with shiny hot asphalt parking lots circling your once happy home.
In the last 40 years more than 65 houses and commercial buildings have been torn down by the church that didn't used to be so damn near me. Now that they have all the parking lots God wanted, they're tearing down more houses to provide a view as one drives into Fort Baptist. If God requires a long view of this church....he must not know them very well....don't you think? And can't God work Google maps?
But....you don't see me marching around First Baptist with angry signs. You don't see me telling them they don't belong here. They can do what they want, but they won't get my property until I leave the yard feet first. I thank Allah that I have the freedom to flip the Baptists the bird and that First Baptist can build their never ending Christian mosque from here to LR if they want to.
Maybe at the end of my life I'll leave my property to a Muslim sect.....wouldn't that frost my Baptist neighbors? Oh yeah.....good plan!
Fayetteville residents had no problem running off a Jewish synagogue up on a silk stocking hill. Said it was a matter of Wed and Sun traffic they didn't want in their neighborhood.
eLwood, that sounds like an old Henny Youngman line. Hysterical!
Tap . . . oh, never mind. This speaks for itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA7GvNYAVyY…
eLwood, "Sunday" and not Saturday? In New Milford, CT there is a Baptist church and a Jewish Synagogue that share a common parking lot between the two places of worship. Different worship schedules and why pave more of the earth?
I don't know where Opednews gets their news. They have distorted what they think the Republicans want or do not want. If they were writing about what the Democrats wanted or do not want, and being truthful, the whole USA would be up in arms. And it is not what the whole Democratic party wants but just the few that are in power. How many of you will sign a contract without finding out what is in it? But that is what our government did with the Health Care bill. Even Pelosi said "you need to vote it in before you find out what is in it." That is not good business practice.
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